man, going back is a waste of time...

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from what i've gathered, going back to school for nursing is the biggest waste of time if you've got anything lower than a 3.0 from your previous degree. its sad to realize that nursing schools dont recognize the hard work and effort of a "second chance on a career" because pulling off a 4.0 in prereqs wont help you at all.

i should have majored in some joke degree like "physical education".. that way i could have gotten a 4.0 and not had to worry about going back

Specializes in AGNP.
Apply to Wayne state. I don't think you can get in for this fall because your Bachelors must be done by June 1st. They only consider your GPA in the 10 pre-req classes. They do not look at your first degree GPA, just that you have one. Also, if you go back to school, shouldn't you be able to defer you loans?

Yeah as soon as you go back you can put your loans back in deferment, I was just trying to make it so I didn't use up my whole 6 months of my time to make no payments while out of school.

Thanks for the info about Wayne, I have been trying to make it to one of their info sessions but they always have them on Tuesday nights while I am in pharmacology class. Hopefully they have one in early summer that I can make it to!

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Specializes in CVICU.
Yeah as soon as you go back you can put your loans back in deferment, I was just trying to make it so I didn't use up my whole 6 months of my time to make no payments while out of school.

Thanks for the info about Wayne, I have been trying to make it to one of their info sessions but they always have them on Tuesday nights while I am in pharmacology class. Hopefully they have one in early summer that I can make it to!

Call the school and see if you can come in for a meeting with the advisor. You can also fax your transcipts to them for an informal review to make sure your classes transfer. Also, any nursing classes you take will be added into that GPA they use so make sure you do good in that pharmacology. Also, if you are applying for this fall at Wayne the deadline for apps is March 31!

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Specializes in Adolescent Psych, PICU.

I'd just like to wish you good luck. I'm sure you will find a program somewhere! Its not just 2nd degree students either, I have 2 F's on my transcript from 12 YEARS ago that still affect my GPA to this day...it sucks and I have had to work very hard to get my GPA up to a 3.8 now.

Make sure you get A's in your nursing pre-reqs, it will increase your GPA (even if only a little bit) and show you are serious about it. Another thing that might make you more competitive against people with better grades is some CNA experience (even just in the summertime).

Marilyn

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Specializes in Rehab, Step-down,Tele,Hospice.

I,m sorry, I really did'nt mean to step on any toes, please let's just chalk it up to a bad day in clinical's. I will keep my big mouth shut henceforth. :stone

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Well, if you're seriously thinking of moving, you could always come to California. There's five nursing schools within an hour's drive of where I live and, of course, a lot more throughout the state.

All have different criteria. Some want you to be a CNA to apply. Others have a 2.65-2.75 GPA minimum, while others have 3.0 or higher. But that's in science and other pre-reqs. I don't think they care about GPA outside of pre-reqs. And some count science GPA more heavily than other pre-req courses.

Others have just a 2.0 minimum with residency preference, or want you to take X amount of hours at the school. One school wants one semester of attendance but higher GPA, while another will take lower GPA as long as you have 24 credit hours in pre-reqs to qualify.

Each school's requirements are different so it pays to shop around, so to speak. You can do this fairly easily by checking the school's websites. A lot of people apply to all of them and simply go with the school which accepts them first.

Whatever you decide to do, your best bet is to move to an area where there are a lot of nursing schools so you have more options.

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Ours only wants you to be a CNA, pass chemistry with a "c" or better within the past 5 years, and get a certain % on the NLN entrance exam. Look around...you'll be able to find other schools that don't use the gpa as a factor.

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Well, if you're seriously thinking of moving, you could always come to California. There's five nursing schools within an hour's drive of where I live and, of course, a lot more throughout the state.

All have different criteria. Some want you to be a CNA to apply. Others have a 2.65-2.75 GPA minimum, while others have 3.0 or higher. But that's in science and other pre-reqs. I don't think they care about GPA outside of pre-reqs. And some count science GPA more heavily than other pre-req courses.

