RIDICULOUS RULES!

[Mrs.Priss]

i have been attending this college since the fall semester of 2009. i have been pursuing a career in the medical field as a registered nurse. i applied for the nursing program last october 2011.

now, before i continue, let me give a little info that will help this whole spiel make a little more sense... i attended a different community college from 2002-2003. like a lot of young people just starting college, i goofed off and made some pretty bad grades. i have been an excellent student this time around at the new school. i am a member of the phi theta kappa honor society and have made the dean's list. i have been working very hard for the past two and a half years to accomplish my goals as a student and try to actually make a future for myself and my family.

so... you can imagine my shock when i got my rejection letter in the mail stating that i did not meet the requirements for the nursing program at this school! how could this be?! i have taken all of my pre-requisites! i made a good grade on my entrance exam! i have a high gpa! i just don't understand!

i just figured that out of the over 200 people that applied for 48 spots, there were just a lot of really high points and students with previous experience (this gets you an extra point). it was a hard blow! it really made me doubt if i was capable of doing this! i got over the rejection, picked myself up, and made a plan b. i decided i would apply for the nursing program the next semester.

i went to the nursing and allied health office at my school tuesday (01-31-2012) to find out exactly why i didn't get in. i was informed that because i took classes at the previous community college from fall 2002 - spring 2003, 10 years ago, and didn't pass them, it made my transcript gpa a 1.5 and that is factored in with my gpa at the school i am enrolled in now, which brings my gpa down so low that it's too low to meet the minimum 2.5 gpa requirement to even apply for the program! i have retaken all of these classes at the new school that i failed at the previous college, but that doesn't matter!

i was informed that the only way i can get rid of this 1.5 transfer gpa is if i go back to the previous college and retake these same classes that i have already retaken at the new college!!!! these are developmental classes people!!!! for example, basic writing!!! now, i have retaken basic writing and english comp. i and english comp. ii and made a's in all of them! so please tell me why i need to go back to the previous college to retake classes that i obviously do not need to retake?!?

i asked the receptionist in the nursing department why i never saw this when i went online to my student account and looked at my transcripts? she said i, the student, can't see it on my end, only they can see it when they look it up on their end. so.... why in the world, after being advised every single semester, by a nursing advisor, did nobody have the decency to tell me, hey, maybe you should start by going back to the previous college and retake these classes because you will never get into our nursing program if you don't!!!! why? is that not their job to guide and direct the student in the right direction?!? they could have told me this my first semester when i met with a nursing advisor and asked "could you please tell me everything i need to do to get into the nursing program here?" instead of letting me waste almost 3 years of my life! or maybe they could have informed me of this sooner instead of making me fish for the information!

since i was only informed of this tuesday, i have missed the deadline to take the entrance exam or apply at any other school for the nursing program! so i will not be able to start a nursing program anywhere until january 2013! i am 30 years old! i do not have a year to waste because their advisors did not do their job! had i known about this from the very beginning, i could have taken the necessary steps that i needed to take. and even if my gpa met the requirements, it would never be higher than a 2.6 after they average the old gpa from the last college and the new gpa together! how am i supposed to compete with people applying with a 4.0?

why am i being punished for something that happened a decade ago! i have obviously proven that i am a dedicated, hard-working student. i feel royally screwed by this school! and, when i asked to speak to the dean of nursing about this matter, i was told it would be close to a month before i could meet with her! ridiculous!!!

i know that god has a plan. i know i shouldn't be so upset, but it's so hard!!! these people are so wrong! i will not give up on my passion and my drive to become a nurse. i am going to finish this semester and then try to transfer to a school where they treat me like a human, not like a student id number!

god is in control and he obviously has a different path for me than the one i chose for myself. i'm literally going to let go and let god. i know god uses experiences to make us stronger, so i'll take it! it's just a little road block, that's all! j

[crittytn]

Glad to see you're making some progress. Hang in there!!!

[willowita, ADN, RN]

Reading your update brought a smile to my face. I'm glad they went further with your case and didn't resort to some canned answer. But please apply to more programs if you don't get in this time around!

I really sympathize with your story. It's easy for people looking from the outside to say how you shouldn't have done this, or how you should have done that. But we don't all share a common experience and we don't know someone's situation, what they were going through, what kind of problems they had, that led to a low GPA. Lord knows there are resilient individuals that can excel in the face of anything, more power to those people. But we're not all cut from the same cloth and I think school counselors are a lot more forgiving and understanding of that than the rest of us are. Your entire sense of being, your worth, your humanity should not be a lump mean of a GPA. Self improvement does count for something. Maturity, experience, wisdom is not something that comes out of your physiology class. It takes time and I think it speaks volumes when a student like yourself, and even myself, have not lived up to the expectations of the world but we pick ourselves up, try again, and give it our all even if we didn't cut the mustard a decade ago.

So keep fighting the good fight and best of luck to you!!

[Asmorris]

Sounds really positive. Show them who you are now on the HESI as well as keeping up the great attitude and dedication to getting in, and you will succeed.

[DFWgal]

I'm glad you have more options now. Good luck!

[Nursing0929]

What classes did you take at your college from 10 years ago? I would strongly recommend applying to a different college, and NOT submitting transcripts from your old school. Pretend like you never went there. A few years back, I was applying to a community college just to take some prereqs, and it asked me to list all previous institutions attended. So I did. And then they wanted all my transcripts from those colleges/universities. I had gone to law school for a year, but this has nothing to do with the education I am pursuing now. I was annoyed I had to pay $15 for a transcript that didn't matter. My advisor later told me that I could have avoided that by just leaving it off of my "institutions attended" list. Well too late for me, I already paid the $15!

I think the option of leaving out your transcripts from previous schools depends on the school you are going to. I started school last Spring, and never reported my transcripts from my previous school from 2003. Well once I lost my job I applied for student loans this past fall to try and help me out will bills until I found a new job. When I did this my current school told me that I couldnt get student loans or any of the aid that I was already approved for until they received my transcripts from my previous school, which I couldnt get because I owed the old school money. So I have not been able to take any classes this semester because of this. I just paid off the old school and got my transcripts yesterday and took them to my new school. Hopefully they will update everything and release my aid in time for me to start some of the 8 week classes that start in Marchh.

Now on the other hand have a cousin who had an issue with the school I am in and just transferred to another community college with no problem and no transcripts and was still able to enroll and get her loans. So I think that depends on the school and the state.

[paula1501]

Girl I feel you I'm in the same boat in my passed I ****** up but I have turned myself around I have a 4.0 gpa all classes retaken with As and all generals done TEAS test scores great and 6 years as a CNA at the same home! You think they would tell u on the app if u fail one science class or drop a science class in your past you will not be granted entry so do not apply! I was heartbroken getting rejected at saint Paul colleges LPN program I thought I fit all criteria to get in gpa check, teas test check, all generals done check, experience in the field check, and the only thing it specifically spelled out on my rejection was PaST COURSE PERFORMANCE UNBELIEVABLE THAT IS MY PAST AND DOESN'T REFLECT THE A STUDENT I AM NOW! I ACTUALLY HAVE CONFIDENCE NOW AND BELIEVE IN MYSELF AND DON'T QUIT AND I ASK QUESTIONS BACK THEN I WAS YOUNG AFRAID AND I QUIT SOMETIMES! ANY SUGGESTIONS AS TO WHAT MY NEXT MOVE SHOULD BE?

[Prairienurse1989]

It's not god, it's just bad policy