Transfer from UC to Nursing School ?

U.S.A. California

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Hello everyone,

I am currently a sophomore at UCDavis, and am set on doing nursing, but I only figured it out recently. I'm in the Human Development major, and was wondering if I should just transfer out of Davis? Or should I just stay.. Would it be more worth it, etc? If you could give me a few tips/advice, that would be more than wonderful! I met with one of the peer advisors here at UCD, and they said an option would be to just finish my 4 years here, and then go into an accelerated BSN program, but I was thinking that it is such a long process, and money-consuming. I was thinking, would it be a good idea to try to finish in 3 years? And does it matter what major I graduate from? Sorry for the super long message! I'm just so lost.

Thanks for all the help!

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Hello there,

I am not a counselor or an advisor, but let me tell you personally, I have got the worst advises from counselors. It does not make sense for you to waste four years of your life on another major you are not enjoying for what? just to get few extra points on the nursing application? it is unrealistic and I think in your heart, you know it did not sound right for you to do all that. I know it is not the case, but If I was in your shoe, I would totally forget about getting a bachelor in human development and start working right away on the nursing prerequisite classes. Ask the department of nursing at your university whether or not they prioritize you because you are already in the university. If not, it is always cheaper to have these prerequisite classes done in a community college. The most important prerequisites are anatomy, physiology, microbiology, and college english for many colleges. If you have time volunteer at a medical center as well. I know I am being brief as far as the little details you need, but definitely search this forum for more answers because it is full of people who have similar goals as yours.

Hopefully, you will find what is best for you.

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Hello

carmenkn,

Great to see you become interested in Nursing. I will take my time to talk about situation you are in now and your options since I graduated from UC Davis a while back. I believed I had been to your shoes and I could explain more about it.

Unfortunately, UC Davis does not offer Pre-Licensure program for Bachelor in Nursing even though they now have school of nursing. They only offer master and doctoral degrees for RNs only. I know only UC Irvine offers BSN program for non-nurses since 2010. If you want to stay at UC Davis, you can complete all your requirements from there and apply to Accelerated BSN afterward or Direct-Entry MSN for non-nurses. For this option, your GPA has to be on top ranging from 3.4 above and your science GPA (Anatomy, Physiology, Microbiology and Chem) needs to be above 3.5. However, those classes are very HARD to get into and they are very hard to achieve high grades. I am speaking the truth since I took two of them from UC Davis. Not that the materials are harder, it is just too short time for such highly compacted courses in 10 weeks. For your references, anatomy in UC Davis is CHA101 and CHA101L. Physiology is NPB101 and NPB101L. Micro is MIC102 and MIC102L. Anatomy is only offered in winter quarter. And laboratory is reserved for major requirement students first. I think Human development does not require any of those, but I may be mistaken. It will make it harder for you to complete those courses as well.

If you know that you will be going into nursing for sure, you can just stop enrollment at UC Davis and go back to your local community colleges to finish all those pre-req and apply to universities that offer BSN pre-licensure programs. A lot of CSU offer traditional BSN programs such as Sac, SF, SJ and many more. Your units at UC Davis will not be wasted since you can request them to show as prove of what you have taken and all the universities will accept those courses to fulfill your GE requirement, English and Math. However, you need to be careful about quarter to semester. 2 quarters are not equal to 2 semesters. You will need to take more to fulfill the units requirement for some schools.

Personally, I graduated with BS in biology and now going to attend Direct Entry master program for FNP in the spring. I will say that I know a handful of people graduated from UCD as well in my cohort. Couple friends of mine from UCD also became NPs and RNs after graduating from UCD by Accelerate BSN programsn or MSN entry programs. So if you decide to follow our path, you are not the first one who will do such thing. I know a faulty in our school is also aggie alumni as well and went through the same program and became a FNP.

Sorry for such long writing. Hope you will find it helpful! Good luck. I am happy to answer more questions if you have any.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Med-Surg, Psych, Geri, LTC, Tele,.

