nursing schools in southeast NC

VickyRN, MSN, DNP, RN · Sep 16, 2005

This is my first post . I am applying to five community colleges for their ADN program in the southeast: Craven, Coastal Carolina, Cape Fear, James Sprunt, and Lenoir. Yes I am trying to go whever someone will take me:lol2: . I would like to know if anyone can tell me how competetive the schools are. Some of the schools admit by a point system others, like Craven, admit on the basis of PSB entrance scores only. My grades have not been the best in my past college years due to immaturity and depression, but this is over a decade later and I can't wait to jump back in the game. I figure my best bet is to score as high as I can on entrance tests. Can someone give me some feedbacks on the best way to get admitted to these schools? Take care!
Nuberianne

Welcome to AllNurses :balloons: I am sorry you are encountering such a difficult situation, but please don't give up on your dream. Yes, it is extremely competitive getting into most NC ADN programs. The nursing faculty shortage has fueled this problem, and it is only going to get much worse if proposed nursing education rules are adopted and enacted by the NCBON. Concerning our ADN program, we had an incredible 385 applicants last year for the current freshmen class of 42 students. Your best strategy would be to contact the Allied Health Admissions Coordinator at each school to find out the best strategy to pursue for getting in, as each program has different admissions requirements. Please keep us posted on your progress :)

studentnurserachel · Sep 23, 2005

I am currently a 2nd year student at Robeson Community College. Our program has a pretty bad reputation right now due to a few years of bad NCLEX results, however, we have a new director who is pretty tough and is making a lot of great changes for us, which I believe will dramatically improve NCLEX results. My class is only sort of benefitting from this because we are kind of half in the old system, half in the new, however every single person in our class met the national average on our last set of standardized capstone exams, so that's a pretty good sign that our NCLEX results will be favorable. Admission is still competitive, just probably not as competitive as some other schools in the area. When I moved to NC from MI, I applied to several different community colleges, and found that RCC had the easiest application process and as soon as I was accepted, I withdrew my application from the other schools. I had (have) excellent grades, however, there are several students in my class that did not have wonderful GPAs, some of them were even below 3.0. The school is now requiring you to take either the HOBET or NET (I can't remember which one), there is also a personal interview. As previous poster said, I would contact advisors and possibly the nursing departments at these schools and find out what they are looking for in candidates. I would get the ball rolling ASAP, most schools start looking at applicants in very early spring for their fall class. I also applied to Fayetteville Tech (1st choice, however, classes from MI did not transfer favorably there), James Sprunt, Southeastern, and Sandhills CCs. Since I've started school, I've also heard that Bladen CC is fairly easy to get into. As I said, I'm not sure how competitive their admission processes were as I withdrew my applications when I was accepted to RCC. Good luck with the process. I'm not sure what classes you have done already, but many schools strongly recommend or even require that you do your corequisite classes before you begin the program (i.e. A&P, Micro, English) if you have these classes, but they are older than 5 years, you will most likely have to retake them. Best of luck to you!

guest22304 · Oct 24, 2005

Hey there. You didn't mention where you are living, or whether or not you would be willing to relocate to attend one of these schools. They are all very far apart.

I am currently a senior in the ADN program at Lenoir Community College. I would HIGHLY recommend that school. The professors are really great, and I have enjoyed my experience (as much as you can enjoy nursing school). I do not think they are on a point system to get in, but I do know that I had to write an essay on why I wanted to be a nurse and take a standardized test (PSB?).

Good luck and feel free to ask any more questions. :nurse:

nuberianne_RN · Oct 26, 2005

Thank you so much for the response. I live in Jacksonville so besides Coastal, most community colleges are about a 40 min to one hour drive one way. I am willing to drive that every day. I just want to get in a program.

Nuberianne

guest22304 · Oct 26, 2005

Dear Nuberianne,

I do know that last year there was a girl from Richlands who attended LCC and she said the drive wasn't too bad. I will say, though, that it is important to find out where you do clinicals at. If you live in Jacksonville and you have to be at Pitt Memorial at 6:30am, that is kind of a haul. I live in Goldsboro, and it is a haul for me some days. Also if you go to LCC, the summer clinicals are all at Cherry Hospital (Goldsboro) and Pitt (Greenville). This is just some food for thought as I think most colleges go different places and I know myself personally am not an easily aroused person in the early morning.

