I did college for a year after high school, I never went to class and failed some classes and didn't get good grades in most of the ones I passed. That was just over 10 years ago now. I planned to go to nursing school and do midwife training after, but just liked the independence and lacked the drive. I was a great student in high school and graduated top of my class. After the first year I got married, had kids and have been a stay at home mom since. I haven't worked in over 10 years either. I recently went back to college as all of my babies are not really babies anymore. My youngest will be ready for preschool soon, so I planned to do my pre-reqs and be able to start a nursing program by the time they start pre-k.
The problem is my GPA sucks, and I mean sucks. No school here does GPA forgiveness. I understand this, some people didn't mess around they kicked butt and made it, but it was 10 years ago for goodness sakes. My parents make a great living but never when to college. They couldn't tell me the ins and outs if you will, I had no idea I was screwing up my future 10 years later! I cannot move elsewhere. I am married and have kids, so we can't just pick up and move. I am pretty stressed, nursing schools were not as competitive 10 years ago!
Here are my options:
The ADN program requires a 2.5 overall to apply, but takes 50% nursing pre-reqs GPA + 50% HESSI score to rank and accept students. They do take in to account every attempt with a 2 attempt max for nursing pre-reqs (A&P etc).
-It will take a bit to get my overall GPA up. Even if I can maintain a 4.0 from here on out I will barely make the 2.5 overall with my nursing GPA actually being a little better than that. I do realize I will be competing against 4.0 students. They don't do interviews or essays, just GPA and HESSI score.
The LPN program requires a GPA of 2.5 in the 6 pre-reqs and does not go by overall GPA at all (kind of GPA forgiveness by default). They take every attempt into account, except in A&P 1 & 2, nutrition and computers, those must be done within 5 years. Anything over 5 years they don't use the GPA for (again a little GPA forgiveness by default). The picks (if you meet the GPA qual) go 100% off the TEAS test at that point and the advisor said scores in the high 60's get in.
-I can pretty much get in this program no problem. Calculating my GPA for the non-time limit classes I am good to go. So as long as I maintain a 2.5-3.0 when I take A&P 1 & 2, nutrition and computers I just need to get high 60's in the TEAS. I would prefer to get at least high 70's+ just to make sure. The down side though is that I will have to do the RN bridge. No hospitals here hire LPN's and though I do believe they do wonderful work I don't want to work in a nursing home and despite my age I would still like to pursue being a midwife. Since I have no work experience though this might be a good idea. I could work as an LPN while I get my GPA up and get some work experience to boot.
The same school that has the ADN has a LPN to RN bridge program that I could do later. We live in a small town in the middle of nowhere and those are my only options. I will have to dive almost an hour just to get to the ADN program and about 40 to the LPN program. There is BSN at the local university (1 hour drive), but their NCLEX pass rates are not good and none of the nurses here have recommended it.
