Trying to get into school, but have bad grades from before

JStyles1 · Jul 22, 2008

some schools will allow you to petition to have classes removed after a certain time period. check with your local school

okchug · Jul 22, 2008

I know exactly how you feel! I am also haunted by a low GPA.

I went to college right out of HS and got my BS, but graduated with a 2.6 GPA. That was 1992! When I started looking to go back for nursing, I was very discouraged and thought the GPA would keep me out of NS-BUT I kept trying. I researched all the local schools, programs, and talked with advisers.Some schools just flat out told me that I couldn't get in with less than a 3.6.

I took some pre-reqs (A&P, micro, pharm, med term) and I got A's. Now even though my GPA is 4.0 at my current school, the overall is not much higher- and because I have a degree they would not "forgive" the bad grades. BUT gpa for this school is only part of a points system used for admission. If you have a high one you get a few extra points. I am starting NS in Aug!!!

Keep searching and you'll get your chance!

Good Luck!

Shadow31 · Jul 23, 2008

I went back after 13 years:bugeyes:. I too left my GPA a mess with 4 classes of Fs and an additional semester of Cs and Ds, my GPA was around 1.8! I had a hard time and had to petition the school to get in explaining why my GPA was so low and what I was going to do to correct it... they eventually let me in. Side note (unless you plan on transferring some of those other credits from the other schools you do not have to have those classes transfered to the school you are trying to get into). Check with what the current requirements are for the school you want into, decide if you need to transfer credits, call an advisor and see what they say, and once you are in see if you can get some of those old credits taken off of your transcript.

I, in the end, had to retake some classes to get my GPA up and had the school remove one semester from my GPA. When the removed the semester from my GPA it was only for the school I was attending but will show up if I have a transcript produced for any other school. This allowed me to have a higher GPA to get into nursing but will haunt me some with my MSN.

You can do this. I did it. I basically started over at the age of 31, but I can say I did it. I took my NCLEX this morning and I am pretty sure I passed. I had a lot of people telling me all the work I had to do to fix my GPA and asking if I really wanted to do it. All I can say is yes I can do it, did it and I did it graduating with honors. It may seem like you have so much work ahead of you now but time will pass if you are in school or not, so you might as well be going to school. It took me four years (BSN) but those four years would have passed if I was in school or not.

Best of luck to you!

*sorry for spelling errors, too tired to correct them after the NCLEX!

dylansmommy · Jul 23, 2008

Thanks so much for your reply. It really helps to know that I'm not alone and that it CAN be done!! Did you ask to petition your case in order to get into nursing school? I would love to be able to explain myself and would be willing to do whatever is necessary to get into a program.

Shadow31 · Jul 24, 2008

I did my research, talked to advisors and set a plan. I found out that the nursing school would not talk to me until I had my GPA up to 2.5, so I did it. It took 2 semesters of prereqs to get it done but this goes a lot quicker if you retake the classes with the lowest grades first. Once I got that done I was able to declare the nursing major and could then sit down and talk to the school. There was no explaining away anything I just had to redo the classes. In my program a lot of those would have had to been taken as prereqs anyway, so all I really did was wast time by taking them a second time; they still went towards my degree.

If you decide to petition to have credits removed check on the time period to have this done. I didn't do it in time (d/t the advisors not imforming me of the time limit) and had to petition all the way up to the VP of the school. He eventually agreed that the lack of information was the problem and not unwillingness on my part to get it done in time (another 4 months of paperwork).

I suggest you pick the school you want and look at what classes are needed. Decide what you need to retake then contact an advisor. Explain what your plan is and what classes you plan on retaking and see if they can help you get accepted.

In my case it would not have been a bad idea to start over fresh, at a new school with zero credits (that means saying you have never gone to college before), and done the flat 4 years, since that is what I did anyway. My point.... those old credits may not be worth it to you, forget they exist and look at the time involved going to school without the old credits vs. retaking those old classes to bring up your GPA.

okchug · Jul 24, 2008

I could not start at "zero". I was required to list ALL previous schools attended, even one where I dropped a class before ever attending. I was told that if a search brought up a school that I hadn't listed, my application would be thrown out!

Please check with your school. I guess all those records are out there available to institutions- don't take chances.