Transferring Nursing Schools

[JB2014, BSN, RN]

Hi all,

So I am currently a freshman nursing student at William Paterson University, and after unfortunate cirumstances, I am losing my honors scholarship for sophomore year. Essentially, I am now going to be paying almost full price to a school that I am very unhappy with (it was my last choice, and I had gone there due to financial reasons and the amount of money they had given me). I am going to stay for the spring semester, but currently, I am not happy with the environment, as well as way things are handled within the school. Thus, I am looking into transferring into different schools (might as well pay for a school that I will enjoy being at), one of them being Rutgers New Brunswick. Now, I am aware that they do not accept out of school transfers, so I would have to transfer in as a different major for the fall 2015 semester. I would definitely want to continue nursing, and I do have tons of credit from AP testing, as well as anatomy and physiology courses underneath my belt (because I'm already in a nursing program).

For those of you who have gone through this process, how is Rutgers in terms of transferring of credit? Would I essentially be starting as a freshman if I were to reapply into the nursing program, or would my credit from taking those nursing prereqs at William Paterson transfer over? Would it be better to just stick to the major I have changed to (most likely kinesiology or public health because they do not have an option for undecided) and pursue a degree in that instead? Is a major change closed to transfers, ultimately forcing me to pursue a degree in the major I have changed to? Would I be able to take the nursing based prereqs as a non nursing major, or is that difficult to do? And finally, would I have a very hard time getting into the program? I currently have a 4.0 GPA but it does fluctuate from a 3.8 or so. I know that it is quite competitive, so I just wanted to know my chances/how delayed I would be in terms of graduation and clinicals.

Thank you so much for reading my long wall of text!

[mamaxmaria]

If you don't mind me asking, what did you not like about the program? I'm currently at wpu looking to transfer into the nursing program

[sakaki]

When you start out at Rutgers, you really don't have to declare a major. This means that you can continue to finish up your nursing prereqs. It should not hard to get into most classes, since Rutgers offers so many classes every semester. Additionally, you must complete 24 credits at Rutgers and apply for a school-to-school transfer in order for the nursing school to review your application. They don't start looking at applications until June 1 and notifications will be out until June 30.

As far as transferring credits goes, Rutgers is very picky (at least in my opinion). They may or may not accept all of your credits. Some people have had no problems getting their credits to transfer over, while some people end up losing credits. I guess it just depends.

If you're thinking about majoring in public health, do your research first. Working in public health requires A LOT of experience (internships, traveling, research, etc.) and you WILL have to go to graduate school to even be considered for most entry-level positions. Besides that, public health is a very broad field that I personally find to be very interesting.

If you have any questions, please PM me. I'm currently going through this process right now.