What to do, what to do?

lady_jezebel · May 7, 2005

I am currently a sophomore at a private university. My major for the past two years has been Pre-Pharmacy. The beginning of this spring semester is when I decided to finally change my major... I had been thinking about it, but wasn't 100% sure and now I am. :) The only bad thing is that the Pre-pharmacy major required me to take organic chemistry. So I took ochem last fall and did horrible in it (a D). I will be applying for nursing school this fall (my first choice for nursing schools doesn't require ochem for a prereq). The one class I did horrible in brings my GPA down by like .3 gpa points. Am I screwed? Any advice about this is welcomed .

Only .3 points? No, you're not screwed. They look at the entire package (ie. interview or essay, difficulty level of classes taken, letters of recommendation, etc...). Since organic chemistry is not a pre-req, it doesn't carry much weight in the decision-making. Some schools entirely recalculate the GPA based on the prereqs, and use a general formula to "score" the candidate based on all factors. If your other grades are OK (ie. at a 3.0 or above generally, and A's/B's in the pre-reqs), and you have the rest of the "package", you have a good chance. Also, your nursing program probably takes a certain % of candidates from your university first, which gives you an advantage (unless you're applying to an entirely different school, of course).

mediatix8 · May 7, 2005

I was a straight A student in high school but got a C in chemistry at my 4 year university. I opted to take all remaining chemistry courses at my local community college. Most of the nursing schools in my area only asked for elementary organic chemistry, which was rather easy at the community college. I think you still have a good chance at getting in.