Looking for help to find out if I am competitive for Second Degree BSN

NIUnurs2be · Jul 11, 2011

Hello there,

Although I am not currently enrolled in an ABSN program, I did extensive research and talked to a lot different schools in the Midwest area, before deciding to go into a regular 2 year BSN program. Every school looks for something a little different, and the average gpa of accepted students ranges from year to year depending on the applicant pool. Most of the schools I spoke with look heavily at your science gpa while others looked more specifically at your last 60 credits. Overall, I was told that if I maintained a 3.5 and above I should be okay. However, with your educational background I would think that even if with a gpa between a 3.0-3.5 ( which by the way is still amazing), that you should still be a strong candidate especially with your strong science background. Basically, these schools want to ensure that they select students who will succeed in the program and can handle a rigorous program. That being said, I would get a hold of each school you are interested in and talk to them about what they are looking for, some of them require some pretty different pre-requisites, and will judge an applicant using a variety of different tools. Hope this helps! Good luck : )

LadyinScrubs, ASN, RN · Jul 11, 2011

[...]i have always been interested in becoming a nurse and am now going to go for it. i am currently in a ph.d science program but have come to the conclusion that research isn't for me. [...] i have a ba in biology with a 3.02 gpa. my prereqs are anywhere from 3.3-3.5 depending on what school i look at. i also have a masters in anatomy with a 3.54 gpa and my ph.d gpa is 3.17. in between my masters and ph.d programs i also taught anatomy & physiology i and ii and biology for 2 years. i do not have any experience as a tech or with patient contact. do most second degree programs put high stock into that? i am looking bsn programs and marquette's direct entry msn program. let me know your experiences!
thanks, brad

when comparing nursing schools, pay attention to whether they enforce the 5 year rule for lab classes. many colleges/universities will not accept lab clases older than 5 years and will require the student to retake those classes. with your background you may be better suited for the masters in nursing for those with previos degrees but not in nursing. the program is similar to the bsn program but instead of graduating and then applying to the masters program, you take the nclex at the end of yor bsn senior year and then continue on with your masters in nursing edcation.

iPink, BSN, RN · Jul 11, 2011

I'm almost in my 3rd of 4 semesters of my Accelerated BSN program in the NE. As previous posters have responded, it's important that you narrow down the schools, factoring tuition, GPA requirements, prerequisite requirements, etc. Every program is different, the ones in my state want a minimum of 3.0 GPA from your previous non-nursing degree and they mean it. A 2.9 B.A/B.S. GPA and a 4.0 prerequisite GPA got a lot of people automatic decline letters.

Look into Science requirements, as the schools in my area stated that they had to be taken within 5 years.