4.0 gpa a myth?

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For those who are applying, I just wanted to say that I think the 4.0 gpa requirement is a myth. I think some counselors say that to get students to work harder. Other students may say that to discourage their competition. I understand that nursing school admissions is competitive so the higher the better. There are people who get into a nursing program without a perfect gpa. :twocents:

Specializes in ICU.

I agree with tea!

From my experience I have a 3.3 gpa calculated by the school. Though my grades were horrible freshman year which account for the low gpa i picked it up as the next years came by. I just recently got into a accelerated BSN program with a 3.3gpa so keep trying if this is what you want and dont get so easily discouraged!

Alot depends on where you are applying at.

I planning on applying for TCC and DCCCD programs. The lowest GPA for

DCCCD for the spring programs was around 3.6 I believe.

It just depends on how competetive it is to get into the prgram you are

trying for.

Good Luck

Sandy

Specializes in Peds Cardiology,Peds Neuro,Pedi ER,PICU, IV Jedi.

While a 4.0 may be a myth, possibly to make students work harder to obtain acceptance to programs, a 3.5 or a 3.6 is not. Sadly, there is no correllation between high grades prior to acceptance and effectiveness as an RN. And as mentioned before, the competititiveness of your program is also a factor. The more applicants they have, the more selective they can be, which can border on ridiculous. Soon they'll only accept single females with blue eyes and blonde hair. Sad, really.

Specializes in Emergency Nursing.

Most of the ADN schools in the Houston area base the GPA on only a handful of courses like A&P I and II, English, and psych. so it is possible to have a 4.0 GPA in those courses. It is of course much harder to maintain that 4.0 throughout 100+ college hours as opposed to just the 16 hours or so many nursing schools look at.

Specializes in NICU Level III.

4.0 is a myth but 3.7 or .8 isn't!

A girl that applied to the same school I did was told that if you don't have a 3.8 then you are really out of luck. She had a 3.5 and got accepted. Aznplayr99 had a 3.3 and got accepted. This is out of 500-600 applicants. My advice to anyone is to take all the minimum* or average gpa stuff with a grain of salt.

* unless you are talking about what the college lists on their website as the min. gpa you must have in order to apply.

For those who are applying, I just wanted to say that I think the 4.0 gpa requirement is a myth. I think some counselors say that to get students to work harder. Other students may say that to discourage their competition. I understand that nursing school admissions is competitive so the higher the better. There are people who get into a nursing program without a perfect gpa. :twocents:

Don't confuse "requirement" and "competitive". There is a huge difference.

Most of the nursing schools that I have seen, when you read the handbook, they usually have between a 2.0 and a 2.7 GPA requirement...thereabouts, in either overall GPA or pre-reqs...that is about the standard range.

However...it all boils down to statistics.

In some larger cities or in areas where there are only one or two nursing programs, you can have several hundred applicants for less than 100 slots...I have seen as low as 20 slots available at a school, depending on the size of their program.

If you have, let's say, 50 slots available with 500 applicants (this a reality at many schools) and the GPA of your applicants range from a 2.0 to a 4.0...and if you have MORE THAN 50 STUDENTS THAT HAVE A 4.0 GPA...then a 4.0 is going to be required to get your application considered and be competitive.

So when some folks say that "You had to have a GPA of ____ to get into my school"...that is really what they are referring to.

Not a policy requirement.

Specializes in Critical Care.

Needing a 4.0 is myth! Well, at least for my progam...I def. don't have anywhere near a 4.0 but, I did have other things that brought attention to my application". I guess if you are applying to a school on a point system it may matter but, it's not the best predictor of success in nursing school as evidenced by a lot of the 4.0's in our program that can't cut it.

Specializes in Operating Room.

I got turned down with a 3.77, and reapplied with a 4.0 to get accepted.

So, at the time at DCCCD's El Centro/North Lake, there wasn't a 4.0 myth.

I do believe the GPA requirement as gone way down now, but that's because less people are trying to get in there. :uhoh21:

For those who are applying, I just wanted to say that I think the 4.0 gpa requirement is a myth. I think some counselors say that to get students to work harder. Other students may say that to discourage their competition. I understand that nursing school admissions is competitive so the higher the better. There are people who get into a nursing program without a perfect gpa. :twocents:
Soon they'll only accept single females with blue eyes and blonde hair. Sad, really.

LOL.. unfortionately very true

regarding the comment on only accepting blond hair blue eye women, so how will this happen?

also, please keep in mind that there is a difference between "minimum gpa" and "average gpa". the first one means that you will be disqualified from admissions if you do not meet the gpa requirement. second one means that there are gpas above and below the average. for example, if average gpa is 3.6, then theoretically they should have some 3.2's to "counter" those 4.0's.

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