Graduating with honors help with grad school?

Specialties NP

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For current and past NP students, do you think graduating with honors (for your BSN) helped with gaining admission into grad school?

I read this thread :: https://allnurses.com/forums/f223/bsn-honors-how-important-grad-school-290580.html :: graduating with honors doesn't seem to be so important :confused:

Specializes in CTICU.

I think grad schools look at you as a whole person - grades etc are one part of it. They want to know that you're going to be successful in their program.

Grades are important. So too is the type of experience you have had, the quality of your writing, and what sorts of volunteer/leadership opportunities you have done. We also look to see if you serve on committees (and to what capacity), are you taking part in research or evidence-based practice projects, are you precepting others, etc.

Specializes in Emergency, Cardiac, PAT/SPU, Urgent Care.

I think having a nice, well-rounded application impresses the admissions dept. more than having graduated with honors. They like to see well-written goal statements, excellent recommendation letters, as well as decent GRE/MAT scores. Also, work experience, extra-curricular activities and community involvement also play an important part.

I knew I wanted to go to grad school w/ limited experience (8 mos as an RN + 7 mos. as an ER tech). This does not meet the entry requirements for many of the FNP programs I was interested in, so I wanted to open as many doors as possible. I graduated 2nd in my class -4.0 GPA, high GRE scores. I was accepted into an FNP program and just finished my 1st semester's final exams.

For me- graduating w/ a solid GPA was one piece of the puzzle -compensating for my lack of nursing experience.....

Specializes in CTICU.

Congrats on your great results - I'm just not sure how that compensates for lack of experience. You can't learn experience in a classroom, and there's a reason it's required for admission to programs.

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