NEED INPUT!! Think this will get me into school?

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I have been in between a rock and a hard place in regards to getting my BSRN and pretty much EVERYTHING that could POSSIBLY go wrong has. My GPA is not high enough to get me into a University's nursing school program via the traditional application process HOWEVER I had a little thought light go off in my head recently and wanted to hear everyone's feedback on if they think my idea would work...

Now stick with me because as I said my situation is VERY complex...

I am currently 24 years old and have been working at this since HIGH SCHOOL. At the age of 18 I moved to California and graduated with honors from an extremely difficult EMT program with the intent of attending Loma Linda Medical School to get on a road to become a pre-med student. I worked as an EMT in Compton CA as I worked on my basic college classes however I had to abandon my plans suddenly because my sister killed herself when I was 19 and I had to move back to Arizona for my family.

Soon after my move back to AZ I began planning to start working as an EMT and to continue my path to a career as an MD, it was then a new law passed which prevented those under the age of 23 to operate an ambulance or handle any narcotics thus I lost my license. At this time that I was about 20 and was REALLY antsy to get going on my education...Medical school seemed too far from reach thus nursing seemed to be the next best choice. I found a private college called Grand Canyon University and enrolled in their "fast track BSRN" program. I excelled with an above average GPA, worked as a laboratory assistant, and was zooming quickly through my nursing pre-reqs. Everything was fine UNTIL Grand Canyon sold out to Phoenix College, became money hungry, and screwed over the nursing students.

GCU flat out failed me for 2 semesters of classes with 20 credits worth of classes EACH even though I had attempted to withdraw due to a medical reason. These Fs dragged down my overall GPA to a disgustingly low average...to add insult to injury...when I RETOOK the classes they failed me in they ROUNDED the F's with my A's making the grade a C...Basically it didn't help. On top of the whole issue with GCU screwing with my GPA it became apparent that the board of education was getting a little iffy about the Phoenix College/GCU merger and put the school's nursing school accredidation on hold. Basically it came to the choice of sitting in the school and risking loosing ALL my education or taking my credits and running before the school lost it's accredidation. So I picked up my credits, withdrew from the school and am now stuck in limbo. In the mean time I was able to regain my EMT cert as well as gain an CNA...

THIS is my question...

I CAN'T get the F grades taken off of my records to repair my GPA and THAT is what is screwing me...I have a CNA and EMT license as well as AMAZING recommendation letters from ALL of my professors attesting to my academic accomplishments and skills. Do you think that if I write some of the nursing schools that I WANT to get into and EXPLAIN the specifics of my situation I could have a SHOT at being heard??? I KNOW that I am smarter and can do BETTER than half of the kids that are applying to nursing school and it's BS that underlying misfortunes have effed me...I just don't know...What do you think? Do I have a snowball's chance in hell???

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Specializes in Critical Care.

Did you file a complaint with the state attorney general over the issues/merger with Phoenix? You might be able to get some of the money back. Maybe talk to an attorney and see if the F's can be expunged off your record. Some colleges average the same courses and others let you keep the higher grade if you repeat. Something to look at with all the colleges you attend. Some have A/B vs A-, B+ which also makes it harder to keep your GPA up!

Stay away from for profit universities, ie the ones that are always advertising on TV and in the news. The many reputable public, non-profits do not need to advertise.

The other issue you may find is the colleges may not accept the coursework you did from the for profit and then you'd be forced to redo a lot of the coursework. Check into that as well before you sign up for any more student loans!

The public university costs less so gets high demand of students and then uses GPA as a cutoff. If you could find a private not for profit you would have a better chance of getting into their program. Or check out a community 2 year college and try your chances there.

When you apply, explain the situations with the last college. Stay away from profit colleges because many are not fully accredited and then you are stuck with debt and no real degree.

You must keep your debt down because if you end up in default you will not be able to work as a nurse or any other job that requires a license from the state. They will hold the license to practice hostage to make sure you pay up!

Don't ask your parent's to cosign because if anything happens they will come after them, even if they are sick, unemployed or disabled.

How much money do you owe in loans now?

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Specializes in Hospice / Psych / RNAC.

Why couldn't you have grandfathered in when the law was passed? Anyway sounds like the only thing to do is re-do the Fs. Oh how the GPA suffered and I feel your pain but the bottom line is everyone has a story and just wants one chance to talk to the dean. You are amongst thousands my friend. Go back to pre-reqs for med school ... I think you would be bored stiff being a nurse.

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@Bugsy-

1) It WASN'T one of those seedy private schools until the merger with the Phoenix College/Apollo Group. The program was extremely competitive, you needed an exceptionally high GPA before and during the program and the only reason I found it particularly appealing was because it cut the nursing school time in HALF. I was cool with paying extra to be in an advanced class like that and in all honesty I actually got an EXTREMELY good academic experience BEFORE the stupid sell out! This is one of the MAJOR reasons why I immediately withdrew my classes and transferred them to the local community college once I caught wind of trouble...I didn't want the schools NEW problems to damage the education I got BEFORE the problems began.