I agree with most of what ALXiong said. I've been a Prenursing student in the Sac area and have had several UC Davis alumni in my prereq classes. Many were human development majors.

The awesome thing about going to Davis and getting your BS / BA first is you can do an accelerated bachelors in nursing when you are done.

This way you avoid the random lotteries and wait lists.

Yes you have to get good grades, but if you just do well (A's) in your sciences and Prenursing major classes only, you can apply to Sac State.

HTH!!

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Fellow Aggie here. I was in the same boat you were. I'd say to get any health care exp you can whether it be paid or not, especially with underserved populations. Nursing schools love that kind of stuff. There are 7 student run clinics in Sac affiliated with the UCD School of Medicine you can try to volunteer with - I think that helped me a lot in getting into programs. I didn't decide on nursing until my junior yr, graduated in 2010 and now will graduate with my FNP in 2013. It's a great time to get into nursing.

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Thank you so much everyone for all the advice! I'm still in the Human Development major right now, and am trying my best in getting good grades at UCD. I heard that most nursing progams at CSU's are more likely to favor their own students, so is it very hard to get into a nursing school as a UC student...is that true? And if so, is there any way to increase my chances of getting in? Thanks eveyrone! I really appreciate it!

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Thank you so much for all the advice! It is so nice to have someone who was from UCD and who has shared the same experience as me. I am still in the Human Development major, and am starting to take my prereqs. I heard that most nursing progams at CSU's are more likely to favor their own students, so is it very hard to get into a nursing school as a UC student...is that true? And if so, is there any way to increase my chances of getting in? Thanks eveyrone! I really appreciate it! I'm trying my best to get good grades in the prereqs, but it's a lot harder that when I took some of them from a community college.

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Just curious, is it true that out of state nursing programs are more likely to accept than CSU programs, which are highly impacted already?

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Specializes in Cardiothoracic, Peds CVICU.

No CSUs are not more likely to favor their own students. They don't care what school you've been to as long as you have taken the required courses and gotten good grades. As for out of state schools, you would probably have to contact them and find out. From what I've seen it seems like you need some sort of health care experience, high grades, and a high TEAS score everywhere in order to even have a chance. I would recommend you do volunteer work at a hospital and maybe even think about getting your CNA license.

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I'm also a UCD alum with a B.S. in biology. I took the majority of my pre-reqs at UCD. The science classes aren't easy and some of them are quite impacted. MIC101 includes lab so you can opt out of MIC102+MIC102L. Anatomy is really difficult to get into and it's one of the toughest class I ever took in my life (but it was definitely worth it to take it at UCD; their anatomy program rivals no other! It's almost the equivalent to the one that med students take). A couple of my friends had graduated with a HDE major and went onto nursing programs. What I like about UCD was its connections to the UCDMC...there are so many opportunities to volunteer in the health care setting. I've taken a few pre-reqs outside of UCD and it was much easier than UCD.

With that being said, I know it's a tough economy and the tuition at UCD isn't exactly cheap. I was fortunate enough to be able to get by with financial aid. Think about what you want... I wasn't sure about nursing until my senior year, but looking back, I would still finish my degree and then proceed to apply for the nursing program. With that being said, there are a lot of HDE majors who are pre-nursing at UCD. I suggest signing up for the listserv for internships and getting involved with the pre-nursing society. I'm currently to hear by from Samuel Merritt for the ABSN program. Good luck!

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Specializes in ICU, Triage, Home Health, primary care FNP.

Sounds like I'm writing this thread. I am a UCD grad, Human Dev major. I didn't realize that I wanted to be a nurse until after I graduated, so After finished my BS in Davis, i went to sac city college to take 3 prerequisites and then I went to a one yet accelerated BSN program. I've been a nurse for 6 years. Best long winded career decision I've ever made!

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Thank you so much for the helpful tips everyone! Do you think Nursing programs look at if you failed a class or not? I think I am getting a C in Stats, and I was wondering, should I just fail and take it again, or just get the C? Do nursing schools average the 2 grades, or do they look at the highest one? Thanks so mcuh!

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