Getting into nursing school...

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Firstly, sorry if I'm posting in the wrong forum.

I've recently started thinking about becoming a nurse, so I've been doing all my research online and trying to make sense of it all. I've read that despite the huge shortage of nurses, that it's still difficult to get into nursing school.

I've been thinking that I would probably try and get a ADN, but I'm worried that it's going to be difficult to be accepted into nursing school. Is it as difficult to be accepted into a ADN program compared to a BSN program?

If anyone knows, I'd love to hear more about it. Thanks. :bow:

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, PCVICU and peds oncology.

The good folks in the Student forums will be happy to help you with your decisions. Moving you there.

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Specializes in Telemetry.

It all depends on the school.

Some CC's do lottery systems. The ones around here can get around 500 *qualified* applicants, and draw names for 30-60 spots, for example.

Some CC's do wait lists. If you are qualified, you can be added to the wait list, which can take up to 3 years in some cases before you get in.

Some CC's and BSN programs do a ranking system, with points. These are competitive based only on qualifications, not on luck.

ADN programs can be extremely competitive because they are usually really cheap and only take two years. They can be as competitive, if not more competitive, than BSN programs.

Private schools are generally the least competitive, because of the high cost.

I'd look into all the schools near you, if I were you, and figure out their unique requirements. Some schools will show statistics on applicants vs. spaces available.

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Nursing school is hard to get into. Period. There are no shortcuts, no back doors, and no "easy" ways to get in. You will most likely not get in with mediocre grades either. If you do some searching on here you will find lots of threads on those very subjects (though not so plainly stated of course).

Jennafezz's post is spot on.

My advice, you should find a couple schools (or more if you want) in your area that you would like to apply to and attend their information sessions. The purpose of the information session is to let you know about the schools specific admission requirements, how applicants are selected, deadlines, provide you with resources for the program (e.g. advisors), etc. You will walk away from a good information session knowing basically everything you wanted/needed to know about how to be a competitive applicant for said program. At the very least you will learn who it is that you can contact (advisor) with specific questions.

Best of luck to you.

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One last thing...just in case you didn't know and were curious. Here are a couple of reasons that I believe are responsible for the competitive admission process:

Low pay for nursing instructors- even to teach at the ADN level an instructor must hold a master's degree. Nursing instructors make much less money working as teachers compared to working as staff nurses. This makes it difficult to attract qualified nurses to teaching. Fewer instructors = fewer students that can be accepted.

Limited clinical sites- the clinical sites can only "tolerate" so many nursing students running around their hospital/facility. This reduces the amount of students that a school can accept.

These two factors alone result in more qualified applicants than space available.

Just thought you might want to know a little about why it is difficult to get into nursing school even though the nursing shortage is in the process of reaching critical mass.

Take care.

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True nursing school is difficult to get into just because of those terrible facts. My advice would be to apply to as much programs as you can both ADN and BSN programs. Get all your paperwork in, don't miss deadlines and just hope for the best.

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One last thing...just in case you didn't know and were curious. Here are a couple of reasons that I believe are responsible for the competitive admission process:

Low pay for nursing instructors- even to teach at the ADN level an instructor must hold a master's degree. Nursing instructors make much less money working as teachers compared to working as staff nurses. This makes it difficult to attract qualified nurses to teaching. Fewer instructors = fewer students that can be accepted.

Limited clinical sites- the clinical sites can only "tolerate" so many nursing students running around their hospital/facility. This reduces the amount of students that a school can accept.

Exactly.:twocents:

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