Also I don't know about the other schools, but at LCC you must have your application with 3 reference letters, essay and transcripts in around December or January. James Sprunt I don't think requires reference letters, but do require transcripts (naturally) and an essay as well. Also for Sprunt I KNOW you have to take a standardized test (NET?) in order to be considered, and I am pretty sure their deadline is late November or early December.

Good luck and keep us posted on where you go!

Kbella126 :)

COMBATMEDIC2RN · Dec 20, 2005

I am currently in the ADN program at Craven CC- it is not too bad of a drive from Jacksonville-the program itself is not too bad and I believe the information about the PSB is correct and that they look at the test but also there are some pre-req like high school or college chemistry and some other requirements- I like the program so far, i am getting ready to enter my 3rd semester and have had a pretty good experience so far... no matter which of the 5 schools u choose there will always be driving involved- especially to clinicals- study groups- reviews- classes- etc... good luck and hope you get accepted somewhere for next year...

Aneroo, LPN · Dec 21, 2005

No matter where you live in eastern NC, you WILL have to travel to get to either school or clinicals! :)

I am in Pitt Co, so school wasn't too bad, neither was most of clinicals.

I did have to do some clinical stuff in Wilson, and we had a semester at Cherry.

However, we found folks to carpool with, some people stayed the night with classmates before clinicals.

ChadleyNC · Jan 14, 2006

Heya, sorry for the lateness of my post but I read this just today and wanted to have a say. I am in the second semester of the ADN program at Cape Fear Community College in Wilmington. I can tell you a few things about the program's admissions process. It's highly competitive and very difficult to be in 14 places at one time. The window for applications opens in the late fall and stays that way usually until the middle of January, you file an intent to apply form and once that's done and you get through phase one you can take the PSB exam which is your admissions test. After that, they rank you in numerical order highest to lowest based on 50% PSB scores and 50% prior classes credits and grades. THe top 80 students get in the next 25 get alternate letters. We had I believe somewhere in the neighborhood of 700 total applicants before phase one the year I applied. I did get in on the first try but I had most of my prereq's done already as I have a BA from a 4 yr school elsewhere in the state. I am told this is not the way things normally work though, and that most people have to apply at least twice before they get in. Admission to any program will be tough, the important thing is to hang in there with the process once you decide on a school. Also, when you do get in, and start classes and you are patting yourself on the back for getting all of your ducks in a row by the required date (i.e. CPR certif, Hipaa paperwork, background checks etc) to allow you to sit in the class, don't lose faith in your instructors when they show you that the program itself is far from as organized as they require you to be.

I almost did, but I stuck it out and realized this is how it is, and I want to see myself succeed at this more than I want to spend time worrying about the organizational skills of my department. LOL

Best of luck to you

Chadley

nuberianne_RN · Jan 16, 2006

thanks for the great responses everyone:) .

heya, sorry for the lateness of my post but i read this just today and wanted to have a say. i am in the second semester of the adn program at cape fear community college in wilmington.
chadley, where are your clinicals? are any of the clinicals for the program outside of wilmington?
thank you,
nuberianne

hollykate · Jan 16, 2006

Have you considered a BSN program? I wanted to go to GTCC, but went to UNC because it had less of an applicant pool. I then got a NC nurses scholarship which paid for it. As an in state student the University is not too bad for costs. It might take a year longer, but you'd get in and be able to start on your career.

ChadleyNC · Jan 16, 2006

Clinicals for the ADN program are completed mostly at New Hanover Regional Medical. Some groups have been sent to Pender Hospital in Pender County. Some of them are done at Cape Fear Hospital (A smaller hosp up the road but still in Wilmington more ortho surgical work is done here) and psych rotations and Long term Care rotations are mainly done here in Wilm. But there are some people who have had to travel as far as Jacksonville or even Goldsboro to complete their psych rotations. There's just not enough room or enough patients in the Oaks for that one.