Others have just a 2.0 minimum with residency preference, or want you to take X amount of hours at the school. One school wants one semester of attendance but higher GPA, while another will take lower GPA as long as you have 24 credit hours in pre-reqs to qualify.

Each school's requirements are different so it pays to shop around, so to speak. You can do this fairly easily by checking the school's websites. A lot of people apply to all of them and simply go with the school which accepts them first.

Whatever you decide to do, your best bet is to move to an area where there are a lot of nursing schools so you have more options.

i understand where you are coming from with applying to a bunch of schools, but its kind of difficult due to different admissions policies... for instance, i am from florida and all schools in florida have the same prerequisites (for the most part)... however, i live in new york now and am looking at schools up here.. the prerequisites up here are completely different from back at home.. and another example: catholic schools require classes such as "ethics".. etc.

it kind of makes it difficult in narrowing down your choices, because you pretty much have to "commit" to a group of schools that have identical (if not, similar) prerequisites...

OTHERWISE, I'D WOULD APPLY TO EVERY SCHOOL IN AMERICA..

what are some examples of nursing schools in california that concentrate on prerequisites?

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i understand where you are coming from with applying to a bunch of schools, but its kind of difficult due to different admissions policies... for instance, i am from florida and all schools in florida have the same prerequisites (for the most part)... however, i live in new york now and am looking at schools up here.. the prerequisites up here are completely different from back at home.. and another example: catholic schools require classes such as "ethics".. etc.

it kind of makes it difficult in narrowing down your choices, because you pretty much have to "commit" to a group of schools that have identical (if not, similar) prerequisites...

OTHERWISE, I'D WOULD APPLY TO EVERY SCHOOL IN AMERICA..

what are some examples of nursing schools in california that concentrate on prerequisites?

Good point. For example, I transferred a bunch of credits from out of state that saved me a year on basic pre-reqs like English, Psch, Math, etc. But some schools might not have taken them because they're more than five years old. Although, other schools, including the one I'm in now, doesn't care about how old the credits are.

Also, other schools don't care about credits like English, etc. for pre-reqs. Just the science courses. A lot of it is up to the school's discretion. But even with different rules, I still would have probably gotten into at least two out of the five schools in my area with the additional pre-reqs I've taken here.

Here's the California BORN's complete listing of BSN and ADN programs. It includes links to most of the schools' websites which should have most of that info. You might want to call too, just to verify the info and even talk to a counselor, just to make sure you know what will transfer, how they count GPA, etc. And, it's always good to check since criteria does change. I hope these links help:

http://www.rn.ca.gov/nursing/nursing.htm#BSN

http://www.rn.ca.gov/nursing/nursing.htm#ADN

FYI: There are a lot more ADN programs than BSNs. For example, in my area, four out of the five programs are ADN and, I assume it's probably the same elsewhere.

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Good point. For example, I transferred a bunch of credits from out of state that saved me a year on basic pre-reqs like English, Psch, Math, etc. But some schools might not have taken them because they're more than five years old. Although, other schools, including the one I'm in now, doesn't care about how old the credits are.

Also, other schools don't care about credits like English, etc. for pre-reqs. Just the science courses. A lot of it is up to the school's discretion. But even with different rules, I still would have probably gotten into at least two out of the five schools in my area with the additional pre-reqs I've taken here.

Here's the California BORN's complete listing of BSN and ADN programs. It includes links to most of the schools' websites which should have most of that info. You might want to call too, just to verify the info and even talk to a counselor, just to make sure you know what will transfer, how they count GPA, etc. And, it's always good to check since criteria does change. I hope these links help:

http://www.rn.ca.gov/nursing/nursing.htm#BSN

http://www.rn.ca.gov/nursing/nursing.htm#ADN

FYI: There are a lot more ADN programs than BSNs. For example, in my area, four out of the five programs are ADN and, I assume it's probably the same elsewhere.

i am looking more for a BSN than any ADNs, because i already have another degree and the time it takes is basically the same for both... i was reading in a california message board that the general rule of thumb in cali is that: the more expensive the school, the shorter the waiting list... now, i have no problem paying for schooling- but is there any other interesting things to know about schools in cali that are only particular to the state? just wondering

