How does transferring schools work with your GPA?

[msmith34]

I'm at a community college right now. My GPA isn't terrible but it also isn't where i want it to be at all because i failed a class. I plan on transferring to another school next fall, take 2 semesters of classes there then apply to the nursing program at that school. I've heard that once you transfer schools your GPA starts all over at that school. I know i'll still have a transcript from the community college, but when i apply to nursing school which GPA will they look at? or will they average them together?

[Mandy0728]

I've never heard of starting over...however, that new school will calculate your GPA as whatever you get at that school but your cumulative GPA will include your other school too. When you apply, they look at every school you've ever attended. Can you retake that F?

[CDEWannaBe]

I took classes at 4 different colleges/universities in the 20 years before I applied to nursing school. When I enrolled at each new school they took my previous transcripts and added them to my records. That way you get credit for all course work completed.

When you apply to nursing school you have to submit official transcripts from all schools attended and your GPA is calucated from that. Many nursing schools use processing organizations like Nursing CAS (Central Application Services) to verify transcripts. They calculate your GPA for:

1) lower division classes (1000 or 2000 level Freshmand and Sophomore)

2) higher division classes (3000 and 4000 level Junior and Senior)

3) cumulative GPA

4) GPA in each academic area like natural sciences, math, english, social sciences

Then a lot of programs have more specific GPAs they calculate, for example the program I'm applying to is for students who already have a BSN. They look most closely at GPA for last 60 hours completed and prereq GPA (including Chemistry, A&P, Microbiology, and Statistics).

https://portal.nursingcas.org/

[Mandy0728]

Our school that I just applied to uses nursing CAS as well but our school doesn't use their calculations because they don't take retakes into consideration. Nursing CAS calculated my overall gpa as 2.68, but the school I applied to has it as 3.47.

[dt70]

Mine transferred the credits with out attaching the grades to it.

Should have transferred a lot more classes.

[mrsboots87]

Your prev grades will matter, especially if some of them are for pre reqs to the program. Most colleges want an overall GPA (all classes attempted at all colleges) as well as your pre req GPA, and some just want your pre req GPA. You need to ask the advisor at the school you are transferring to what their program requirements are. And as for the F, find out which school has the better retake policy. IF you are at a school that will let you replace the F with the retake grade, then do so before transferring. The failed class will still show up on your transcript along with the passing grade, but your transferring GPA will be calculated from the replacement grade.