GPA vs grades

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Does an applicant's overall GPA matter more than the actual grades in science classes such as A&P and Microbiology? For example, I took an intro to criminal justice and intro to business before and got a C for both. Those grades will lower my GPA but if I get A's or B's in my science courses, will that matter more than what my actual GPA is?

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Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.
Does an applicant's overall GPA matter more than the actual grades in science classes such as A&P and Microbiology? For example, I took an intro to criminal justice and intro to business before and got a C for both. Those grades will lower my GPA but if I get A's or B's in my science courses, will that matter more than what my actual GPA is?

The grades that matter should be the ones that can be transferable to the major you currently wish to take. Therefore, I think that the A&P and Micro would be considered the courses to bring down your GPA thus if you get Cs or less, hinder chances for admission into nursing classes.

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Specializes in Cardiac Telemetry, ED.

It depends upon how the college awards points or determines eligibility to the program. You need to ask an advisor at the college.

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Specializes in Cardiac.

Some nursing programs like the one I am applying to only calculate your nursing pre-reqs for your required GPA. Check with the school's requirements.

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I only ask because I don't have a particular school in mind. I'll just apply to as many as I can, so I was just curious if all are the same way or if they vary. Thank you.

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Specializes in OB, NICU, Nursing Education (academic).

Hi,

I'm a nursing professor at a school in KY. Just as an example, at our school it would be to your advantage to have higher scores in sciences, such as A&P and micro (you would get extra points on our admission scale), than for classes such as criminal justice. Still, we require an overall GPA of at least 2.0 and an ACT composite of at least 19.

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Specializes in TCU.

The program I am accepted into counts overall GPA, which needs to be 2.75 or higher, but they also look at overall grades in science courses.

Good Luck!

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as others mentiond, it depends on the school's admission policies. some schoolS don't even look at your GPA - they only look at your pre-req grades. this is helpful for applicants who started in a different major (which they did poorly in) before switching to nursing.

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Specializes in Med/Surg.

I know it's different everywhere, but at my school they mainly look at the grades in the required sciences. The overall GPA is important also, but the sciences (Anatomy, Phys, Chem I and II, etc...) are heavily weighted.

Hope that helps.

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