My school is notorious

Nolander · Apr 28, 2012

Take it from me, your A wont count for diddly squat on a busy med surge floor......
Many of the best nurses I know passed with C's...................

yeah but I'm hell bent on getting into Anesthesia school or PA/NP school. C = Nurse may hold true, but I'm not gonna be saying that when I decide to apply to graduate programs. I'm just in a pickle cause I'm in a situation where it's quite literally impossible to scoot by with an A.

Horseshoe, BSN, RN · Apr 29, 2012

so do graduate schools expect to see B's and C's in your nursing courses?

I doubt it.

RN/Mom · Apr 30, 2012

I'm not sure about graduate schools or regular BSN programs, but I have heard from instructors in my ADN program that RN-BSN programs generally do not expect ADN students to have a 3.0 GPA. I have also personally seen people with 2.0 GPAs in nursing school get accepted into various CSU RN-BSN programs (although these people had high GPAs in their non-nursing pre-req's).

My school is also notorious for turning students with 4.0 GPAs into barely-passing, happy-to-get-a-C students. For example, the top student in my 4th semester class at this point in time has a low B average, and NO student has achieved an A in our school's 4th semester Med-Surg course in several semesters.

From what I've seen on this site, and seen/heard in real life, most nursing schools are this way. It doesn't matter how high you score on the TEAS, how high of a GPA you had in your pre-req's, what sort of prior degrees or education you have completed, or how much you want to be a nurse. Nursing school is brutal, and one-third to one-half of the students who start will never finish. Even my LVN program was this way!

grpman · Apr 30, 2012

I'll throw out a reason why some schools are so hard. It's so they can boast an insanely high NCLEX pass rate from their graduates. Nothing is better for business than saying we have a great pass rate which in turn will put students in desks which helps fund the program. It's a vicious circle that students are feeding as well as instructors. If tests are hard enough to fail so many, then the few that are left are good test takers and will ace the NCLEX. I'm not sure if it's even wrong. It's just the way it is.

Clovery · Apr 30, 2012

I'll throw out a reason why some schools are so hard. It's so they can boast an insanely high NCLEX pass rate from their graduates. Nothing is better for business than saying we have a great pass rate which in turn will put students in desks which helps fund the program. It's a vicious circle that students are feeding as well as instructors. If tests are hard enough to fail so many, then the few that are left are good test takers and will ace the NCLEX. I'm not sure if it's even wrong. It's just the way it is.

My ADN program is like OP's and the instructors have told us this ^ basically is the reason. They have a 98% NCLEX pass rate. In the upper level classes, there are only one or two As every semester out of 60 students. When our instructor told us this, I was shocked and asked "What about our GPAs?" and she just shrugged. lol. So I'm busting my butt to make one of those As. At least our school gives a grade of B+ with a weight of 3.5

RainMom · Apr 30, 2012

My ADN program at a community college was similar. Passing was 78% & I think the average for the class was probably around 82%. But I really think the instructors were great about teaching us how to think critically & making sure we knew what we HAD to know vs what is GOOD to know. For my class, there is only one person out of 26 (started with 40) that has still not passed NCLEX & a lot of that (in my opinion) is her own fault as she decided to have an elective surgery & then get married before making her first attempt about 5-6 months after we graduated. She's failed twice now. The class before us had 100% pass rate for NCLEX. One of our sister colleges with the same program (same test bank questions, same books, same everything - except instructors) has a pass rate of less than 50% & is known to be the easy program where most of the class has an A; apparently everything is spoonfed to them. Personally, I'd rather pass with a B or C+, be able to pass NCLEX & get licensed, rather than just being able to say "I have an A in nursing."

Nolander · Apr 30, 2012

I just wanna know how this affects me getting into graduate school. I know C = Nurse and that I should be ecstatic that I'm even passing let alone had good enough grades to get into these competitive schools. But still, I'm looking at the future and I'm sure grad schools wont care squat about how people say C = Nurse or how I managed to get into a competitive school, they want that GPA up high

Horseshoe, BSN, RN · Apr 30, 2012

I think you are right to be concerned. From what I understand, GPA is very important when trying to get into grad school, particularly if you are applying directly from undergrad. But you can only do your best, right? Do your best and go out and put in a couple of quality years as a nurse, and that will probably help out as you begin applying for grad school.