ADN? BSN? ABSN?

Students Pre-Nursing

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Hi all,

I wanted to get advice on what pathway I should take. I was going to a state college right out of high school and ended up dropping out. My GPA was really low. I spent a lot of time just working because I couldn't afford school. Now, I work at a hospital and go to school part-time. I am taking my pre-reqs for nursing school and am eligible to transfer. My combined GPA is 2.36 (from my state college and current community college) and I still need to take 5 classes. My GPA at just the community college is a 3.11 and I have been getting A's in my prereqs. I am in CA, so I am afraid I cannot apply as a transfer student because my GPA is not competitive enough.

Should I try the lottery system and go for my ADN in the next year? Should I start to look out of state and face out of state tuition to go to schools who's GPA requirement is not as high? Or should I transfer back to my state college and get a bachelors in a related subject (most likely kinesiology or health sciences)? I want to lean towards the ADN because it seems like the faster way to becoming a nurse--of course I will do a program to get my BSN or even my MSN. But I don't want to waste the time, applications/fees and test scores to do an ADN program if there is a likelihood of my getting into a BSN program...or should I just take the time to get my bachelors and then do the ABSN... Please help me. I've done quite a lot of research, but I am just starting to get discouraged.

forevernursem

103 Posts

Hello!

First I would like to say, after finishing your prerequisites for nursing school and applying for a nursing program, most programs don't look at your full GPA. Colleges look at different things when getting accepted. For example, some ONLY look at the nursing prerequisites GPA, some require an entrance exam on top of a good GPA, in some programs retaking a prerequisites will lessen your chance of getting in. But what I'm trying to say, if you're getting A's in all of your nursing prerequisites, I don't see why you wouldn't be accepted into a program.

You can only get an ABSN if you already have a bachelors degree. Either way, getting an ADN or BSN are both good, but if you get your ADN, you would have go for your BSN within a couple of years. Also, getting an ADN is not really the "faster route" you have a least 3-5 nursing semesters AFTER finishing the prerequisites, but doing the ADN to BSN route is cheaper in price than going straight for the BSN degree.

I hope this helped :)

Specializes in Psychiatry.
Hi all,

I wanted to get advice on what pathway I should take. I was going to a state college right out of high school and ended up dropping out. My GPA was really low. I spent a lot of time just working because I couldn't afford school. Now, I work at a hospital and go to school part-time. I am taking my pre-reqs for nursing school and am eligible to transfer. My combined GPA is 2.36 (from my state college and current community college) and I still need to take 5 classes. My GPA at just the community college is a 3.11 and I have been getting A's in my prereqs.

If you can't afford school, community college is a good option. You should work on your GPA though because it is not at all competitive.

Most importantly, don't get a degree that you do not need. Kinesiology or health science are not nursing and may only put you in debt.

Application to the ADN program is usually free (I'm in SoCal). If you want to get into the ADN program, here is what to do: finish up your prereqs, find out if your school has the point system/multicriteria screening and work with the system to improve your odds of getting accepted, apply to MULTIPLE schools.

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