The Ugly, the bad, and the good.

Realauren89 · Oct 8, 2015

(Note to admin, this is a double post, since I noticed I dropped this in the wrong forum)

No one really prepares you for the absolute panic that is waiting for your acceptance or denial letter from your school. NO ONE!

My birthday was the 2nd, and I got my denial letter, and I'm pretty sure the world ripped itself apart, then formed again. I literally spent my birthday drowning myself in my pillows sobbing like my two year old when I tell her that she can't have any more cookies. No one prepares you for that heartache. Ever.

I took a 5 year break from college, because I was so strung out on drugs as a freshman that honestly my gpa was abysmal. I came back, I busted out 3.75 each semester, made a 4.0 last semester, and I felt like all my hard work was just dashed to the wind. Then, something insane happened. My school posted an infographic on the amount of applications they received and what the lowest points they took.

We had 423 applications for the Spring 2016 class. With 15 duplicate applications there were 408 actual applicants and 209 that were qualified for the nursing program. The qualified applicants had points that ranged from 104 points to 37 points. We accepted 83 students with 81 as the cut off point for acceptance. The reading ACT was the tie-breaker for the students with 81 points.

I read this and had a miniature heart attack. I had 81 points, I had a 30 reading ACT score. I was even more upset. I missed it by an ACT reading score. So I cried to my best friend who is a pharmacist. She told me to suck up my pride and inquire about my points, my standings and what I could do to up my chances for next semester. I am so thankful that she did. I emailed the director of the program. She emailed me back immediately and told me that they had me down as 76 points with a gpa of 2.1.

The pterodactyl sounds that escaped my lips between reading that email out loud to my friend was deafening. My best friend, her dad, and myself set down and recalculated not once, but 5 times my gpa according to the prerequisites and corequisites only to find out that was a terrible mistake, a TERRIBLE ONE. I had 81 points and a 30 ACT reading score. After my best friend took over emailing the Director of the Nursing School (thank God for her, I would have never gotten an email back) the Director sent me to the Admission/Clinical Advisor. I had to wait 24 hours for a grueling answer.

Now, I wanna say, we all have this preconceived notion that Instructors are hardcore. Lemme tell you, this woman, who spent about 4 hours emailing me is the closest thing I have ever been to talking to an angel. No seriously. She calculated my GPA, it came back as 80 points. Then she noticed that one of the grades they had written down was wrong. She immediately emailed me profusely apologizing, and told me that I was accepted into the Nursing Program this Spring Semester because I had the highest ACT reading score of the 81's and wasn't even fairly calculated in the first place. She told me she looks forward to seeing me next semester and getting to know me and that this was the first time in her life she ever had an applicant question a denial letter.

The moral of the story guys is: Always ask questions the admission teams, and instructors are human, they can make mistakes. Am I saying all denial letters are wrong? No. Am I saying emailing them to understand how to better your chances for the next time? Yes, lord yes. ALWAYS ask questions. The only reason I even contested my denial letter is because I calculated mine before hand, because I knew my gpa (calculated by hand) I knew my points and my standings. Always know that even when the crappy days come and you get a denial letter it is absolutely ok to cry yourself to sleep. No one in their right mind works hard in pre req and coreq classes to be denied. Just know there is always the next semester or year, and that in the mean time better you chances any way you can.

I am so happy, that I am going into a program that has instructors like the one that helped me every single step of the way. I hope whoever reads this knows that you are not a number, you are a human being, and it's always ok to ball your eyes out, eat an entire cake, and stress over trying to get into nursing school. I'm with you in spirit.

Much love, Rea.