Getting Into Nursing School - Perfect Grades vs. Regular Grades w/experience

I"m just going to address the cutoff GPA part of your post. This is one that you cannot really put a solid number, or GPA, on I believe. This is probably why a school will not be upfront or put a do or die number on it w/ the exception of the bare minimum which is usually the 3.0. While you may have a historical GPA of 3.8 perhaps given, as used in your example, you don't really know the criteria they are using for that and there can be a lot of variances.

1) Is this an average or an actual confirmed GPA? From what I've seen on many published nursing school websites they either typically have a range or put down an average GPA or number. Again, using your example, 3.8 could be an average and you have 3.2's and 3.6's, 3.9, etc.. in the mix.

2)Did only everybody in the initial acceptance average into that GPA & that's how they came about that number? Or are the GPAs of those taken off the waitlist factored in there as well and that's the average GPA accepted? Also, it all can vary year to year, as we all know since one year you can have everybody going in w/ a 3.8 - 4.0 and the next year it may be less.

GPAs can be funny when it comes to schools. Many of the entry-level/2nd career tracks also take into consideration life experiences, where the GPA is definitely considered, but they like to see the diversity in backgrounds of the applicants and take other things into consideration and the GPA is just another thing in a long list of criteria they take into consideration.

I don't think it would be wise for a school to put out a cutoff GPA acceptance. Of course, they need to set the bar somewhere and 3.0 is where it's at. Besides, there is money to be made here and if they put out don't apply unless you're a 3.99, they wouldn't get extra $$ from all the application fees. Why would any school turn down extra income? It is a business after all.

From my own experience, I had a 3.2 and got into my ADN program. I scored an 80 on the TEAS. I have 9 years of experience as a nursing assistant, but I don't recall them asking about my employment. There were eight applicants per seat for our class. I was pretty surprised to be honest, because everyone else seemed to have a higher GPA than me.

As for school now, I get Bs and Cs. I've never been in danger of failing and I'm at a 97% likelihood of passing my NCLEX according to ATI. I'm not the best student, but I can assess my patients, prioritize, and respond in an emergency. I know how to coordinate with my peers and the nursing staff on my clinical floors. I may not be a stellar student, but I'll continue to put forth the effort and walk across that stage in May to get my pin and degree.

The whole process of nursing school from start to finish has been a mystery! I would love a little more transparency in regards to expectations. The unknown creates an unnecessary amount of stress!

The reason they can't give a cutoff GPA is because that number changes slightly depending on the cohort. That's what they mean by saying each one is different. For example, let's say that only a few applicants have a 4.0, some have a 3.5, and most have a 3.3 (a crude and unrealistic example, but it works for this). Most of the cohort would have a lower GPA. If the next year, most of the applicants have GPAs closer to 4.0, the average admitted GPA and the "cutoff" GPA are both going to be higher. That's how our school explained it (they didn't require GPA, but the same thing goes for letter grades of prereqs).