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i am looking more for a BSN than any ADNs, because i already have another degree and the time it takes is basically the same for both... i was reading in a california message board that the general rule of thumb in cali is that: the more expensive the school, the shorter the waiting list... now, i have no problem paying for schooling- but is there any other interesting things to know about schools in cali that are only particular to the state? just wondering

I can only speak for my area, but the BSN program is much harder to get into for the reasons you mentioned. Everybody wants to save the time. But, from what I understand, they also have a much higher GPA requirement.

Although, the funny thing is, they also have the lowest NCLEX pass rate of the five schools. Go figure. There are various reasons for that, but I won't get into that here.

If you want to check NCLEX pass rates in your research, here's a link for that.

http://www.rn.ca.gov/passrates/passrates.htm

I've also heard that more expensive schools have shorter waiting lists, but I have no first hand knowledge of this. At the same time, there is another, much more expensive, private school in my area, but they also require those additional religious courses, like you mentioned. So that might eliminate any time savings you're hoping to achieve.

I personally don't want to go into debt, and the total cost for my school is $5,000, including books, uniforms, etc., which is dirt cheap. The wait at this school, as well as the others is about one, maybe two semesters, if you meet the requirements. I don't think it's that long, considering the cost savings, as well as other factors, but that's just what worked for me.

I actually have to get going. But I sent you a PM if you want to follow up sometime this weekend. Cheers.

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It is true that the prereqs for accelerated BSN programs vary from program to program, but I think that generally you need to have at least one o two semesters of bio and chem, two semesters of anatomy, microbiology, statistics, nutrition, psych, and human growth and development (a psych course). As to the GPA, yes it is true that since the number of applicants has been increasing the standards are going up to. So if I were you I would apply to many places, talk to someone in admissions, and if you get waitlisted then send someone an email or talk to someone and express your interest in the program...this tends to give you an upper hand since they know that you are truely interseted in the program.

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i understand where you are coming from with applying to a bunch of schools, but its kind of difficult due to different admissions policies... for instance, i am from florida and all schools in florida have the same prerequisites (for the most part)... however, i live in new york now and am looking at schools up here.. the prerequisites up here are completely different from back at home.. and another example: catholic schools require classes such as "ethics".. etc.

it kind of makes it difficult in narrowing down your choices, because you pretty much have to "commit" to a group of schools that have identical (if not, similar) prerequisites...

OTHERWISE, I'D WOULD APPLY TO EVERY SCHOOL IN AMERICA..

what are some examples of nursing schools in california that concentrate on prerequisites?

I am taking the prereqs right now at bmcc cuny in manhattan; apparently to get into their nursing program the only grades that matter are for health sciences math, A&P I, english, and speech. You need chem to take A&P I but they can be done simultaneously (as I did last semester). This semester I'm in micro and A&P II, but these classes are ones that you can take when you're already in the nursing program. The problem is that there are so many applicants that only those with a high A/B average (again, only in those 4 classes mentioned above) are accepted into the nursing program, unless you belong to a union and are guaranteed a spot through their quotas. And BMCC doesn't offer the BSN as they are a 2 year school.

I personally am not doing the BMCC program. I had applied to Hunter (a 4 year CUNY) last spring, but got bumped to BMCC for space issues. I reapplied to Hunter last Fall and was informed I could attend this semester. At Hunter, you need to be a student there for at least one semester before applying for their nursing program. I decided to stay at BMCC since I will be starting an accelerated BSN-MSN program here in NYC in May. My undergrad GPA was in the low 3. range, but I had a few years of work experience (in a california hospital) after college which made a huge difference when I was applying for my first graduate degree. My graduate gpa was in the high 3.'s, and I aced chem and A&P I and health-sci math. I also think my work experience helped in my application for the accelerated program I will be starting. But it's very hard to find hospital work in NYC unless you have a license of some sort!

Good Luck!

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