Does my RACE matter when applying to Nursing Programs?

BeachsideRN, ASN · Jun 23, 2015

I seriously doubt your race will be an issue at all.

heron, ASN, RN · Jun 23, 2015

And if you believe that, I have a bridge to sell ya. My advice is to trust your gut and keep looking.

RN403, BSN, RN · Jun 23, 2015

My school was not very diverse and I got in. My race wasn't an issue at all. Let your academic record speak. If a school didn't accept me because of my race I seriously doubt that would be a school I would like to attend anyway.

Like a PP said, I doubt it would be an issue. Don't base your chances of acceptance on the pictures posted to their website. Look at their acceptance requirements and reach out to advisors for guidance.

Best wishes.

Miss Infermiera2b, BSN, RN · Jun 23, 2015

I live in the south and I know plenty of African American nursing students. I wouldn't judge a nursing program by the pictures on the website.

elkpark · Jun 23, 2015

It continues to be true that nursing is overwhelmingly female and overwhelmingly white (although that is slowly changing). In my experience (as a faculty member in a few different schools), nursing schools are looking for diversity -- they just have no control over who applies (they can't go snatch males of people of color off the street, haha). If anything, your race may well be an advantage. The schools with which I've had personal experience have gone out of their way to accept and retain minority students. Best wishes!

LadyFree28, BSN, LPN, RN · Jun 23, 2015

I live in the south and I know plenty of African American nursing students. I wouldn't judge a nursing program by the pictures on the website.

This.

If anyone would go past my schools' website for nursing in the past, you couldn't tell how diverse my class or the program was; at least 40-50% black, 5% Asian, 5% Hispanic, 40-50% white-and that was the make up of my class throughout the program.

As a African American, If I went by a picture on the Internet, I would've missed a HUGE opportunity to have an enriching educational experience.

Nonyvole, BSN, RN · Jun 23, 2015

First: don't trust the pictures that schools will post online. (My school gives the impression that all the students are tall and blonde. And female. My graduating class was only about a third tall and blonde, which is actually pretty close to the actual proportion of tall blondes in the state where I went to school.)

Second: How will they know your race until you go in for an interview? If they even require them?

Third: What is the worst that they can say? No?

Finally, apply to the programs that you want to. Speaking from experience, I was told that my background pushed me firmly from a "sure, she'll be a good student" to "yes we need her for the program" simply because I was a more non-traditional student.

Good luck. :up:

Emergent, RN · Jun 23, 2015

A lot of schools will favor a qualified, non-white student. Aren't conservatives always saying that the higher education system is dominated by the left? There is some basis for that claim, actually.

In any case, it sounds like you are qualified. Don't be paranoid just because of some photos, whatever race you are. White people actually have the same concerns these days because of hearing of reverse discrimination.

Good luck!

llg, PhD, RN · Jun 23, 2015

I sat on an admissions committee several years ago (not Kansas) ... and minorities were given extra points on their total application score for being a member of a minority. Minority status was an advantage, not a disadvantage because the school needed to show that it did not discriminate against minorities.

I've been involved in hiring at several hospitals over the years and found the same thing. They go out of their way trying to find qualified minority candidates to fill positions so that their statistics show that they are "equal opportunity employers." So if you are qualified, go for it.

RNsRWe, ASN, RN · Jun 23, 2015

I sat on an admissions committee several years ago (not Kansas) ... and minorities were given extra points on their total application score for being a member of a minority. Minority status was an advantage, not a disadvantage because the school needed to show that it did not discriminate against minorities.
I've been involved in hiring at several hospitals over the years and found the same thing. They go out of their way trying to find qualified minority candidates to fill positions so that their statistics show that they are "equal opportunity employers." So if you are qualified, go for it.

Seems like the "equal opportunity employer" who favors non-whites is actually NOT offering an "equal opportunity" at all. Pretty much the definition of favoring....making the process decidedly Unequal. Just not the version of unequal the OP expects.

Colleges, in general, will be pretty up-front about wanting "diversity", which means accepting as many qualified non-whites as possible. And if two candidates are equal --or even NOT quite equal, but one of them is not white---they will choose the non-white. Which means, IMHO, there is a very definite discrimination. Again....it's just that the people being discriminated against aren't the ones the OP thinks are.

Emergent, RN · Jun 23, 2015

Seems like the "equal opportunity employer" who favors non-whites is actually NOT offering an "equal opportunity" at all. Pretty much the definition of favoring....making the process decidedly Unequal. Just not the version of unequal the OP expects.

I totally agree. I don't favor affirmative action, it is just discrimination in reverse and sows resentment.

My daughter's friend was one fourth Mexican, a blue-eyed blond actually. She always put Hispanic on all applications, thinking it would help her.

Ridiculous, if you ask me