To those without a 4.0 (rant)

Nursing Students Pre-Nursing

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  1. What was your GPA when you were accepted?

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I keep coming across these posts from nursing students who say YOU MUST HAVE a 4.0 to even bother applying. Although I understand that there exists steep competition for nursing school admittance, I can't help but roll my eyes every time I see one of these posts. And for every person who says that their school did not accept students with a GPA below a 3.9, I want to see documented proof beyond all this he said she said. The cornerstone of nursing practice is the holistic model of patient care. I would imagine many nursing programs would adopt a similar holistic approach when selecting students for admission. Although GPA may be heavily weighted, many schools also incorporate test scores, interviews, essays, references, and even community involvement.

Now I am not saying that a 2.7 GPA is going to get you into nursing school. However, I think aiming for a decent 3.4 and producing a solid essay can get you in. I have applied, and have been successfully admitted, to 5 nursing programs without a 4.0. I feel we are often discouraging our fellow nursing hopefuls when we try to play as if every nursing program is actually Harvard Law.

Again, I am not saying that being accepted to, or even completing nursing school is an easy accomplishment. I just think we need to do a better job of encouraging our peers rather than crushing their hopes and dreams by claiming these impossibly high admission standards that are so often not even true.

---End rant---

Where I went to school, it IS all about your grades in the 4 required pre-reqs and your TEAS score. That's it, no essay, no interview. So for my program, yes you need as close to a 4.0 as possible, because those grades are weighted based on which letter they are. The lower your grade, the lower your points, which lowers your chance of getting into the program.

Specializes in Surgical Intensive Care.
Where I went to school, it IS all about your grades in the 4 required pre-reqs and your TEAS score. That's it, no essay, no interview. So for my program, yes you need as close to a 4.0 as possible, because those grades are weighted based on which letter they are. The lower your grade, the lower your points, which lowers your chance of getting into the program.

This is where I would like to see documented proof. I do not deny the importance of a high GPA for this particular kind of program, but I would like to see both the average and the lowest GPA of admitted students.

Specializes in Hospice, Palliative Care.

Hi Jasonat6034:

I don't know of any nursing program that would give you that information.

Our school only takes in so many students twice per year. They only take in so many students twice a year. If you don't have the points, you simply don't get in. You want the points, you go for the GPA of 4.0 (which adds 16 points).

While our program does allow for students with a GPA as low as 2.5, since seats are limited, and the program ONLY goes by points, do you think a GPA 2.5 student would get in before a GPA 4.0 student? Answer is no.

Thank you.

I had a 3.7 and only got into my program as an alternate. Admission was based strictly on GPA of science courses ...no test, no interview, no mercy.

The school I attend only takes GPA into consideration. No test scores, no point system, no previous healthcare experience, and no interviews. Sometimes the GPA is the "golden ticket". Because GPA is the only thing that matters, the lowest GPA admit at our school was a 3.8. (I attend a public 4 year school, traditional BSN) If if came down to rejecting the last few people, your pre-req GPA was taken into consideration.

This is where I would like to see documented proof. I do not deny the importance of a high GPA for this particular kind of program, but I would like to see both the average and the lowest GPA of admitted students.

Our school has several programs to apply for. Many of them are sooo competive, that they need the highest GPA possible to compete with each other. It's not that the school will not accept lower, it is because it's a competitive system. Also, our school does not allow any retakes on classes with a C or higher. So the students will tell their professor that if it is not an A, fail me. They need the nearly 4 pt GPA to compete. I think it's nuts!

For the RN program, it use to be that you could have a 2.5 GPA to apply. It's a wait list, so everyone who qualifies, eventually gets in. They are changing it to a 3 GPA and on the Sciences, it must be a 3.3 GPA. That would be A&P 1&2 and Microbiology.

Our program changes because they were tired of people starting the program and dropping out. Those become empty seats that others could have taken. They noticed that those that are not strong in the sciences had a harder time. So it was this area that they really raised the GPA. As they say, wouldn't you rather know before you spend time and money, then wait until in the program and have to drop out???

