BSN MAJOR CALIFORNIA

State Forums
1

I am intending on being a nursing major out of high school. I need help and advice on which school would be the best choice for me.

So far, I have been accepted to:

-Azusa Pacific (21k scholarship)
-Biola (20k scholarship)
-Mt. St. Mary’s
-CSU San Marcos
-CSU Long Beach
-CSU Los Angeles

I know that APU and Mt. St. Mary’s have offered me a direct entry to nursing program, and the others are a 2+2 pre-nursing major. I am wondering exactly how hard really is it to transfer to a BSN program after pre-nursing? BTW I am still waiting for UCI, CSUF, and SDSU to get back to me.

Thank You!

2

I am one for always advocating in accepting a direct admit program. With low acceptance rates for many BSN programs after completing the Pre-Nursing, it definitely helps to be in a program without worrying about applying again. Transferring into a BSN program will have more requirements than a direct admit.

See CSULB’s requirements: https://www.csulb.edu/college-of-health-human-services/school-of-nursing/degrees-programs/undergraduate-bsn-faq-and

You still have a few decisions pending so wait until they are all posted and then make an informed decision.

3

Okay thank you.

4

Congrats so far!
those are all very competitive programs.

I’d echo the above advise - see where else you get in before committing and heavily favoring a direct admit.

if you look at the Faq link from @Gumbymom and select ''Is it difficult to be accepted … " it looks like they admit about 80 per term and their GPA is around 3.9. San Marcos looks like a similar threshold. https://www.csusm.edu/nursing/programs/traditional-bsn/statistics.html
I wouldn’t count on that…

5

I strongly agree that the direct admit options are your best options.

The 2+2 programs are a huge risk in CA, in that the CSU’s tend to over-admit for the first 2 years of pre-nursing with the thought that many will either not make the grade or change their mind about nursing. But the results of that approach is that there are not enough ‘seats’ for qualified students and many students will have to scramble to find an appropriate program (typically a private option) for their second 2 years.

Since APU and Mt St. Mary’s have both admitted you to their programs directly, your next task is to determine where you’d rather be (MSMary’s is beautiful, but tiny) and if the costs at the respective schools line up with what your family can comfortably afford.

The other thing you need to asses are their clinical programs; required courses, where you’ll be doing your training and the NCLEX pass rates at any school that you commit to.
https://www.rn.ca.gov/education/passrates.shtml