Does undergrad school have weight?

CougRN · Jun 9, 2005

it won't matter what school you went to for undergrad. science is science no matter where you went to school.

Ex130Load · Jun 9, 2005

GPAs are the primary filter to get into my school. I suggest you inquire with the schools you're considering as to how they determine acceptance. I know firsthand of 3.0 GPAs that didn't get accepted at mine.

Ex130Load · Jun 9, 2005

I re-read the original question and want to retract my first response. I see the question appears more directed to graduate school and thus I tend to agree with the first responder. If applying to RN nursing school, my first response is valid.

TraumaNurse · Jun 9, 2005

No, it does not matter where you went to undergrand when applying to anesthesia school. There are a lot of factors considered by CRNA schools in the decision making process but that is not one of them.

Nitecap · Jun 9, 2005

On the contrary when I interviewed at my program strength of undergrad BSN program did effect their applicant point system. Not sure exactly how that works ranking diff. nursing schools against each other but it did play a small role.

Another thing that played a larger role was strength of clinical exp. Nurses that worked in large academic ICU's with very high acuity may be awarded more points than someone that worked in small suburban ICU's even if that RN that worked in small hospitals had been an ICU nurse for 10yrs as apposed to the large ICU for 2yrs.

TraumaNurse · Jun 10, 2005

Okay, never say never. As always, each individual program has its own criteria that they feel are more important than others. Of all the programs I looked into and of the three I eventually interviewed at and accepted in, none of them cared where I did my BSN. I know this is not always the case, but as far as admission committee priorities, I don't think location of undergrad degree is one of them. I will agree that all the programs I interviewed with were concerned about location and quality of critical care experience. Admission to CRNA school is always multi-factorial.

The one thing I will say is that you can not determine the quality of education or degree based on the "name" of a particular school. A BSN from an Ivy league school is really no better than a local or state university. In the business world (MBA) it definitely makes a difference where you get your degree, but in the nursing world, I don't think it really makes a big difference. I have never heard of anyone being rejected for CRNA school because they received their degree from a less known or poorly ranked university. How would an admission committee weigh BSN programs against one another to find which one better qualifies a person for anesthesia school?

Of course, every program is different, so you would have to call them and ask them directly if they care where you obtain your degree.

nurseabc123 · Jun 10, 2005

I would have to say a degree from an institution such as U of M bear more weight compared to the Unversity of Pheonix online.. but that's just my opinion.