Has anyone heard of this?

Pixiesmom, BSN, RN · Aug 12, 2006

I went to a Christian college when I was a teenager (only for one year) and none of my credits transferred. Things like what you've experienced do vary greatly between different college's. I know at my college you need to have done the pre-req's recently as opposed to having done them 10 years ago. I'm sorry that your having to re-do some classes but it will be worth it in the long run.

sdmommie · Aug 12, 2006

When I went from a private college to a state university, some of my GEs were not going to transfer. The didn't have an equivalent class according to the title. I had to submit the syllabus for each class and petition for credit. They weren't accepted as classes for GPA calculation, but the requirement for the GE was met.

This is a heavy courseload. You should (in your head) count that Chemistry class as two classes. Is there some reason why you are taking all of these at once? Do you need all these to be fulltime?

SummerGarden, BSN, MSN, RN · Aug 13, 2006

You might want to reconsider the load. Nursing Programs care that you complete classes with the most competitive grades, which means they accept the most competitive students. With that said, completing the classes with a minimum of a C is not acceptable to most schools. And the load you are carrying might make it next to impossible to complete all your courses with As.

By the way, most admission committees will not be impressed with you for taking too much in one Semester. In fact, most schools do not penalize students for taking one or two courses a semester in his/her attempt to receive all As. So that student may get a spot over you if you cannot pull all As this Semester. In any case, good luck.

Megsd, BSN, RN · Aug 13, 2006

My school was pretty lenient on transferring credits ("If it has Biology/Statistics/etc. in the title, we'll take it") but when I went for my advising session I brought a copy of my transcript AND my undergraduate catalog so I could point out the specifics of what my class covered and fight for the transfer.

I still ended up needing to take nursing pre-reqs, but not the general general stuff. You may want to look up the course descriptions for the classes you took and the classes they offer and appeal their decision if you can prove the courses are equivalent.

Or you can maybe see if you can test out of (CLEP) some of the courses you've already taken, although if you've been out of school 12 years some review might not be a bad thing, y'know? And I know most schools require science and some math classes to be "current" (no older than 5 years), so you'll probably have to take the chem classes anyway.

Good luck to you!

RNsRWe, ASN, RN · Aug 13, 2006

Yes, I've heard of it. And, aside from your initial question about whether or not the credits should transfer, it's not at all unusual for a college to determine that certain pre-reqs are too OLD to be usable. Each has different criteria for that, but it's not at all unusual.

I had a prior degree from the SAME college I went back to for nursing, only to find that I needed to take Psych 101 over again. Never mind that I had three more advanced psych classes beyond that, lol....I had to take 101 again. Easy A

Asklepios · Aug 14, 2006

I'm worried because I got my B.A. 10 years ago this past May. I hope they don't pull any crap about the courses not being current. I worked my butt off for that degree, and it will make me sick to have to take extra courses to get accepted, especially courses I've already taken.

The college I'm going to states it's requirements are - 1. a "c" or better in high scool algebra 1 & 2, Chemistry, and Biology or the college equivalent; 2. a 2.7 GPA w/ all general education nursing courses completed, or:3. a Bachelors degree. Also, a TEAS composite % score of 40% or better (not sure what that means, but I know I have to take that test). As for the high school classes, well, I'll just say I wasn't a very good student in high school. But I got a "B" in college Biology (from the same school I want to take Nursing in, but over 10 years ago). I am taking Chem this coming fall, and the Admissions rep I spoke with said Statistics counts as the college equivalent of Algebra because it's an algebra-based math. I got a "B" in that.

Daytonite, BSN, RN · Aug 14, 2006

A school can do anything they want. They make the rules. You have the choice of enrolling in their school and following their rules or going elsewhere.

llg, PhD, RN · Aug 14, 2006

Look at it from the school's point-of-view. By giving you a diploma with THEIR name on it, they are saying that you met THEIR standards. They have every right to set those standards in such a way to protect their reputation -- not accepting old courses that might be out of date, or courses from schools that were not accredited by certain agencies, etc.

They also have a right to insist that a certain percentage of your courses be from THEIR school. You wouldn't expect to walk into Harvard and take just 1 final class and be given a Harvard diploma. The same principle applies to all schools. You'll find that most of the higher ranked (more prestigious, etc.) schools are pickier about what they will accept and what they won't accept.

llg

maryshome8 · Aug 14, 2006

Ok, I was probably too vague in my original post:

The college is not making me retake anything because it's too old, nor is the nursing program. This college has a non-competitive nursing program, which is one of the reasons I selected the school...it's BSN program is new...they graduated their first class this past May and for this Fall out of 20 slots available, they only have 14 filled. The have had a BSN completion since the late 90's. The hospitals pay extremely poorly here and that is probably one of the reasons why the program is not that popular. People in this area don't seem to want to move.

My goal is to get in for Fall 2007.

As far as my courseload...this is an economic decision, not "impress the admissions committee" decision. I am not going to be working because NONE of the nursing schools in my hometown of Charlotte, NC offer pre-req's in the evening, and I can't pay my bills (food, electric, etc) by working part-time, so I and my daughter have moved in with my father in Coeburn, VA so I can not work for 3 years while I finish this. It would take me 5 to 6 years to complete this program if I only took a couple of classes a semester to make sure I got A's in everything. I simply, do not have that kind of time or financial resources. Three years is pushing it.

The college I am signing up for is the only 4 year college within a 2 hour radius of where I can live for free...it's also the college where everyone applies when they can't get in anywhere else...so they are definately not asking me to "meet their standards'...colleges are a business, and they have a HUGE financial incentive to make you retake as much as possible..and in my case it's about 4 additional courses that have nothing to do with the nursing major or nursing pre-reqs

I looked at 6 other colleges for their nursing programs before moving here and other than NURSING pre-req's...none of them made you take things like a foreign language, economics or silly stuff that has nothing to do with nursing when you already have a degree. If it falls under the catagory of "general education" they consider it already completed.

I was just wondering if anyone else had run into anything like that because I have never seen it before.

I already took them my transcripts and course descriptions. The silliest example is that I took a Probability and Stats course for my BS degree through the Psychology department but even though the course description reads line for line the same, they are making me retake it because the MATH department didn't teach the class, even though they admitted that the material is probably going to be identical.

Go figure.

fleur-de-lis, BSN, RN · Aug 14, 2006

It does seem odd that they are not accepting the course with the same description just because of the department that offered it. I had to re-take English Comp I becuase when I went for my first degree in 1995, I tested out of it. When I applied to nursing school here in TX, they would not accept that, and at the time no one told me I could try and CLEP out of it, so I had to take Comp I after having taken about a dozen higher english courses! Is there any way you can appeal the decision? You might try taking it up the chain of command since it would save you time and $$$. Good luck to you!

EricJRN, MSN, RN · Aug 14, 2006

Talk about frustrating! Sounds like you've already brought it up to the school to no avail. I've certainly run into some strange credit issues in my own education. The RN-to-BSN program that I'm in right now was mostly very generous with transferring my previous credits. One notable exception was the required ethics course. In my previous life studying engineering, I took Engineering Ethics. Even though this was a 400-level philosophy class, it wasn't accepted for credit by my current school. I got the sense that it had to do with having 'Engineering' in the title.

If there's an advantage to your situation, it might be that you won't have to work quite as hard for good grades in some of the classes where you have some experience. When I first started college, I had AP credit or credit by exam in just about all of my strong subjects. Sounded good at the time, until I realized that I had no easy subjects to protect my GPA.

Best of luck to you. Keep in touch with us on how things are going.