I’m a parent of a CSUSM Nursing Major applicant. We thought that CSUSM was a Direct Admit Freshman BSN program. Some of the posts I’m reading indicate otherwise. A bit confused.
Also, my daughter has called a few times regarding when acceptances will go out. She’s being told July 2019. Obviously, this seems late. Has anyone else heard back from them?
@camom65: Your daughter applied as a Freshman applicant? SIR dates for all Cal states is May 1.
This major is authorized to use supplementary admission criteria to screen applications. First-time freshman admission decisions will be based on college readiness and the Eligibility Index score. Local area applicants will be given priority over non-local applicants. This major is not eligible for early admission decision. Applicants admitted to their alternate major, and not accepted into the TBSN major by the start of the Fall term, will not be able to switch majors or apply to the impacted major at a later date.
The first year students, from the local area, were admitted using the highest
eligibility index and GPA.
Eligible local area freshmen applicants not offered a spot in Nursing, were
automatically admitted to their alternative major or to Undeclared if no alternative was
selected in CSU Mentor.
Can I attend the University under one major and then switch my major into Nursing?
No, while we would like to offer admission to every CSU-eligible applicant at CSU San Marcos, our enrollment capacity and resources do not permit this goal.
The TBSN Nursing major has a limited number of seats and uses impaction criteria for admission.
Eligible local area applicants are admitted either as a first year student or a transfer student.
I only want to pursue Nursing. What are my options?
Apply to nursing major in high school as a freshman student.
Attend the community college and apply to the nursing major as a transfer student.
Follow the transfer articulation for nursing using www.assist.org
Pursue an RN at community college and apply to CSUSM’s RN to BSN program.
Receive your Bachelors Degree in another major and take your pre-nursing core courses
through a Community College or Extended Learning. Once completed, apply to our Accelerated BSN program offered through CSUSM Extended Learning.
What is SIR?
Yes, I’ve read that whole bit on their website. My question is the same. We thought CSUSM was a Direct Admit BSN program, but apparently it is not? If it’s not, why are they holding all the applications until July 2019 before putting out acceptance letters? If not a Direct Admit nursing program, what are these acceptances to? Are they just accepted into a Nursing major at CSUSM but then they re-apply to the Nursing Program again after a year there of getting the pre-reqs? Very confused.
SIR means Statement with an intent to register (enroll in the college).
Not sure how acceptances can come out in July when the rest of the Universities (Cal States/UC’s) require students to enroll by May 1, so if you do not know you are accepted into the Nursing program, how can you register?
To me the information on the website indicates that it is direct admit but admitted students are still required to take the Nursing pre-req courses to continue in the program. Also it states you cannot apply to the Nursing program as an enrolled CSUSM student in another major so no internal transfers. It also seems like they are giving top priority to local applicants only and probably have limited spots.
If your daughter has not gotten an acceptance into the Nursing program, she should consider her other options. Why attend a school that you have no chance of transferring/applying into their Nursing program later??
CSUSM is not on the Direct Admit school list. Does anyone on here know for sure what kind of program it is? On this website, I’m seeing references to CSUSM being a 2+2 program. My understanding of that is that you get accepted into the Nursing major, take your pre-reqs and at end of sophomore year, you apply to the Nursing program with about a 10% chance of getting in. That doesn’t sound like a Direct Admit program. I’ve called the Nursing Dept. there and the dept won’t talk about admissions/acceptances. They refer me to an email address for the dept that does Nursing apps only - there is no phone number for this dept. When we talk to CSUSM general Admissions, they give me the “July 2019” dates as when their acceptances go out. I just don’t understand how we decide what to do with this late timing.
I thought the program was a 2+2 also since they use to have a “pre-health” major where you would do the pre-req classes for Nursing and then apply to program. In 2017, they changed the program so they would direct admit local applicants based on EI and supplemental criteria, directly into the Nursing program.
From CSUSM PDF:
Beginning Fall 2017 a limited number of freshman were admitted directly into the
Nursing Major.
-These first year students, from the local area, were admitted using the highest
eligibility index and GPA.
-Eligible local area freshmen applicants not offered a spot in Nursing, were
automatically admitted to their alternative major or to Undeclared if no alternative was
selected in CSU Mentor.
Other than this information, I have been also unable to get more details regarding the program.
Huh - so confusing. So the area applicants (which my daughter is) have to wait until July? So weird. Can you pls give the link for the CSUSM PDF? I haven’t seen that anywhere. Thanks so much.
Did she get an acceptance to CSUSM for any major? I cannot understand either how they can make you wait for the decision until July when you have to accept some school by May 1.
Here is the PDF which is similar to the FAQ’s listed on their website but with the additional information from 2017.
