GPA to become a nurse?

pmabraham, BSN, RN · Jun 28, 2014

We all make mistakes. It is when mistakes are repeated over and over and over and over again that means something a lot bigger is going on. Please take the time to do the math necessary to come up with a 2.08 GPA based on what the OP provided (1 F, 1 D, 1 B, undisclosed # of C's). Now, add up the number of potential classes/credits that are involved. Consider no more than 12 credits per semester (this is ball parking), and then figure a possibly # of semesters this has been going on. That gives you a trend line.

Now, does being more serious mean successful results? Does working harder mean successful results? I don't believe anyone is mocking anyone else. I do believe there are several of us trying to point out wishful thinking can cause more harm than good. For example, I wouldn't cheer someone with a degenerative lung disease to open dive 500 meters if that was their dream given they've never made it past 10 meters and could not hold their breath longer than 1.5 minutes. Oh, work harder, be more serious, try harder... and you can do the dive... just go for your dreams. If I really wanted to help, there's be more questions and trying to help find a real sense of direction vs. a pipe dream.

The OP might be able to turn things around, but they made a choice to keep certain facts vague which limits those who would provide workable advice.

Thank you.

SeattleJess · Jun 28, 2014

You asked for opinions, so.....here goes.
Consider another major, and now. Your grades do not indicate a great likelihood of success in nursing school, if you even managed to get in. And that, I'm afraid, isn't likely either.
Bone up on English core material. You might take offense at this, but the simple fact is that I don't see evidence of college-level English in your posts. And THAT is needed at the most basic foundation of all nursing courses.
You are seeking to enter a VERY competitive educational path to a VERY competitive career, and I am not certain you have the necessary skills with which to begin.
Good luck in whatever path you decide.

Sometimes the path is short and easy; sometimes the path is long and hard; sometimes the path leads us to a place we did not envision. Don't be discouraged. Everyone has abilities and we're all better off if we find them and pursue goals that will let us use them. I know you can find yours.

You need to assess your situation to find the problems that you can change, to do the work to change what stands in the way of your success and to accept what you are not able to overcome. What exactly is causing your poor performance? Fix that first, if you can.

I agree with RNsRWe: you are not showing evidence of minimal college-level English. English proficiency needs to be your first goal because it is basic to success in all your courses and in your profession.

First, get some career counseling to find your abilities and interests. Amazingly enough, we don't always recognize what these are. Do yours align with nursing? Expert advice on this topic is time and money well spent. You are certainly going to spend more time and money on nursing school than on any career counseling.

Next, concentrate on improving your language skills. Don't take other classes until you improve your abilities there. Don't limit yourself to classes: there are a zillion good online resources. Even with a solid language base, most of my ESL friends had to work twice as hard to get As on their prerequisites.

Admission to nursing school is very competitive. The admissions staff can read transcripts! They can see the difference between someone who had to retake classes and someone who did well the first time through. (I was distressed while taking prerequisites to hear a significant number of my classmates say, "Oh, I'll just retake the class.") Don't keep adding to a poor record until you're certain you've fixed the problems that are creating it.

Also, what do you think about getting a CNA license and working in that field for awhile? The academic requirements to get that license are much lower than those for nursing school but the work you will do is an important component of the skills you will need there. If you can't get certified or don't like the work, that's strong evidence that you need to think about another line of work.

Keep your eyes on the Big Picture and don't get discouraged. Life is too short to spend trying to fit your square peg into a round hole.

SeattleJess · Jun 28, 2014

I was young and dumb at one point and I didn't care much about my GPA. I didn't know I'd eventually go into nursing, and when I up a bit and figured out what I wanted to do, it took A LOT of damage control to correct what I'd done. Thankfully as an older student, I was much more serious and didn't bite off more than I could chew like I had when I was younger.

RunBabyRN, this is SO TRUE! The stupid things I did as a youngster... :wacky: I once walked away from a class because I didn't like the instructor. It was too late to withdraw so when I didn't show up for the final instead, my A average became a C. I thought, "I'll never go back, so what?" Decades later, that C was waiting for me when I was required to submit ALL transcripts.

Chabibeh, if we sound frantic or harsh in our advice, I bet it's because many of us don't want to see you make similar mistakes that we did.

dt70 · Jun 29, 2014

Chabibeh wrote:

1) I just started community college and I got an F and a D on classes I took. I talked to my Consoler and she told me to forget about becoming a nurse.

It is a inconclusive but fair assessment based on your grades and the competitiveness of nursing programs. For now, disregard what they said.

2) I am planing to retake the classes I did poorly on and try to get goo grades on up coming classes with Bs and As.

