Low overall GPA

[Zarinah]

Hello all,

I wanted to ask for some advice. Especially from anybody who was in my situation and trying to pursue their BSN. Presently I am a junior and a working mother of two. I just transferred to CLayton State University where they include all repeated classes in the GPA. At other school my GPA was around a 2.88 and constantly going up. I have been in college since 1998 and had some real academic challenges due to economic hardships; which led to a very bad start in my grades. However since 2004 while at a 2-yr college I recieved my AA degree in pre-nursing with almost all a's and a few b's. I have been doing well academically since things have improved for me. Unfortunately my gpa is permenantly scared. At the other school my gpa for Georgia state was around a 2.77 and 3.50 for the present major because they didn't include the failed classes that I repeated and recieved an a for in my gpa. But at the present school my gpa is only 2.44. I need Microbiology, Pathophhysiology, chemistry 2 and that is all I really need for pre-nursing classes. I want to know if I should just change my majo or do I stand a chance at nursing since I have been doing well in all my classes. I am takinf chemistry 1 and an alective.

[sunray12]

If nursing is what you want to do then of course you should stick with your plans. A lot of nursing programs have competitive admissions standards these days but there are still schools out there that are not competitive. Also for example the RN programs are community colleges in my state look at curricular gpa - i.e. basically your gpa in prerq science courses and for those they have to be taken within the past 5 years. Other than that you have to pass a standardized test to prove verbal and math competency. So based the fact that you have recent good grades in prereqs you should be able to get in somewhere.

[BellasMommyOBRN]

my question is, do they only look at your pre-req grades or at the overall gpa grade? if the nursing department only looks at your pre-req grades, they may look at the improvement you have made i those classes. i would suggest a meeting with a nursing advisor at your school and ask what she recommeds at best. all hope is never lost, you just need to figure out what you need to do make yourself a competitive candidate.

good luck!!!:heartbeat:heartbeat

[NurseJeanB]

You will need to do some research first. Have you looked into all the options? BSN, ADN, Diploma programs. You will need to know what their entrance requirements are and specifically what they use for GPA. Some programs require a minimum overall gpa, and then a minimum GPA for prereqs. My school also graded based on prereq grades, but then required a minimum overall gpa. Then you will want to find out what is considered a competitive gpa for that program. Our school had a minimum GPA of 3.0, but because the program was so impacted the average gpa was 3.8. Some of the ADN programs in our area admitted based on a minimum gpa of 2.7, but then they held a lottery for spots. They were all impacted as well. Many go on from there to RN to BSN programs which are not as impacted.