Giving yourself a leg up in the application process

Hi everyone, I am posting this in pre nursing so that anyone considering applying to nursing school can learn from it. My daughter is a regional recruitment rep for USC (meaning she either lets you in or she doesn't) and she agrees that this advice is excellent! I tried twice to get into nursing school before I got in this year. It could be that I just wasn't far enough along in my co reqs and pre reqs, or it could be my GPA wasn't all that great, but for whatever reason I was denited twice. This time around, all my pre reqs were done, as well as every co req I could possibly take. I have nothing left but core NUR courses. So that's desirable to the board that reviews applicants. Retention is a problem in the RN program so they want students to succeed and the more co reqs you have out of the way, the better your chance at succeeding (i.e., HLT, HUM, PSY, A & P I & II,CHM,BIO,ENG,MTH). Secondly, our program board decided this year no reference letters were required, whereas before, there were two required. I decided I would get one anyway from a professor in a class I did excellent in, A & P II, a very relevant course to nursing. I had above a 4.0 in this class, so I got an excellent letter of recommendation. The professor is an MD so that could only help add validity to the letter, as she was very well respected. Thirdly, I also attached a cover letter to my application package, very brief, one paragraph, about myself and what I felt I could bring to the program and to nursing as a profession. These were not requirements of the nursing program application package, but I did them anyway. Lastly, and very important, volunteer somewhere! Get involved in your community! Nursing program advisors (any college advisors, actually) are looking for people who are involved in their communities and have proven leadership skills! The MD professor noted my volunteer work in my reference letter. The nursing programs are so competitive in my area (probably as everywhere else) and I truly feel like these things as well as an increase in my GPA the last two semesters (to a 4.0 in this Spring semester that just ended) are what finally got me in the program. You need to set yourself above the applicants in any way you can. Good luck!!!!!