retaking prerequisites

My advisor told me that if I'm not 100% sure I'd make an A the second time, don't retake it because you may end up hurting yourself rather than helping.

Agree with the advice that Caliotter3 has given you. Check with the school and the program that you are trying to get into of what their policy is for retakes. Some programs will only allow you to retake if you failed, others will give you a limit of how many times you may retake a class within a certain time limit. Each program is going to have different things which they will allow, so you will need to do your homework and check with each individual program.

When you asked your academic advisor at your school this question, what did he or she say? That is the advice to follow, as we cannot know your specific school's policy, or your specific situation.

@caliotter3 Thank you for your help! :) I will start investigating

I currently attend calstatela and their policy is that you can only retake a course if u recieved a C- but that is at their univeristy. So I'm gonna double check with my advisor and see if I can retake a class I got a C at a community college

@CajunRNtobe I just recieved the news that i got a C in organic chemistry and I know how competitive nursing school is and current nursing schools don't allow anything lower then a B- so I definitely wanna retake it.

There are some nursing schools that do not have waiting lists. However, the tuition is usually through the nose and you have to make sure that they have their accreditations. Many are qualified to take state boards but if they are not regionally accredited then you would not be able to transfer the credits to many institutions to further your education. Also, if they are not accredited by the NLN (a national accreditation) then some universities still will not accept them even if regionally accredited. Employers may also look into where you went to school as a basis of whether or not they will hire you after you get your license (The VA is one).

That being said, yes, the requirements to get into a nursing program are very stringent in community colleges and universities. Many are now going by GPA, they have a certain number of seats and the students that apply with the highest GPA get them, not the waiting list of the past where you finish your pre-requisites and wait for your turn in line. Many schools also have a five year limit on the science and/or math courses so if they are outdated by the time you may get in you will be retaking them before you can get accepted. This I found particularly odd since the school that I went to I got an A in the science courses but the time period had "expired" and I would have to re-take it in order to get accepted....but the rules were that we could not retake the course if we got a C or higher...okay....but they would allow us to take the course at another local accredited college and transfer the credit in, for GPA or time frame...

Bottom line is all colleges are different. You will need to check with yours to see what their policy is. Also, ask what the usual GPA is in order to get in, some schools are higher than others. The C would definitely hurt the GPA but one B with A's in everything else probably would not drag down your GPA too much for acceptance to most schools.

You'll have to check with your admissions department. When you can, what grade will be considered, do they average the grades, etc. My school allows you to retake a course regardless of grade but you can only do a single repeat, to repeat more than once you have to get a failing grade and write a request to the dean of students saying why you did poorly and why you will do better. You also have to consider financial aid and whether you'll run out of aid before your program is done.

I actually got a C in one of my pre-requisites, and retook it for an A.

@Mb0382, LPN thank you for the time you took to write that reply. I was about to look into this one nursing school buy read a review of an upset student because he can't apply to any masters programs because he is unable to transfer his credits. I want to apply to many of the CSU's like csulb csusb csula. When checking what their policy is, do you just call the nursing department?

@a&csmom do u mind me asking what school your attending? My chemistry teacher was unlike an other one I've had. First time I've ever gotten a C! I will ask my admissions department. Thank you :)

@Mb0382, LPN thank you for the time you took to write that reply. I was about to look into this one nursing school buy read a review of an upset student because he can't apply to any masters programs because he is unable to transfer his credits. I want to apply to many of the CSU's like csulb csusb csula. When checking what their policy is, do you just call the nursing department?

As far as who to contact the nursing department is a good start but I would request written documentation. I thought I was getting accurate information by going to my community college's nursing campus and speaking with their counselors and was actually given misinformation (not regarding credits transfers but regarding if the theory was always available online. I was told "absolutely" and then only after I got accepted was I told, "well, only if we have enough people enrolled in the online theory will it be offered that way. You need to expect to be here M-F. Online classes were relatively new at the time. I had to reject the seat because I had just moved out on my own and couldn't afford to cut back on work at that time. So now I'm going years later to a more expensive school because of the age of the credits).

The school that I'm going to now clearly lists their credit transfer policy in their student handbook. Other schools that I was looking into online had similar handbooks laying out the criteria. As far as wait list GPA's, the nursing department is your best source for accurate data on this subject.