I've been going back and forth with this particular school about my chemistry that I have. It's from George Washington University the chemistry that I did, but it's on my military transcripts and the GWU transcripts make it seems like its vocational when it isn't. So I pulled up the right transcripts that says its undergrad and sent them over. This is what my transcripts say.
Clinical Chemistry 7SH
General Chemistry 5SH
Clinical Chemistry 4SH
This is the response I received back.
After careful review of your chemistry credit it has been determined that it will not fulfill our chemistry prerequisite requirements. We require applicants to take inorganic and organic chemistry, and your transcript states credit in "clinical chemistry".
I attached a list of our required prerequisite courses for the Traditional BSN degree. We accept in-state and out-of-state transfer credits, as long as they are obtained from a regionally accredited institution.
THEN. I was like, I cannot keep e-mailing like this, and then wait 3 days for an answer so I called.
I said NOTHING on the prereqs says anything about inorganic and organic chemistry. It only says 6 hours of Chemistry.
So then, she said fine, your General Chemistry can count as Chem 101(so much for "careful review"). She said it was only 5 credits not 6. I don't understand WHY they won't take clinical chemistry. I know it counts. I just need to send her the course descriptions and objectives tomorrow. This is so frustrating to me. Does this make any sense to you all???
Undergraduate programs are highly competitive, with many applicants and a few coveted spots. The school will select those applicants which meet their criteria. OP, your best bet would be to contact admissions to clarify exactly what they're looking for. It is very possible that they will tell you to enroll in another chemistry course.
The nursing school? It's in Texas San Antonio area, it's a traditional BSN program where you only do the nursing part there. I don't want to say the name because I don't want them to see me ranting about it.
They should have been more specific in there outline of the prerequisites.You are likely not the only one that has been stymied by what they want.
I've gathered 2 more documents with descriptions of the course,
Basic principles of inorganic, organic, and biochemistry. Principles and techniques involved in chemical analysis of human blood and body fluids. Principles and procedures of urine chemistry and microscopy. Lecture and Lab.
I'm on the seat of my chair waiting for a response.
A school has every right to not accept a previously taken class if they feel that it did not meet their standards for whatever reason. That is why it is important to be in contact with school adviser's before taking a class, in order to see if it will be accepted. If you didn't know that you were applying there before taking the class then it is a chance that you are taking. Just because they say "6 credits of chemistry required" doesn't mean that any chemistry course you take will be accepted. Maybe you covered all of the topics, but maybe they have reason to believe that the course didn't allow for enough time to cover everything in the depth that they expect. Whatever the reason, it is their right to not accept a course.
I was able to find the documents that listed every objective so hopefully that helps. If after all that they determine its not enough then yes I will redo it. But not until they make 100% sure which they didn't the first time.
Are you working with UTHSCSA? I thought they were military-friendly. I know that they have (had?) programs designed to accommodate medics who want to go to nursing school. There has been a problem for a looong time with articulation between military and civilian education.
It's a shame, but there is a pervasive myth that military training is "college credit" that can be applied to civilian degree programs. My relative who was a military recruiter told me that he was told not to 'clarify' this assumption so that he did not discourage a potential recruit.
Anywhoo - if all else fails, is Chemistry CLEP-able?
They don't seem to be as military friendly as other college. There is this ACE Evaluation that shows up on your Joint Services Transcripts, it lists any training as Vocational, Under grad, and Graduate. Everything I have is Under grad. The first hurdle was trying to prove that it wasn't vocational because at first every college thought it was because I was giving them the wrong transcript. I was giving them the transcript that came from the actual college and it didn't explain things very well. So it's taken the College Transcript, the Joint Services Transcript, and 3 course descriptions to get this far just to get them to count. I have a good feeling in the end it WILL count, but its just especially hard when they aren't really even supposed to evaluate the transcripts until you apply. So they are doing me a huge favor by even going through this with me. They have a section about it on their website for course equivalencies but it doesn't work so much for college done out of state and military. Still no response. I don't think I'll have fingernails by the end of this! I suppose I could look at CLEP and see that as a possibility. I am not intending to apply for Nursing School until Fall 2015. But like I said earlier, I will be getting my lactation credential (IBCLC) during that time so its not likely I will be able to do prereqs during that time. If Chemistry counts then my timeline will work perfect, if not, then I will probably have to apply for the spring semester if they have one.
Denied yet again. This time they said a few things weren't included in the description, but I went back and highlighted everything they said was missing which was clearly there.
This is not the description of chemistry 101. But, my undergrad nursing didn't require chem 101, 102 (inorganic) and any "real" organic course. We just took some dumbed down chemistry class that included what we needed to know to function as RN. I'd already had a year of inorganic chem. (8 credits) and 8 credits in organic but still had to take the "nursing' chem. We covered a lot in that class that I hadn't been exposed to in the chemistry major track so I understood why they wouldn't accept my considerably more difficult 16 credits.
loriangel14, RN
6,933 Posts
They should have been more specific in there outline of the prerequisites.You are likely not the only one that has been stymied by what they want.