Do not do this yet.

3) I hVe a 2.0 right now. But I think if I can work hard enough I can get it to a 3.2 or higher.

Grades of F,D,B, would require over 70 additional classes grades of 'C' to get close to a 2.0.

You indicated you just started college and received a few C grades. This infers a GPA closer to 1.67. This has both bad and good implications.

Bad: academic suspension?, lower esteem, longer duration to reach your desired goal.

Good: If you have grades of f,d,b, 3 c's; one A will raise gpa from 1.67 to 2.0, 7 more A's will raise it to 3.0 . Academic forgiveness may be available??

4) What do you think!? Tips?

For fall, sign up for a 1 credit class called academic success, or some other name, that teaches study & test taking skills.

You met the developmental English requirements since you have been taking other courses already.

Either you took the entrance exam and did well, or had a good enough SAT score.

I would recommend you take at least the highest level developmental English course.

Possibly taking the math accuplacer test to see where you stand in that area. Not many of the nursing pre requisite classes require math placement, but now would be an ideal time to address any problem areas.

The academic success class along with the developmental classes are 1 credit each. So that would not qualify you for financial aid.

There is a Youtube channel that may offer good tips for studying and test taking.

http://www.palgrave.com/studentstudyskills/page/learning-strategies/

5) I don't know what else to major in

If you decide to use the fall semester to slow down, reassess, and reflect, you will have time to find other areas of interest or strengthen this area of interest.

6) (Davis accepts 3.2 transfers. Or I might go to Sonoma state) I am worried because my consoler told me tO give up. And now I'm scared and have no idea on what to major in or do

Relax and see #5.

Another thread to read for motivation:

https://allnurses.com/pre-nursing-student/you-can-survive-932159.html

neekzie · Jun 29, 2014

If you are doing that poorly in a class, withdraw from it so the F doesn't go on record then re-evaluate your priorities before going further.

windsurfer8, BSN, RN · Jun 29, 2014

All schools have different requirements, but Ds and Fs are not going to get you into any nursing school. You will need to make drastic changes in how you study and work much harder. If you want the big time you have to work for it. Don't tell people how hard you are working..just do it.

rheath22 · Jul 6, 2014

I had a crappy 2.5 and a horrible transcript. It was either a a or a f for me.

I worked really really hard and brought it up to a 3.3 and a 3.67 in maths and sciences. I met with a advisor at a college last week and she said it looks great and they still have spots open for the fall. She told me she wouldn't tell me this if she didn't think I had a high chance of being accepted.

I got a A in micro, A in bio, B in a and p 1, taking chem right now.

I also got academic amnesty, which took away 3 of my F's.

I am going to send in my high school transcript on Monday, and the. My application will be complete. She told me it would take a week, and that I had a high chance of acceptance.

If I can do it then so can you!! Don't give up!!

akulahawkRN, ADN, RN, EMT-P · Jul 6, 2014

To the OP: I'm not going to sugarcoat this either. You've just started going to college and along the way, you've made some mistakes. We all have made them. You need to figure out why you got such dismal grades. I'm not going to do any prognosticating and say you can't become a nurse because you got those grades. What I am going to say is that if you don't change something, you won't get there any time soon. What that something happens to be is whatever it was that caused you to get such poor grades.

I hope you were posting from your phone because your original post in this thread was absolutely horrendous. I saw very little that indicated you have any good, solid command of written English. If that's how you normally write, you need some serious remediation in many areas of written English because without this knowledge, you'll be at a HUGE disadvantage until you have that solid grasp. This is because much of your reading will be of a fairly technical nature and it'll be a lot of it. Since you're looking at Bachelor's programs (or higher) you're going to have to do some very significant paper writing and the better grasp you have of the rules of writing and can use the properly spelled word for the desired meaning, you'll do a whole lot better.

To that end, I suggest you take advantage of your school's learning disability testing programs. While I'm not suggesting you have a learning disability per se, their testing should be able to help you determine what your weaknesses really are, what your strengths are, and more importantly, how you learn and perhaps even be able to help you study more efficiently than you presently do.

At this point, you have dug yourself a pretty significant hole and it's going to take a LOT of planning, introspection and work to get yourself out of it. You'll probably end up chasing your GPA for a while in order to raise it significantly enough to give your overall GPA into a more acceptable range for acceptance into another school. I want to also say that your grades very well could prevent you from entering a Master's Program later on. It's going to be a tough/rough road for you and only you can decide if you're ready to take on this significant challenge.

To that end, I wish you all the best and hope that you're able to reach your goals.