Hello All - I am searching for an honest opinion!!
I am currently in the process of applying for a few nursing programs around the Kansas City area! I have a BA and an MBA (neither related to nursing).
Upon applying to these programs, I worry that my gpa for my BA (3.2) may hinder my ability to get in! My MBA gpa is 4.0. Anyway, im hoping to get an interview with the schools I apply for, just because I think I can explain my desire to become a nurse a lot easier in person than on paper! But I am a little worried about going in for an interview!
I am an African American female, and I'm really not sure if that could potentially be a disadvantage. Just want to hear opinions. I am asking because one school I looked up was the University of Kansas nursing program. I would love to attend this one as I have heard it was a great school, but even just looking at the photos online of their nursing program, I don't see much diversity at all. It can sometimes be a bit discouraging.
I really think finding a program that values diversity not only with race but gender, previous schooling background, work experience, etc. would be beneficial! Any ideas on this? Thoughts? Advice on schools?
Thanks to everyone for the feedback! I definitely agree that I shouldn't go off of what a picture on a website shows. I do think I am qualified (race aside) so its encouraging to hear you all's opinion on the matter!
I think I'm allowing myself to worry about too many things I shouldn't be worried about, and quite frankly things that are out of my control.
I do understand sometimes committees may seek candidates from underrepresented populations to seek diversity! It's definitely a sensitive subject to discuss. But just think, if schools/employers had never started some type of process to bring in underrepresented populations, I think we'd see a whole lot less diversity in schools and the workplace today. I don't think that will last forever, but I understand why its set into place now.
Anyway - good points though on every comment made! Thank you all!!
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
And she is probably right! In my mind, "reverse discrimination" is a misnomer. Discrimination is discrimination; if someone is favored because of the color of his or skin, because of belonging to (or claiming to belong to?) a specific race...... it's plain out-and-out discrimination. Or, in a smaller word: wrong
Thanks to everyone for the feedback! I definitely agree that I shouldn't go off of what a picture on a website shows. I do think I am qualified (race aside) so its encouraging to hear you all's opinion on the matter!
I think I'm allowing myself to worry about too many things I shouldn't be worried about, and quite frankly things that are out of my control.
I do understand sometimes committees may seek candidates from underrepresented populations to seek diversity! It's definitely a sensitive subject to discuss. But just think, if schools/employers had never started some type of process to bring in underrepresented populations, I think we'd see a whole lot less diversity in schools and the workplace today. I don't think that will last forever, but I understand why its set into place now.
Anyway - good points though on every comment made! Thank you all!!
Good luck to you :)
FWIW, I'm of the belief that while there WAS a use for such preferences some time back, it no longer holds true today. We have diversity, and we have equal opportunity. What we do not need any longer is favoritism purely for the sake of increasing the presence of any one race over another in a particular program or place of employment.
I think the most qualified candidates should be "in"; I believe excellence should be the standard, not quotas/percentages of minority-to-majority populations
I'd hate for this forum to turn into a debate! I will admit though, it's tough reading some of the comments! I guess knowing my grandparents and even parents were discriminated against to the point where it affected their education, work, etc. makes me look this a little differently. My parents, not as much as my grandparents.
Multiple races here in the US were oppressed for years. Even within the past 100 years, this type of oppression was still alive and very real. Laws have since halted these practices, but it doesn't make the past disappear. I am blessed to not have experienced this in full force and luckily my parents were able to graduate from college, find great jobs, etc, but I am a small percentage of a large group of people. Some peoples pasts still effect them to this day. I guess I am saying, its tough to oppress a group of people (whether it has to do with race, gender, religion, etc.) for years, and then one day change the laws to now allow the oppression but expect society to fix itself on its own. I wish! But it's not that simple.
I think eventually affirmative action does need to stop, and hopefully we will get to a point where it can!! But again, think how little diversity we would have in our workplace/schools, if we didn't have it.
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!
I believe this to be true of the school I graduated from. We had one African American student in my class and there were three in the accelerated program.
I'd hate for this forum to turn into a debate! I will admit though, it's tough reading some of the comments! I guess knowing my grandparents and even parents were discriminated against to the point where it affected their education, work, etc. makes me look this a little differently. My parents, not as much as my grandparents.
Multiple races here in the US were oppressed for years. Even within the past 100 years, this type of oppression was still alive and very real. Laws have since halted these practices, but it doesn't make the past disappear. I am blessed to not have experienced this in full force and luckily my parents were able to graduate from college, find great jobs, etc, but I am a small percentage of a large group of people. Some peoples pasts still effect them to this day. I guess I am saying, its tough to oppress a group of people (whether it has to do with race, gender, religion, etc.) for years, and then one day change the laws to now allow the oppression but expect society to fix itself on its own. I wish! But it's not that simple.