Programs are just so competitive, I know people with 4.0s who got rejected out of their nursing school admissions because of the flood of applicants. You could have the highest GPA, have honors, participate in activities, the best score on TEAS, etc. and you could still be rejected. I'd rather be on a waiting list imho, where I can still do great and know I'm guaranteed a spot for a future class.

To Spangle Brown: My school is a waiting list, but the one school I was originally interested in was point based. The good thing about waiting list, you are guaranteed acceptance based on successful completion of your pre-reqs (you could literally get all Cs, low 60s on TEAS and be on the waiting list), but the wait is the hard part. By the time people get to go to classes, they already transfer to the more expensive, private college across town that has no waiting list where they can get there ADN and BSN. Trust me, that's plan B depending on my spot on the wait list when the time comes. My school also changed it's pre-reqs and the real reason, I don't know why other than guessing that there is so much interest in the nursing program, they want to thin out the waiting list before it gets any longer than it is right now.

You are right in that depending on what school you attend, a 4.0 gpa is not the only means to get accepted. However, you cannot apply that notion to every school. My school ONLY looked at gpa. No interview, no test scores, solely GPA. So yes, at my school you DID need a 3.8 or higher to be accepted. However, if I had a lower gpa, I could have just as easily applied to 10 other schools with different standards and got accepted... but I wanted my first choice.

How do I know for sure gpa was the only factor? Because I called admissions and asked what the requirements and expectations were. It was discouraging to hear that a high gpa was necessary to get into the school, but they also provided me with alternative options; such as applying to another school. It was what it was. They were being honest... and I'd rather that than have them sugar coat it and pretend I could get in with a 2.5 gpa.

OP, I'm honestly not sure what documented proof you're expecting to see posted here....?

I'm going back a bit, this is true, but when I was applying to nursing school they looked at my prior degree, they looked at my GPA FROM that schooling. They looked at the pre-requisite courses I had to take (and in some cases, re-take because the sciences were too old for consideration)....that was what mattered. It was all about the numbers. And they made it clear that there were plenty of HIGH GPAs to choose from.

A quick, orientation day survey of my classmates revealed what we expected: the highest GPAs were admitted, the lower ones got on the waiting list. I had a 4.0 in pre-requs, my prior degree, cumulative GPA brought it down to a 3.7 but I was told it was the science and nursing program pre-requs specifically that they looked at, which is how a B in something unrelated didn't hurt me. But if it were to be a B in a science course, I'd not have made it in, just that simple.

No documentation, no proof, just a personal story. Not enough space in many programs for students who are unable to demonstrate the ability to get the best grades possible, PRIOR to asking for acceptance into the nursing programs.

To echo what RNsRWe said, my college also had a waiting list. From speaking with my classmates, it was quickly determined that no one with anything lower than a 3.7 got in. Bs in prereqs were a guaranteed no-go. We had no essay, no TEAS test, nothing other than our GPAs to stand on. Everything was staked on our performance in pre-reqs and high school.

With regards to proof and evidence, I suggest you start contacting the thousands of nursing schools in the US and asking them for their admission requirements and if their admissions are based solely on GPA or if an essay/test/etc factors into it. Be sure to track whether or not these colleges are for-profit, LPN vs ADN vs BSN, and location (urban vs. rural).

You're on a nursing board. No one's going to do your research for you, so I hope you've got a phone handy! Based on the questions you've been asking, you're going to be making lots of phone calls.

I am in the new MANE program, which is pretty transparent about its requirements if you care to look it up. It is determined by gpa+ teas diveded by a factor of 10 and nothing else. So if you have a 3.5 and an 85, your score is a 12. Last semester I was told in an email from an adviser that the lowest accepted score was an 11.33. This semester was a little less competitive.

So in my area, no, you don't need a 4.0 provided it's still ok and you test well. I absolutely believe the stories of it being a necessity in more compacted areas like the Bay Area though. Average according to ohsu's site is a 3.8 if I remember right as well (I looked at a lot of schools in a lot of areas) Idk if that's enough proof?

Shouldn't the last choice in the poll be

Over half of the respondents had less than 3.9, that should speak for the do I need a 4.0 to get accepted? ​rumor.

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