GCU nursing scholarships for BSN students

Maycation · Mar 26, 2015

@sacstate, GCU is currently going through a lot of changes. They actually completely cancelled the summer program and let us know only a month before, leaving a lot of us without a plan B because we had already chosen GCU. I know they are trying to make it more competitive as they have plans of potentially closing all their satellite campuses come next spring. They will only have spots on the main campus. I am really not sure how this will affect the future of the school and the nursing program. They don't even know what changes they are implementing yet. But if your daughter is planning on going all 4 years, she will get priority over transfers who may have higher GPAs and test scores. I think that is the direction GCU is going. But really there are so many unanswered questions with GCU right now that it is impossible to tell anything at this point. In terms of basic tuition, it goes up every year with inflation. But the way that the current scholarships at GCU work, you can get in-house scholarships due to your GPA at GCU. So if your daughter goes in, even with a low GPA, and earns a high GPA her first semeste, she will be eligible for scholarships. But she also has to maintain a certain GPA to maintain them. If she works really hard, I think she could do this.

sacstate2010 · Apr 9, 2015

Thank you very much for your reply. She visited the school and liked it a lot. Now it's up to us to decide. I know she would have a priority over transfer students which makes it appealing more:)

I don't really like that school is going throught lots of changes but I think it's due to be fairly new and really fast expanding school. That's great that having a high GPA would help with scholarships. I've never visited the school but seeing their add on TV every night scares me a little. Good school doesn't need advertisement. What do you think about that?

Maycation · Apr 14, 2015

Hi again,

So GCU has raised the requirements for their current students to be able to get into the nursing school. Your daughter will need a 3.25 pre-req GPA and 80s in all the sections of the HESI. GCU had a 3.0 requirement before and no HESI requirement. A 3.25 may seem low, but when taking very difficult science courses, many find maintaining high GPAs very difficult. Make sure your daughter is ready to work very hard and understands how much work and money goes into becoming a nurse! I know of a lot of girls who have closer to a 3.0 GPA and will not be able to get in for the Spring. They will have to retake classes, which means paying extra money!

As far as the commercials are concerned, GCU is a for profit school so they really want to get students into their programs so that they can make money obviously. However, they make the most money from their less marketable majors, like Spots management, communications, business admin, etc. and their solely online majors. Nursing is really where GCU strives, and they know that. They put a lot of money into it and it helps their image. with that being said, I would go to GCU for nursing in a heartbeat, but if I was looking for a business administration degree, there are far better schools for that! So if your daughter wants to become a nurse, go for it! GCU is an excellent and highly sought after nursing school.

sacstate2010 · Apr 14, 2015

Thank you for your recommendation. So far, I only found good things about GCU nursing!