2) Both my parents are lawyers and I have been to EVERYONE under the sun and there is NOTHING that I can do to legally challenge the school and/or force them to raise my GPA. They rounded the failed classes with the classes I re-took BEFORE I withdrew thus it does not SHOW that I took the class twice it only shows C's.

3) I don't have debt I had enough savings to pay for my schooling.

4) Wouldn't you think that all of my certifications and massive stack of professor recommendations would help?? I mean...I THOUGHT if I got enough extra certifications that it would in a way PROVE somehow that I know what I'm doing and that it's really stupid for me not to just be allowed to finish school! I mean I'm finished with EVERYTHING BUT THE ACTUAL CORE NURSING SCHOOL!!! Everything BUT that I'm done with!! The anatomy, chems, pharmacology, EVERYTHING!! DONE DONE DONE!! I'm just SITTING HERE!!

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Specializes in Hospice / Psych / RNAC.

I don't want to rub it in but these days everyone's looking for the easy out (nursing school time cut in half) ah ha but look what happened. They aren't interested in your story, just what's on paper. The piper must be paid.

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Specializes in MR/DD.

I think you should just give up the credits that you have earned. Apply to a school and omit any information regarding Phoenix. If you are not going to transfer credits your GPA will not matter.

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Specializes in critical care.

What exactly is your GPA now? There are schools out there that will look at your entire application, not just your GPA.

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Specializes in Emergency, Telemetry, Transplant.

I'm a little confused about where the Fs came from. If you earned the Fs, then how is this the fault of GCU?

I am also a little confused about how you would attened a medical school to get on the road toward becoming a premed student.

One thing I am absolutely sure of...do not tell nursing schools that you could not get into medschool, so nursing is your fall back.

I hope it all works out well for you...

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Specializes in MR/DD.

One thing I am absolutely sure of...do not tell nursing schools that you could not get into medschool, so nursing is your fall back.

.

Do not tell other students, instructors.........Heck, Do not tell anyone that again ... Ever :)

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Specializes in PICU, Sedation/Radiology, PACU.

I say this with absolute seriousness- what answer are you looking for? You have apparently already tried everything to get your record expunged and improve your GPA. What can we do for you? We aren't lawyers, and we don't know whether or not nursing schools are going to accept you or not until you apply.

A couple of things in your post aren't making sense to me. The first one is, how did you get 40 credits worth of F's if you were not failing the courses or did not take them? You said that you "tried to withdraw due to a medica reason." Does that mean that you were failing the courses when you tried to withdraw? Because after a certain period, most schools will give you an F if you withdraw the course with a failing grade. If you stopped going to classes before the withdraw went through, you could be failed too.

But how did it happen in two semesters? You can transfer from a program at any time, so one would assume that if you were unfairly failed the first semester, why would you continue on to the second semester? Please clarify this for me.

The other thing I'm confused about is your EMT license. Why would you lose your license because a law way passed that said you couldn't drive the ambulance or have narcotics? You might not be able to drive the ambulance anymore, but that wouldn't cause you to lose your license.

Also, I don't think that sending a letter to the nursing schools will help. Like another poster said, everyone has a sob story about why they have a low GPA, a bad attendance record, no community service, etc. etc. Nursing schools will probably not react favorably to a letter which they will view as a student attempting to play the victim in order to gain sympathy and acceptance. The best thing that you can do is retake the courses that you received the F's from another college. Or apply with your current record and letters of acceptance and hope for the best.

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Specializes in SICU.

a LOT doesn't make sense in this post.

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It's a shame that you are going through this, however, I have a couple questions because I was a little confused in some areas of your explanation.

  1. Do you have any documentation showing that you withdrew from the classes that you received the F's in? Any emails, a confirmation from the school, etc.? If there is documentation then you CAN challenge the school. I've been in a similar situation.
  2. I would never omit any information about attending any schools. If you have received loans or grants, there is documentation that you attended the school. Why would it not show that you re-took the classes? Your transcript should show the semester and year that you signed up for classes and withdrew (and got F's), and the semester and year that you re-took the classes (and got A's) since it is calculated into your GPA. The schools should be able to see that you re-took classes.
  3. How did you fail for 2 semesters because the school says you did not withdraw on time? If you withdrew the first time because of medical reasons, and that was still an issue, why did you register for another semester?
  4. Most nursing schools don't even give you an option to explain your bad semesters, they look at GPA and test scores and maybe an interview. I don't think it will help to write an essay unless you are applying to a school that would take that into consideration.

I don't know what to tell you except to try and do a LPN program and bridge it to an RN program at a university. At least by doing this, if you kick ass in the LPN program, the RN nursing schools will see that on your transcript. Also, remember some schools have a shelf life for the prerequisite science classes that you need to take. If that shelf live (5-7 yrs) has passed, if you retake the classes, the old classes won't be factored into your new GPA. Or probably try to take some easy classes to boost your overall GPA and bring it to at least a 3.0.

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