Does it matter where you get your BSN?

Nursing Students Post Graduate

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Specializes in NICU.

I'm a relatively new grad with an ADN, and I'm planning on going back to school in the spring. I'm very interested in going on to grad school, probably out of state. My two main options for my BSN right now are UCLA and Cal State Fullerton. CSUF would be much more convenient than UCLA, since UCLA would require either a long commute or relocation for me. When you apply to grad schools, do they take into account what school you went to? Would it be helpful to go to a prestigious school like UCLA or does it really matter? I've heard that CSUF's program is pretty good, but it doesn't have the widely recognized name that UCLA does.

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Specializes in Home Health, Informatics.

I have noticed that Ph.D. programs seem to care about your BSN GPA more than your MSN GPA when evaluating applicants. I would assume that DNP programs, which can be more competitive, would follow the same pattern. My suggestion would be to consider the effect of a long commute on your GPA, would you miss more classes, be tired in class? I would feel better with a 3.8 from a local school than a 3.2 from UCLA. You should also consider the ugly practice of GPA cutoffs; some programs do not consider graduates with a GPA less than 3.3. This is frequently a unwritten and unofficial policy that is rumored to be in place at some schools. That policy could eliminate you even if your school was more prestigious. The final factor is cost. I would lean towards the cheaper program since the "real world" does not care where you went to nursing school. Remember that a BSN from Yale gets paid the same as a BSN from Easytogetin U. at most hospitals.

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Specializes in Hospice / Ambulatory Clinic.

This is what I want to know to as I might end up going to WCU LVN bridge program and wonder if it might have a huge effect on which BSN degree programs I get accepted into. I am pretty much counting the UC/USC system out but would like to consider MSMarys or APU

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Specializes in Urgent Care NP, Emergency Nursing, Camp Nursing.
...You should also consider the ugly practice of GPA cutoffs; some programs do not consider graduates with a GPA less than 3.3. This is frequently a unwritten and unofficial policy that is rumored to be in place at some schools. That policy could eliminate you even if your school was more prestigious...

I'm not sure why you call this "ugly". Many schools have x number of applicants for y number of slots, where x >> y. While the stated cutoff for when they start tossing applications in the bin may be lower (2.75 or 3.0), it can easily be higher depending on who all else applies for a given term and what their GPAs were. Welcome to university admissions.

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