Transferring to UBCO or BCIT?

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Hi, I am a first year student in the faculty of sciences at UBC Vancouver. I am planning to apply to either BCIT or UBCO for their BSN program after my first year here. I was wondering how difficult transferring would be? What GPA should I try to maintain to increase my chances of getting into either of these schools? I am also aware that BCIT requires volunteer hours/experience and I was wondering if it has to be in a healthcare setting to be selected for the program. If anyone has ANY information that might be helpful to me I'd be extremely grateful.

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Both of these are not really transfer situations, so much as straight application for admission.

BCIT is a 3 year program & has specific first year course pre-requisites which are listed on their website. If you don't have THOSE courses, you can't even apply so make sure you get all the pre-requisites.

The volunteer hours appear to be more of a bonus now. They consider them but will also consider other work experience that might be relevant (or that you can make seem relevant.... working in high pressure situation, working with people in stress etc.)

UBCO is just a straight 4 year program & admission is based on high school marks for their pre-requisites. I don't even know if they'll look at your 1st year courses & odds are they won't count them towards your degree.

As far as GPA, looks like B+/A- is good place to be.

Any reason you're not considering Langara?

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Like the previous poster said, getting into the nursing program at BCIT isn't really a transfer. Once you have met their prerequisites, you can apply to start level 1. For volunteer experience, healthcare related is obviously preferred but I don't think it's required. When I applied I had to list 3 positions that I've held along with a description of the skills and responsibilities for these positions. They could be work or volunteer positions. Even retail or waitressing is good experience. However, the program is competitive so I would highly suggest volunteering in the hospital or a nursing home (most of the people in my cohort have some sort of healthcare related experience). Anything with children or seniors would look good.

In terms of grades, BCIT does list the minimums they are looking for on the nursing program website, but aim higher... As I said, it's competitive. I had A/A- in the prerequisite courses.

Also keep in mind that BCIT does not accept midterm grades for the prerequisite courses. You have to complete the course before you apply to the program. So if you're taking prerequisites in the Jan-April 2017 semester, the earliest you could start is January 2018.

I don't know anything about UBCO so I can't help with that unfortunately. Let me know if you have any other questions about BCIT :)

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I have experience with UBCO. Keep your GPA high. They will look at your university marks and your high school marks with one year of university. If you have one year full course load, you will likely have fulfilled your non-nursing electives throughout the program so there's a bonus. If I were you I'd try to get a&p out of the way to lighten your course load even further (I think BCIT has it as a pre-req anyways so it would be beneficial with either route.)

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Ah I see, thank you very much for the information. I appreciate it. I think I will apply to Langara as a backup but my heart is mainly set on UBCO or BCIT. Once again, thank you for the assistance!

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@unicornpower Thanks for replying! Very helpful information, I will most definitely contact you if I have further questions. I greatly appreciate it :)

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@yelrac Thanks for replying. How high/ around what range would you recommend I keep my GPA? I really appreciate your help :)

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