Worried about not having a 4.0? DONT!

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Hello fellow nursing school hopefulls. I have been using AN.com since I got out of the military and started on this journey towards my RN. In the last year and a half I have seen alot of joy, anger, frustration and strife on this website. Recently I posted some information on another thread in reponse to a Community College vs Ivy League debate, needless to say that thread was shut down. However, I think my findings are relevant beyond that debate and wanted to share them with you all.

If we follow the trends of AN.com it seems that everyone and their brother has a 4.0, but thats not an accurate indication of what the competition really looks like. A 4.0 is a very rare grade to get, one bad test in one class at a bad time and bam 3.95. Based on my states data (so there is sure to be some error when taken nationally) there is only a .5% chance that a transfer student has a 4.0!

How easy is it to get a 4.0 GPA in community college? Well 1 in 200 students in my state that transfers from a community college to a 4 year school has a 4.0, so its not that easy.

Of course this includes a few assumptions as I dont have the grades for all 9,702 students that transfered, but I do know that 50 transfer scholarships based soley on GPA were handed out and the cut off was 3.93 (so I assumed all 50 were 4.0).

Also I only have the instate transfer data, I am sure a few students that transfered out of state had 4.0's. But I am sure the ratio is pretty accurate for any transfer student as it doesn't take much to ruin a 4.0.

That being said, all of you out there that are worried about not getting into school because you don't have a 4.0, don't. If my state is a decent sample, it is highly unlikely that there are multiple applicants to your school with a 4.0. Not to say that you shouldn't still try your hardest, but a slip here and there isn't the end of the world.

Mamba, I get where you're coming from. Believe me, I was in a similar situation where my GPA from the University of California is being compared with people having science courses taken at a cc (i have no beef with cc. in fact, i love them!). Luckily, I was still able to get into a few absn programs *phew* but I worried about this dilemma constantly. I spoke to the adviser at my school and she broke it down. Nursing school still look at where your courses come from (maybe, not all schools), but it's important. However, GPA is still key. If you were applying to medical school or grad school, the school name has a larger consideration. My advice, retake classes for the higher grade in order to show you're capable. Although time consuming, it does help.

I get that, but when did a B+ in Organic Chemistry become "not good enough" for nursing school, yet an A in General Freshman Chemistry is the goal? Mediocrity at it's finest...

It's a good thing a lot of nursing schools don't look at organic chemistry grades. Otherwise, I'd be in a lot of trouble!

Mamba49, I get what you're saying but for selection purposes, most schools rely on a system to quantify the applicants. It would be great if they look at the whole package (and some do) but when some schoosl are getting 5 or 10 times more applicants than they have space for, I think they tend to look for an easy way to trim down the applicant pool quickly.

When I got my first degree, I took a higher level math class than the class required for admission to the program that I'm in. I got a B in that class and even though I think getting a B in that class versus an A in the ridiculous "math" class that is required for my nursing program probably shows that my math skills are more than adequate, I went ahead and took the lower level math class because I knew that they wouldn't give my B any more weight even though it was a more difficult class. Besides, how would they decide how much more weight it should get? Does it mean I would have gotten a B+ in the lower level class? An A-? I decided to take it into my hands and prove to them that I am capable of performing at the highest level that they expect.

Another problem is, where do you draw the line? If grades from certain schools should be worth more, what about grades from certain professors? What about different formats - is an online A the same as an in class A or a summer school A equal to a full semester A?

Right or wrong, good or bad, we all just have to jump through the hoops that the nursing programs place in front of us...

Specializes in Critical Care (ICU/CVICU).

I agree with everyone.... nothing is fair! Even in my BSN program... we have to make a 93 to get an A while other BSN programs that I'm aware of only have to make a 90. So when I make a 91 or 92, my B has to compete with another's A. It sucks. But now a days you have to jump through hoops. If I knew that I had a better chance at making higher grades at a university/CC that's "not prestegious" against a more famous school, I would definately go for the school that will give me the As... cause at the end of the day, the transcript is all that matters, it seems like.

If "John" took Organic Chem, Medical Microbio, Statistics, etc. at University of Texas and received a B/B+ average (3.0 - 3.4), and

"Mike" took General Chem, Nursing Microbio, Statistics, etc. at Southern Austin Community College and received an A (4.0), at many schools Mike would have the edge.

Agree or disagree?

Not going to give you slack, but I would like to open your eyes to one thing. Mike could not have done better than a 4.0, so no matter how amazing of a school John went to there is no comparison that can be made unless John too has a 4.0.

I agree. A person going to a CC with a 4.0 GPA should not have the upper hand over a student going to a university like lets say Emory or Johns Hopkins and ending up with a 3.6 GPA. It just doesn't make sense. In high school I have worked my BUTT off to have my 3.8 GPA but I've also taken 10 AP classes which were extremely difficult. When I applied to colleges, they look at my course rigor. They don't just accept someone with a 4.0 GPA who only took on-level classes they ALWAYS give the uppernhand to the person who took the AP's but has a slightly lower GPA. The same consideration should be taken when someone is applying to a nursing program. Yes some CC's are difficult and I think it's a great place to go to save money but I don't think it would be right to say that a 4.0 GPA is equal to a 3.7 GPA at an extremely difficult university or an ivy.

for all those saying its unfair.... why dont you take your classes at a CC get your 4.0 and then apply..problem solved. :yawn:

Specializes in LTC/Rehab.

^^^^I agree. Nursing schools for the most part dont seem to care where you get your prerequisites done. I love my CC for its small class sizes.

Specializes in Critical Care (ICU/CVICU).
for all those saying its unfair.... why dont you take your classes at a CC get your 4.0 and then apply..problem solved. :yawn:

I agree. Whether you are at No-Name community college or Yale University... college algebra, organic chem, and art doesn't change. And besides, if famous universities thought that CCs weren't "up to par", why do they continue to accept transfer students' classes?

Specializes in I can take BP!! lol.
I get that, but when did a B+ in Organic Chemistry become "not good enough" for nursing school, yet an A in General Freshman Chemistry is the goal? Mediocrity at it's finest...

I don't believe that admission/selection committee have the time or desire to scrutinize what type of chemistry class each of thier 500+ applicants took. The way to do it (if I would have been smart I would have done the same thing) is do what the 5 or so 18yr old girls at my school did in order to have a 3.8+ GPA and get selected to the BSN program here. Save AP2, Chemistry, Micro, and Stats for the spring semester of soph year. That way, the GPA the admission/selection committee are looking at is based on the easy classes and excludes the classes were a B is considered a good grade. B's in all those classes will bring their GPA down to the 3.5 and below level, but it doesn't matter at that point....they are already in.

Specializes in Critical Care (ICU/CVICU).
I don't believe that admission/selection committee have the time or desire to scrutinize what type of chemistry class each of thier 500+ applicants took. The way to do it (if I would have been smart I would have done the same thing) is do what the 5 or so 18yr old girls at my school did in order to have a 3.8+ GPA and get selected to the BSN program here. Save AP2, Chemistry, Micro, and Stats for the spring semester of soph year. That way, the GPA the admission/selection committee are looking at is based on the easy classes and excludes the classes were a B is considered a good grade. B's in all those classes will bring their GPA down to the 3.5 and below level, but it doesn't matter at that point....they are already in.

Wow! How were they able to do that?! Most schools I have heard of require at least 3 out of the 4 science grades to be completed with a certain grade. But to get in to a BSN program without having taken 3 out of the 4 required classes is mind boggling! How are the admission people supposed to measure their readiness for NS?

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