Does Anyone Know How Students Are Chosen?

[VaStudentNurse]

Hi everyone,

I applied for the LPN course at my local community college. I live in a very small town. There were only 76 applicants, but the school only accepts 26 students each year. I took the PSB exam Monday, May 4th and it seemed like everyone there knew the Program Director pretty well. As it would turn out, most of them are already enrolled in the college and taking prereq's. I scored very well on all of my placement tests (97% & higher) and I have other college credits that transfered over so that if I'm acccepted in the fall, I would only need to attend part time. I thought that I had an advantage over most because I didn't need any prereqs, but now I'm scared that they will get accepted just because they're already enrolled. The program director seems like a very nice women, but in this small town, it's not what you know, it's who you know. Does anyone know how students are chosen? I'm pretty sure it's not from the PSB scores alone. I think I did pretty well on those by the way. She won't release our scores though until the class is chosen, which should be today or monday. Does anyone have any advise?

[tfleuter, BSN, RN]

You need to check with your school's advisor and/or program website to see what their criteria are. Every school is different. Some only look at GPAs and pre-entrance exams, others want you to have your cna first, while others rate you on things like interviews and number of co-requisites completed. Some schools do give preference to students who have taken the pre-reqs at the same school, so if these other students are accepted instead of you, it might not be some much b/c they know the program director, but have taken the classes through that school.

Good luck!

[VaStudentNurse]

Thanks for the advise. I guess I'm just super nervous. They were just all so young, I'm 28. I just don't want to get penalized because I took most of the prereq's centuries ago, lol or what seems like centuries ago. I just want a fair shot.

[Cilantrophobe]

Your school should be forward and open about how they select applicants. I am assuming they don't use the points system. If they say that they go off of GPA and entrance exam scores, then that is what you need to focus on. If it is just a random selection, then yes, you may be at a disadvantage. Which, in my opinion, is really stupid. I hate the whole 'who you know' mentality. Mostly because I don't know anyone, we are always moving.

Honestly none of us will ever truly know what goes on behind the scenes when the nursing classes are chosen from a stack of applications. I even have these paranoid fantasies that I won't get chosen because I have asked them a million questions...

Good luck!