No, she hasn’t gotten any kind of acceptance from them - we are local. Unlike SDSU, CSUSM does allow a 2nd choice in the application. She put Undeclared - hasn’t heard anything from that either. If she doesn’t get accepted into CSUSM Nursing, that’s it. No re-applications are allowed. I did talk to someone again there a little while ago. She told me that CSUSM is a Direct Admit program for Nursing - that it wasn’t just for local area students but also those from out of the area too. Honestly though I get a different answer from someone every time I call so not sure how much stock to put in this last conversation. On another post, there were 2 local San Diegans who had received acceptances for the CSUSM Nursing program in early March this year. When the CSUSM employee today again said that all acceptances would be sent out by end of July 2019, I told her that I heard of some applicants getting acceptances in early March. Her response was that usually all acceptances are sent out in July, but this year they were trying to get them all out by end of March. She said that some people got acceptances and then they realized that they could not finish all acceptances. She said they are back to finishing the application acceptances by July. So apparently there was an upper tier of students (not sure how many) that received acceptances and everyone else (who probably don’t have other options) just hope their name is called in July. This really makes no sense to me. My daughter needs to live at home for financial reasons, so applying to other schools wasn’t an option. She was not accepted into SDSU Nursing. So she might just end up in community college and work up that way with hopes of transferring in somewhere. We are thinking about moving to Colorado to be closer to family. When I spoke to a couple of schools there, I was told that it’s almost impossible to get into Nursing programs in CA. My daughter is 3.87 GPA and 1220 SAT/24 ACT. It’s sad to think that those might not be enough for Nursing here.
@camom65: You are not alone in thinking about how difficult it is to get into any CA Nursing school. I had one niece whom could not even get the pre-req courses completed at her local CC due to overcrowding and ended up changing majors. A co-workers daughter had the same issues at her CC but had family in Oregon, so went to a CC in Oregon and then transferred to University of Portland for her BSN. She is now back in California working.
So does CSUSM expects applicants to enroll in another school until they hear in July? To me this seems like the are basically waitlisting all of the rest of the applicants until they can make these late decisions. I would definitely have your daughter apply to her local community college and start working on those pre-req’s so she can transfer. Hopefully in 2 years she will have more options from which to choose. Best of luck to her.
I agree. I think CSUSM probably put all the high GPAs/test scores in one pile, took a look at those only and then issued acceptances on most of those. Which means that everyone else was waitlisted (but they don’t use that term) in hopes that there are some remaining slots open by July. She only made the admission of some acceptances going out in March when I told her I had heard of some being accepted. Her go-to line was only that they would finish the reviews by July. Doesn’t look good. I’m new to this but it seems from what I’ve read on this site that no other nursing schools are doing this. It’s not very respectful to future students and is a poor reflection on the school IMHO. Really the best way to handle it would be to get more manpower to review the applications they’ve had since December and get all letters out by March. SDSU gets 5000+ applicants and my daughter definitively heard from them in early March.
@camom65: CSU Fullerton waitlisted all top applicants, then notified around 100+ applicants to make a decision immediately for the 40 spots available. Within 24 hours, all spots were filled. At least they heard at the beginning of April.
Hi @camom65
Did your daughter get admitted to CSUSM nursing program? I’m curious what you found out if it really is a 2+2 program. The more I read on the website, it doesn’t appear to be a real 2+2 for freshman admits. Just found out my daughter was accepted but she’s hesitate on 2+2 programs. We are are in the CSUSM local area and she is a high school senior.
Transfer students and other majors, must complete 8 core courses to apply to a Nursing program. (this doesn’t say freshman admits to TBSN program)
" Can I attend the university under one major and then apply to nursing?
No, while we would like to offer admission to every CSU-eligible applicant at CSU San Marcos, our enrollment capacity and resources do not permit this. The TBSN Nursing major has a limited number of seats and uses impaction criteria for admission. Eligible local area applicants are admitted either as a first year student or a transfer student."
We were waitlisted and then told in the summer not accepted. Was not impressed with how Csusm handled their process. We found out their program is a 4 year freshman direct admit Nursing program. I would assume that hasn’t changed. So congratulations to your daughter!! We moved to Colorado to be closer to family and for her to go to school to get pre-reqs to apply to nursing schools there in the future. I did a lot of research. The odds are really stacked against CA applicants - especially those of us living there and wanting to pay in-state tuition. I was told by College Nursing Admin that it’s almost impossible to get into CA nursing programs. Number of applicants to openings for example at CSUSM and SD state - it’s about a 3% acceptance rate. Junior colleges in SD slightly better at around 15%
Thank you for getting back to me so quickly. I’m sorry to hear that you and your daughter didn’t received the communication you should have. That is frustrating and unfair. I do know how competitive it is. Although she has pretty good stats, we didn’t know if she would still even make the cut. We have been so hopeful for in-state for financial considerations.
Thank you also for clarifying the program. The website is awkward, and difficult to gather information as it doesn’t state straight forward that freshman admits are directly admitting into the program and it doesn’t offer a curriculum example of classes like SDSU does.
Good luck to your daughter. I hope you are liking Colorado and she gets into whichever nursing program she wants!
Thank you. She has a long road ahead of her! It might have been a blessing in disguise that she didn’t get in. If much of her program by now were hard Nursing classes online, that wouldn’t have worked for her. As it is, your daughter will be starting at the tail end of Covid.
Yes, CSUSM website is not great but you can call and speak to anyone anytime. You really have to hunt around on their site. here’s one link to the 4 year classwork https://www.csusm.edu/nursing/documents/plan_of_study/tbsn_4-yr.pdf
https://www.csusm.edu/nursing/programs/traditional-bsn/understandnurs.html
Thank you!
By the way, to encourage your daughter…I too went the long way through nursing school. Did prerequisites at a JC for several years, finally went to nursing school for ADN at another JC. Worked for a few years in ED as a new grad. Then went back from my BSN at a university. It was long, but I got a GREAT education and debt free! Its not the glorious “4 year university” route but in the end, there is no difference in my practice, or the initials behind my name on my badge.