I think eventually affirmative action does need to stop, and hopefully we will get to a point where it can!! But again, think how little diversity we would have in our workplace/schools, if we didn't have it.
Just food for thought!
Nah, a good (civil, respectful) debate is the grassroots of AN :)
Well, I suppose I could see your parents/grandparents discrimination and raise you one: I personally have experienced bigotry, it didn't stop with my grandparents or parents. I am white....but I am also Jewish, and that's where it gets murky. No Affirmative Action in place for us
Discrimination is discrimination. And regardless of the fact that there NEEDED to be an equalizer in place at one time (a time that is PASSED, imho), there no longer is such a need. I completely agree with you that there DID need to be something that made it easier for minority applicants to gain placement in schools and jobs. But when we've reached the point where the preferential treatment has outlived its usefulness, we need to return the playing field back to level ground again.
At one time, being non-white meant less of a chance. Then (and now, still, as AA hasn't been repealed) it means that being non-white is an advantage. At what point do you suppose those who are in favor of Affirmative Action will be willing to say that this kind of discrimination is wrong?
I have a friend, black (NOT African American, but black) who hates Affirmative Action with a passion. He tells me that since the assumption is that he got into college, medical school because he's black he's also less intelligent, less qualified. Fact of the matter is he's a pretty darned good physician, BUT....he lives under a cloud of "you probably got your place in the class because of AA".
I wonder at what point people who favor AA will realize that it's not worth living under that cloud of doubt?
Anyway, debate is good. It makes you think. And if you're headed to nursing school, LOL, you've got LOTS of that ahead!
I'd hate for this forum to turn into a debate! I will admit though, it's tough reading some of the comments! I guess knowing my grandparents and even parents were discriminated against to the point where it affected their education, work, etc. makes me look this a little differently. My parents, not as much as my grandparents.
Multiple races here in the US were oppressed for years. Even within the past 100 years, this type of oppression was still alive and very real. Laws have since halted these practices, but it doesn't make the past disappear. I am blessed to not have experienced this in full force and luckily my parents were able to graduate from college, find great jobs, etc, but I am a small percentage of a large group of people. Some peoples pasts still effect them to this day. I guess I am saying, its tough to oppress a group of people (whether it has to do with race, gender, religion, etc.) for years, and then one day change the laws to now allow the oppression but expect society to fix itself on its own. I wish! But it's not that simple.
I think eventually affirmative action does need to stop, and hopefully we will get to a point where it can!! But again, think how little diversity we would have in our workplace/schools, if we didn't have it.
When those thoughts of "you know...they're black" is out of the minds of those who dictate hiring practices, THEN we are going to have utopia, unfortunately it's not going to happen for many generations, as well as the human condition to sometimes discriminate and distrust other based on race, sex, and sexual orientation, biases that can clash together, even amongst minorities themselves; it may take several other generations where the is a common ground and there is an acceptance that we are equally human and we pretty much have the same concerns and wants, not that it's happening today in certain communities, but there is still a huge divide on many things that even this thread, IMHO can't cover.
I will say OP, I have a very unusual ethnic name; in the 15 years of healthcare, 10 being a nurse, I have ALWAYS landed a job, and the healthcare business is a corporate as anything else out there.
What about the web photos of the other programs you have applied to? The University of Missouri and Penn Valley Community College have many diverse students that do clinicals in the local hospitals (where I have worked).
Your BA and MBA show you know how to traverse the educational system. Keep applying and dazzle 'em at the interview.
Since we're on the subject, there are certainly a subgroup of people who take disciminatory advantage of their minority status. Claiming discrimination where there is none and pulling the "race card" to end all discussion as white managers run for cover.
As a male in nursing I suppose I'm sort of a minority. Also part Native American but that is a whole other story ........
If I went by the picture of my school's site I would think my nursing program was primarily white and Asian guys. Go fig.
But I know my program is actively investigating ways of increasing diversity and I really doubt that your background would be a problem. In my state, I know it would be an advantage.
Specializes in orthopedic/trauma, Informatics, diabetes.
Where I am, we have an EXTREMELY diverse work staff. from EVS to aides to nurses to administration, although upper management still tends to be white men,
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LinaJill123
5 Posts
Thanks to everyone for the feedback! I definitely agree that I shouldn't go off of what a picture on a website shows. I do think I am qualified (race aside) so its encouraging to hear you all's opinion on the matter!
I think I'm allowing myself to worry about too many things I shouldn't be worried about, and quite frankly things that are out of my control.
I do understand sometimes committees may seek candidates from underrepresented populations to seek diversity! It's definitely a sensitive subject to discuss. But just think, if schools/employers had never started some type of process to bring in underrepresented populations, I think we'd see a whole lot less diversity in schools and the workplace today. I don't think that will last forever, but I understand why its set into place now.
Anyway - good points though on every comment made! Thank you all!!