<p>I was debating whether I should apply to the nursing program or major in biology for undergraduate studies. Ultimately, I decided to major in biological sciences and worry about going to nursing school afterwards. I am now having second thoughts, and I wish i had applied for nursing instead. On my Blue Hen Home, there is the option to update majors, where you can email your request. However, my issue is that I am not sure if it is too late to do so, being that the UD nursing program is so competitive and the 130 or so spots are probably filled by now.
Is it worth contacting the school? My stats seem to be in the general area as applicants who were accepted for nursing in past years (1890 SATs, 30 ACT, 3.5 GPA, volunteer work, good ECs, etc). Would the sudden change so late affect my overall admissions decision? Should I wait until after i receive an admission decision? I also read about changing majors after the first or second semester (which is also very competitive), but if possible I would want to be considered for the program before the year even starts.</p>
<p>If you definately want to major in Nursing at UD IMHO you should contact them ASAP (like today) and inform them of the change. You can move bio to be your secondary major interest (I have little doubt you should be accepted to this major). UD actually accepts around 300 applicants for Nursing to end up with a class size of about 135. Up to this time only in-state applicants have been notified about admission decisions. The stats you presented are certainly competitve for Nursing but it all depends on the overall applicant pool-so obviously no guarantees. I don’t believe doing this would have any impact on your being considered for Bio. admission as your secondary choice. </p>
<p>However there is one situation where this might be a problem. That is if the decision is “wait list” for Nursing (I know of at least one person accepted off the “wait list” for Nursing last year). You would then need to decide if you want to accept a spot on the “wait list” or not. I don’t believe they would offer you this and also, at the same time, accept you for bio. So you would find yourself between a rock and a hard place and have to make a decision one way or the other. If you don’t want to accept the “wait list” for Nursing you would then need to contact them ASAP, tell them so, and inquire about acceptance for Bio-which they then likely IMHO would accept you to. You should also follow this same procedure should you just get a rejection letter from UD for Nursing with no identified decision about your secondary choice. This course of action only applies to OOS Nursing applicants as many, if not most of them, would likely have the stats to be accepted into most other majors at UD. Obviously there are no guarantees to any of this.</p>
<p>If you just wait for your probable acceptance (IMHO) to Bio. and then try to transfer right after this into Nursing I feel that you would probably would have little chance of success. After our D was accepted for Nursing, when she went to Delaware Decision Days (held in April), some students who were accepted into other majors came to the Nursing Presentation and inquired about trying to switch into Nursing at that time. They were told this was not possible at that time and their only recourse was to try and transfer into Nursing later after starting at UD (but they were also told that this is not recommended as a course of action as there are so few transfer slots that open up). Our D told us later that there were only 3-4 transfers to Nursing yearly and the competition for these few slots was so intense that some students with 4.0 GPA’s at UD in other majors were not able to transfer. So this is an extremely risky course of action to pursue (not impossible but extremely risky).</p>
<p>I realize that the above may sound somewhat convoluted in description (I apologize for this) but it is the best way that I can respond to your request. I wish you the best of luck in whatever course of action you decide to take.</p>