What kind of grades needed to get into PSYCH NP program?

[rnoodle, BSN, RN]

I'm in my second year of nursing school. I'm starting to get nervous about applying to graduate programs. I want to be a Psychiatric nurse practitioner. In fact, that is the entire reason I decided to go to nursing school at all.

What kind of grades do I need to get into a decent program? If I plan on working for a year or so before applying, how important will my grades be? I'm looking at the program at Rush University, but would love feedback from anyone and everyone. Any wisdom at all is appreciated.

[turnforthenurse, MSN, NP]

Look into Rush University's minimum GPA requirements and go from there.

I think my program was a minimum 3.0 GPA to be considered for admission. While in the program, a C is considered failing.

[elkpark]

Look into Rush University's minimum GPA requirements and go from there.

I think my program was a minimum 3.0 GPA to be considered for admission. While in the program, a C is considered failing.

You can't put too much stock in the minimum grades listed in the school's literature. Many schools post a minimum of 2.5, 2.75, 3.0 in their literature, but they are so swamped with well qualified applicants that people with the minimum GPAs never even get considered. Rush is a well-known and well-respected school, and everyone and her/his mother is trying to get into a PMHNP program these days; I would expect that they have lots of applicants with good GPAs.

OP, you should (always) be working hard to get the best grades you can get.

Your grades will not be less important because you've been working. For graduate programs, prior academic performance is a key consideration for admissions committees. They are looking at how well prepared and how likely you are to be able to do graduate level academic work.

When I applied for grad school, I got asked about a bad grade I got in a college PE (yes, physical education) course almost twenty years earlier, long before I ever went into nursing.

Best wishes!

[umbdude, MSN, APRN]

I'm a bit curious about this as well. I'm trying to get the best grades possible from my BSN (2 more semesters!) and I'll apply to PMHNP programs once I'm done with school, and work as a RN while getting the PMHNP part time. It's true that there are very few people interested in psych, but there are also far fewer PMHNP programs out there.

You can try asking the school directly about the average GPA of accepted students into the post-RN PMHNP program. I'm not sure how open schools are about providing that info, but it's worth a shot. Most people on here say that a 3.5+ GPA will give you a decent chance of getting into grad school. I would think it's probably the similar for PMHNP and maybe a bit higher for the top-tier schools.

[mtsteelhorse]

I'm sure there is some variability and admission boards look at the overall qualifications of applicants. In general a 3.5 gpa tends to be a good goal to shoot for. Good luck to you!

[Grumble88]

My program looked at upper division undergrad gpa, prerequisite gpa, and GRE scores. Make sure you know what Rush is looking at, your overall gpa might not even factor in.