Poor Gpa, Great Everything Else

[twistta]

The sight of seeing a CRNA coming down the hall with their "tool box" ready to face an emergent airway situation or managing a gas machine makes me explode with excitment! I am very nervous because I want to be a CRNA more than anything but my GPA in undergrad is a 2.5. I did really well my junior and senior year but made some very POOR :yawn:decisions my feshman and sophmore year. I have EXCELLENT references from my work experience at Duke University Medical Center, passed my CCRN, have an awesome personal statement and plan on rocking my GRE in september (after taking a review course). Has anyone been accepted to a school with a low GPA like mine? If so where did you apply? Any other suggestions? I need encouragement because the hardest thing for me is not completing a CRNA program it is getting in. Thanks for your time and looking forward to your replies!!!:redbeathe

[nurselizk]

Contact the programs you're interested in to find out what you're up against. Some programs won't consider anyone under a 3.0. Some will look at your entire GPA, others the last 2 years, especially if you can make a compelling case for having turned things around. But you really need to speak with them, find out what their practice is, and let them get to know you a bit. It may be necessary to take some more classes to raise your GPA or retake some courses where your grades weren't high enough.

[AdonaiLoveable]

Some schools are not calculating your overall, cumulative GPA, they are looking at your science GPA, nursing major GPA, and/or your GPA for the last 60 credit hours. Since you did you well in your Junior and Senior years, you should look at the schools you are considering and see if they are primarily concerned with your GPA from those years as well. Your GPA for applications based on those last 60 credit hours from your Junior and Senior years may not be quite as bad as you think.

[cupkate]

I was in a somewhat similar boat to yours. Great GPA for last 75 credits of coursework, but overall not so hot.

I talked to a lot of program directors and they all recommended the same thing: get good GRE scores, pass CCRN, and take graduate level science classes to prove you can do well in a graduate level program.

I enrolled in a NP program which enabled me to take grad level pathophys and pharm (along with a few scattered nursing specific classes). This took a year. I reapplied to the CRNA schools that I was previously denied admission from and so far have gotten two interviews. On the waiting list for one, and waiting to hear back from the other.

So, don't give up! If this is what you really want to do be willing to take steps to show those admission boards that you are serious!