How do BSN programs work?

elkpark · Mar 30, 2011

Different colleges and universities set up their BSN programs differently.

Some schools have their program set up so that students are are accepted and enter directly into the nursing program as freshman, "pre-req" courses are built into the curriculum, and the nursing courses are spread out over four years.

Other schools admit people as "pre-nursing" majors (or they may call it something different), you take general education courses, including the specific prerequisites for the nursing program, during the first two years, and then you apply for a "slot" in the nursing program, and complete all the nursing courses during your third and fourth years. The schools that do this typically admit more "pre-nursing" students than the nursing program itself can accommodate, so you spend the first two years not knowing whether you're going to be able to get into the nursing program or not. In the last BSN program in which I taught, the university admitted roughly four times as many "pre-nursing" majors each year as the actual nursing program could accommodate, so all those students spent their first two years of college frantically, desperately trying to keep a 4.0 GPA and cultivating the nursing faculty, knowing that they had only, at best, a 1 in 4 chance of getting into the nursing program. I taught one of the pre-req courses for the "pre-nursing" majors, and the tension and desperation in the air in that class was palpable. (It was horrible.) If the day came and you were one of the 75% who didn't get accepted into the nursing program, you were told that your choices were to either change your major to something else or try to transfer into another nursing program somewhere else. (Personally, I thought that was a pretty inhumane way to run a nursing program, and that's one of the reasons I no longer teach there.)

SO, the short answer to your question is that it depends on the individual, specific school.

CuriousMe · Mar 30, 2011

Additionally, some programs only accept transfer students after one year of pre-requisites. Short answer....contact the programs that you're interested in, and they'll tell you how their programs work. :)

tokyoROSE, BSN, RN · Mar 30, 2011

Elkpark has explained it pretty well.

I went straight from high school to a BSN program. I was a pre-nursing major for two years while I did my prereqs. The competition is often stiff for BSN programs, so obviously not everyone who applied got it. I got in my first try due to my high GPA-- schools differ on their criterias, so take a close look at that. Luckily mine was based strictly on GPA, no entrance exams, health care experience, essays, etc necessary! Once you are admitted to the nursing program, you spend the next two years doing just nursing courses and clinicals. Hope that helps.

nrsshrk · Mar 30, 2011

For my school, we have the 2 yr pre reqs that consist of lots of science like anatomy, organic chem, and some psych and others. To actually get into our program we have to be critiqued by our overall GPA, science GPA, TEAS test, and credits at the university. And science credits can no longer be taken at a community college.

Our program went from something like 500 students declaring "nursing" as their major in 2004 to like 1200 in 2007, and thats still 4 yrs old. I agree with the above I think it is inhumane for programs to do that strictly on GPA. I know other schools have waiting lists as well incorporated somehow.

I think with the 1. however many million nurses they are supposedly going to need when the baby boomers retire, there is going to be some major reconstruction of nursing programs... AND healthcare for that matter