Nursing Programs in Canada for US Student

[aj129]

Hi Everyone,

I graduated in 2014 with a BS in Biological Science and BA in Chinese and have 1 year of social work experience. I finally am ready to go back to school for a degree in nursing, but found out my GPA is too low, at 2.9 average. My biological science gpa is really low, my chinese gpa is around A/B+ range. I had a 3.4 GPA at community college before I transferred to a 4 year university. For US schools, I will have to take post bacc classes to boost my grades, but even then, I won't be as competitive as others with high gpa. With nursing school being so competitive in California, I think it might be easier for me to get into nursing school somewhere else and then come back to California to work. I'm really interested in Canada and learning how it does things differently from us. Is it possible to get in with a 2.9? What if I take post bacc classes to boost my gpa? I have come across a couple of threads with similar topics but I didn't find the answer there. I also looked at a couple of Canadian Universities. There requirements didn't seem that tough, but I read on the internet that it's still competitive. Can Canadian nurses/students or US nurses/students who have taken this route please weigh in? And how hard was it to find work in the US with a Canadian nursing degree?

[evankeys]

Hello,

I am a recent grad from a Canadian Nursing school and I would say that currently it is not difficult to transfer from Canada to the US. The current licencing exam is the NCLEX-RN which has been slightly modified from the US NCLEX-RN to have Canadian lab values. Otherwise the test is completely US based in terms for information. We, as Canadian nurses, often had to study additional information on the US Health-Care system in order to be prepared for the exam. However, that's only how it is right now. Unions are lobbying against the NCLEX-RN as it has proven difficult for students whose nursing schools prepared them for the CRNE (the licencing exam up until Dec 31, 2014). Whether you can transition back to the US without rewriting the NCLEX without the Canadian values is foreign to me. Bearing in mind that the US values were on the NCLEX and the Canadian ones were just add ons at the end of the question I think you should but they probably don't allow for it. However if you can pass the Canadian NCLEX-RN you can pass the US NCLEX-RN as they are virtually the same (right now).

As for your GPA, I might suggest taking additional courses. Canadian universities are significantly more standardized than US ones. You have schools like Queen's, McGill, and U of T that are steeped in rich traditions due to their long histories, like say an Ivy League school. But postsecondary education is provincially standardized and therefore there are not huge education disparities like the difference between Harvard and the safety school of a student who is not academically strong in high school. Yes, Queen's will be one of the most difficult places to get in because of it's reputation but since education is standardized you're not going to necessarily get a better education there than you would at say McMaster or the University of Ontario Institute of Technology and it also creates an environment where everyone's acceptance average is around the same and there aren't huge disparities creating "safety schools". Also, the acceptance standards are quite high coming out of high school around 86-94% for most schools so I'm not sure what the standards are post grad but they would at least expect a 3.0-3.3 I would assume. Just because they say "Average is 3.0" they do not guarantee admission by any means even if you make the cut off.

In summary, yes transitioning from Canada to the US is not a particularly difficult thing to do, but I might look to other states before just jumping up to the great white north especially if you're having trouble in California.

[xokw, BSN, RN]

Nursing school is also competitive I Canada. I don't know of any schools where I am (Ontario) that would accept a 2.9.

[CanadianRN16]

As an American who graduated from an 'elite' Canadian university, it'd be cheaper/ more convienent for you to pursue a nursing degree in the states. The healthcare system is different here, plus everything is metric. If you wish to pursue nursing in the states, it's easier to go to school there. You would be able to get into some nursing programs, depending on the applicant pool. At McGill, we had no 'cap' and everyone who made the GPA/ SAT/ SAT 2 requirements got in (McGill only focuses on your test scores, there's no application essay or interview).

Also, the current NCLEX-RN exam has no questions regarding US healthcare policy. When I took the exam last December, lab units were offered in metric and US, with minimal ethics questions or delegation to LPNs/ HCAs. In Ontario there's a separate exam for that.

If you have a degree from an accredited school and experience, you'll find work anywhere, regardless of your education.