Prerequisite GPA

[snuttall]

Hi everyone!

Long story short: I had an awful freshman year. Struggles with family, friends, and my own health got in front of my grades so I ended my fall and spring semesters with under 3.0 GPAs. I plan on explaining the situation to nursing schools when I apply but I am afraid that will not be good enough. I had taken a decent amount of my prerequisites during this time (Chemistry, Biology, & Statistics) and got not-so-great grades in them. However, they are not low enough for me to be able to retake. This really hurts my prerequisite GPA. I've been doing great after my freshman year (my GPA is now a 3.5 cumulative when it was a 2.9).

Basically, what should I do? There are a couple options I'm thinking of:

-Taking Statistics 2 and Chemistry for Liberal Arts, hoping nursing schools will see that I care and just went through a rough patch at the community college in my hometown.

-Let things happen and focus on getting stellar scores on my TEAS exam (which I plan on doing regardless).

I am applying to ABSN programs starting next fall so I have time to make a decision, I just don't want it to be too late. Thanks in advance :)

[idkmybffjill]

I'm not sure the first option will do anything more for you. You're already shown that you were able to work past the issues you had in your freshmen year and focus on your grades the rest of the time you went to school. Taking Statistics II and Chem for Liberal Arts isn't going to replace your actual prereqs and will only really be seen like the rest of your non-prereq courses that you got good grades on. I'd suggest focusing on the TEAS and looking for schools in which your GPA is competitive or programs that have an essay/interview component so that you are able to mention why your GPA isn't as high as it might be if you took chem and statistics now.