Previous Bachelors Degree w/ low GPA 2.98, What to do! Help :(

caliotter3 · Dec 2, 2014

Each school has its own criteria for looking at the GPA and they can be quite different. You can research this aspect at all the programs you are considering and choose to apply first to those programs where it looks like you have a better shot at the prize. Good luck.

kcrom18 · Dec 2, 2014

Hi! Thank you for your response. I have looked at every school around me but they all require a minimum of 3.0 gpa. Same with the absn and traditional bsn. The only one that requires a 2.75 minimum is the community college I'm at which is horrible. I want to get away from this school as soon as possible. Nobody speaks English! It is very frustrating. =/ Do my prereqs raise my overall gpa?

iPink, BSN, RN · Dec 2, 2014

You may want to try looking at online programs. And the GPA you graduated with can't be altered. You start from scratch. I know this because I went back to school for nursing and took my prereqs at the local CC.

Good luck.

windsurfer8, BSN, RN · Dec 3, 2014

It is true...most have a MINIMUM of 3.0 to get in. The school I did my ABSN it was 3.0. There are schools out there with mins of 2.8.

People will tell you this and that about GPAs. The bottom line is when they say you have to have a certain GPA on your first degree that means whatever your transcript says was your final GPA on your first bachelors. Period. The prereqs etc come into play differently. I would say talk to the schools...do not go by anything on here as the final say..including what I say. Who knows they may be desperate for students and be willing to waiver your GPA. Unlikely but who knows. Also do not tell them "things were hard in my life" why you got the bad grades...they don't care and don't want to hear it. We all have bad times and we still have to meet the standard. Good luck.

chuleta · Dec 3, 2014

You should double check to see if the schools look at your cumulative GPA which also includes the GPA from your AA degree. Most of the schools I applied to in CA took both my GPAs into consideration & that really helped me out!

windsurfer8, BSN, RN · Dec 3, 2014

Chuleta,

Why would a school have a minimum prereq requirement on your first degree, but then add your Associates to it? That would be like getting a 2.8 in Biology..then taking a bunch of philosophy classes on your own..then counting them "into" your GPA. That is not an actual GPA. When a school says your GPA on your first degree...they don't "add in" other classes you took. If they do then why would they not say that. I have worked with admissions and it would be unfair to another student who got a 3.2 in another student got a 3.0, but then took a bunch of easy classes AFTER they had their degree to add to their GPA. The minimum GPA on your first degree is just that. GPA earned on transcripts of first degree.

akulahawkRN, ADN, RN, EMT-P · Dec 3, 2014

The program I went to had an overall GPA requirement of 2.5 and a prerequisite GPA requirement of >3.0 to meet admission criteria. My Bachelors GPA is something like a 2.8 cumulative, but my upper division GPA is something like a 3.0 or a 3.1 and my 60 units prior to entry to nursing school was more like a 3.6 as my post-bacc studies (all prereq updates) GPA was a 4.0 so it all depends upon the program(s) you're applying to. They'll all have their own rules for admission, so it's difficult to generalize. Now that I have an RN license, the entry requirements for RN->BSN programs are quite a bit different at the local university than they are for the prelicensure BSN program.

chuleta · Dec 3, 2014

Chuleta,
Why would a school have a minimum prereq requirement on your first degree, but then add your Associates to it? That would be like getting a 2.8 in Biology..then taking a bunch of philosophy classes on your own..then counting them "into" your GPA. That is not an actual GPA. When a school says your GPA on your first degree...they don't "add in" other classes you took. If they do then why would they not say that. I have worked with admissions and it would be unfair to another student who got a 3.2 in another student got a 3.0, but then took a bunch of easy classes AFTER they had their degree to add to their GPA. The minimum GPA on your first degree is just that. GPA earned on transcripts of first degree.

I think you might have misunderstood what I was trying to say. I was talking about the cumulative GPA, which is from ALL the classes you've taken in college. From my own personal experience, the schools I applied to took all my college courses from both my 1st & 2nd degree into account & calculated a cumulative GPA. So on my nursing application I had 2 GPAs-- one was for the nursing pre-reqs (science/math classes) & the other was the cumulative GPA that included every single class I ever took in college. Oddly enough & as unfair as it may seem, the cumulative GPA even included classes you've taken AFTER earning a degree. They literally took everything into account.

So I understand you have had experience working for admissions, but perhaps the schools that you applied/worked at only looked at the 1st earned degree GPA. However, schools have slight variances in their admission requirements which is the reason for my initial post.

RunBabyRN · Dec 3, 2014

Ask the programs how they calculate your GPA. My program looks at the last 60 units, if you have a bachelor's. Some look at everything, others may have other ways of calculating. It's important to know.

Nienna Celebrindal · Dec 3, 2014

Depends on the school, some care about your GPA for your pre-req classes only, or mostly, and some are like mine and they want your cumulative GPA, even classes you took 12 years ago or 30 in the case of one of my classmates.

kcrom18 · Dec 4, 2014

Thanks for the help everyone. I still feel at a lose with this =/ Even if they look at my last 60 credit hours those are the classes I did not do well in. Does anyone have any school suggestions with a lower gpa? Also is it possible to take some extra classes now to boost my gpa since some look at the last 60 credits?

Thanks