SOS - Community College Vs. University

Nursing Students General Students

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I am a high school senior and on my way to becoming a nurse. I want to get my BSN but I don't know if I should start at a community college or at a university.

I got accepted to UNCG, for Spanish major, because I want to eventually become a medical interpreter as well. UNCG has a great nursing program but unfortunately I didn't apply to it because I was afraid I wasn't going to get in due to their ACT requirements.

My weighted GPA is 3.72 and my ACT score is 20. At UNCG to be considered to the nursing program one must have at least a 21 on the ACT. Since I was a point away I decided to apply to my second choice which was spanish.

I thank God I got in but now I don't know if I should take the offer since 1) I would have to take loans to pay it and 2) I would have to re-apply after 15 credits hours to the nursing program at this university, which I heard may be competitive.

Now, if I go to a community college I would take the nursing pre-major and then transfer to UNCG or another university with a good nursing program.

But if I go to UNCG I would start my first semester as a spanish major, strive for a strong GPA (3.5 or higher), and then try to change my major to nursing after that semester.

I eventually want to advance my nursing career and I am considering in becoming a nurse practitioner, after experience. Some people say that since I want to do that it would be better for me to go straight to a university and others support the idea of starting at a community college because it would mean less debt.

Which route would you guys advice me to take. I need to give the university an answer by april otherwise my spot will be given away.

SOS

I am currently a Student at UNCG 2nd semester freshmen. Just like you my SAT or ACT score was not high enough to start out as pre-nursing. So I started out as a pre-health studies major which was basically created in order to place students who do not met the pre-nursing requirements. I just recently turned in my form to change my major to pre-nursing which now requires at least 15 semester hours and a 3.0 GPA. You could easily change your major to pre- heath when you start if you would like, just remember all of your orientation will be based off your Spanish major if you let then know that you want to do nursing they will allow you to attend information sessions about pre-nursing at soar as well. You mentioned earlier that you were worried about them not accepting transfer students as much. I do not know that to be true but they have less then 100 spots for upper level division nursing with over 150 applying to the program. If you want to go to uncg and do nursing you will have to have at least a 3.5 gpa to get in the program. They did not accept anyone under a 3.5 gpa last year. Its a lot harder then it looks because of the course load. You will be taking 15-18 credit hours at a time. You could also take courses at a community college over the summer and then transfer them to lower the course work during the year and it would lower cost. I would take all of your science course at uncg though because they really build off each other. This is a list of all the course you are required to take and a lot of info about the program if you have not seen it before. http://nursing.uncg.edu/undergraduate/BSN%202012%20Info%20Sheet.pdf

I know all of that sounds scary and all but as long as you work hard you can make it in the program.

Good luck!! and I am sorry that was so long

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