-Have completed 2 of 3 years for my BSN...1 more year to go :)
-President of my nursing class
-My GPA has always been hovering close to 3.0 but has dramatically dropped this past year in this BSN program. It is one of the most vigorous programs in my state. I make mostly B's and C's (I'm not going to lie). But I work full time and go to school full time. Its very hard to balance both. I have 4-5 classes a week and work 32 hours on the weekends (the bills and tuition has to get paid somehow).
- I want nothing more than to get my NP and I have promised myself to try and cut hours at work and bring my GPA up this last year coming up, but I have close to 119 credit hours which make it extremely difficult for that cumulative GPA to budge. I do plan on taking the GRE this summer and hopefully I will score high enough to outweigh my GPA.
-I want to get straight into a program after my BSN because I'm 24 and want to get it over with and not have to worry about it later with a family and such.
What I am asking is, is there anyone that has been accepted into an NP program with a low GPA similar to mine and what did you do to get in? What is a competitive GRE? And how difficult was the GRE? Any info on what I can do to increase my chances would be great. Like I said, this is my passion and I'm scared I will never get it due to my GPA ruining it for me.
ncthavoc, thank you for that reply. everyones reply has been helpful and very honest (which is what i wanted) but i thank you specifically for being positive about the situation. God bless :)
I studied exactly zero for the GRE (honestly I didn't know I was supposed to) and made 500,500 and 4. It was not anything as hard as I expected.
When prepping to take my GRE, I studied for 6-8 weeks.
For anybody considering the GRE, I highly recommend the Kaplan GRE prep book & CDROM. Search on Amazon.com for ISBN 1427795029 (or later editions). The Kaplan CD I used when prepping for my GRE (admittedly, the previous version of this book/CD) lets you take an evaluation test. Based on the results of that test, and how much time you had to work on your weak areas, the software tailored a study plan for you over that time span. Excellent!
Barron's was pretty good - I used it with the Kaplan.
Go to your local library, and see what GRE books they have available for checkout. That's where I got the Kaplan book/CD.
Plan on studying for at least 2-4 weeks before taking your GRE.
NCcardiacNurse
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