Do I have any chance of getting in?

[reeindoubt]

Hi all, right now everyone seems to have a perfect 4.0 GPA, or at least 3.7 or something, and I am beginning to think that I don't have a single chance of getting into a nursing school. I went to a university after high school and spent two years there with low low GPA, I had depression and just feel horrible. I ended up medical withdrawn a semester of grade, which I received all Ws for that semester, but I still have one D and one C on my transcript and one B. Then later I transfer to a local community college and start doing better, got mostly A's and two Bs. But now when I'm applying for nursing schools, they are asking for all transcrips from previous college and university. With all the W's D's and C's I am begining to doubt if I can still get in to any school at all, or should I just accept the fact that I messed up so bad and give up on the whole idea of becoming a nurse. Any one have any suggestion on what should I do to increase my chances? I really really really want to become a nurse.

[RXtech]

This is a road I'm currently going down. I have a few terrible semesters from nearly 20 years ago that have made my GPA so low that it would take me years and years to bring it high enough to get into most nursing programs. For a long time, I thought that I would never be able to overcome this problem and go back to school. Then I learned about "Academic Forgiveness" policies. I'm in my second semester now, and once I've made good grades for this term, they will grant forgiveness for the semesters I screwed up.

You should talk to the admissions dept. at the schools you are considering to find out what kind of policies they have. Sometimes you can completely wipe your slate clean, or you might be able to retake some of the classes you have F's in and bring you GPA up that way. If a school offers this option, one thing to ask about is if their nursing program looks at cumulative or retention GPA. (Cumulative will still figure in the forgiven grades, but retention does not.)

If you are really determined to go to nursing school, you'll be able to find a way! :) Good luck to you!

[coolpeach]

I am not sure which courses you took when you first went to college or how long ago that was. I do know that most nursing programs have a time limit on science courses so anything that is over 5 years old prior to admission to the actual nursing program will have to be repeated anyway.