Low GPA Accelerated Nursing Program

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So I have been a home health aide for the last three years and over time I have discovered that I liked the medical side of thing however, I went to school and got my BS in Criminal Justice Administration.

Over the last year, I have been looking at accelerated nursing program at the BS and MS level and most of what I have found is that you must have a GPA over 3.0, my problem is that I have a 2.18 GPA.

I have been looking on the web, but so far I have not found anything. So my question for everyone is are there any accelerated program that have a 2.0 GPA? Or do I have to give up on this dream? Or do I need to treat it like going to school all over again.

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Specializes in NICU, ICU, PICU, Academia.

Look at programs that only consider your prerequisite GPA (sciences) and then go out and kill those courses - retaking what you might have had in your previous undergrad if they were not As. Not sure what state you're in so I cannot be more specific than that.

A spreadsheet with all schools of interest will help you keep it sorted.

And STRONGLY consider an associate degree from a community college. Same NCLEX, same RN after your name, 1/10th the cost of a pricey accelerated program.

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1 hour ago, meanmaryjean said:

Look at programs that only consider your prerequisite GPA (sciences) and then go out and kill those courses - retaking what you might have had in your previous undergrad if they were not As. Not sure what state you're in so I cannot be more specific than that.

A spreadsheet with all schools of interest will help you keep it sorted.

And STRONGLY consider an associate degree from a community college. Same NCLEX, same RN after your name, 1/10th the cost of a pricey accelerated program.

I live in Maryland

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Specializes in NICU.

I have not seen an ABSN program with an application GPA of less than a 2.75. Even if you found a program that allowed you to apply with a 2.18 GPA, there will be many other candidates that will have significantly higher GPAs than yours. ABSN programs are very fasted paced and require you to master concepts quickly. My ABSN program was 15 months long and was a white-knuckled ride the entire time.

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I'm not going to lie to you, your undergrad GPA is not competitive at all for a regular BSN or ABSN or MSN. NICU guy is correct, even if you found a program which allowed you to apply, it would be highly unlikely for you to get in since so many people with higher GPAs will also be applying.

ADN programs at community colleges sometimes base their decisions on the prerequisites and other criteria (health care or volunteer experience, TEAS or HESI scores, second language skills, etc..). Even if you have a BA or BS and apply to a community college ADN program, the BS degree doesn't come into play too much at a community college. Hopefully wherever you took your pre-reqs for your BS degree in criminal justice- you have good grades from there and they have a nursing program. Many ADN programs prefer to get their students from the same community college where they took their pre-reqs at.

I think, for you, your main focus should probably be a community college. Look into this.

Good luck!

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