Mine did not do direct admit because as an incoming freshman she did not want to be a nurse. She started college with the intention of being something else.
Direct admit is great for kids who are 100% sure of their path, but we also know that 80% of students change majors (according to the National Center for Education Statistics). In my current role, I do advise freshman, a fair number of whom want to be nurses. I’d say at least half self-select out by the end of the first semester. The reasons they give are as individual as the students, but there are two popular refrains. One is that they were only looking at nursing as a “good job (i.e. well paid)” that would be easy to find after graduation. The reality of nursing comes home to roost early and majors change. The second is about the difficulty of the major itself. The closest major I could even compare it to is engineering in terms of schedule. The classes are highly sequenced, so there’s no chance of graduating early. There are no electives in the four year curriculum and students are still taking 17-18 credits a semester. And then the first years on the job are no picnic. Sometimes, students had no idea the coursework would be so intense. The pre-meds and some other pre-professionals expect that, but a lot of potential nursing students did not, and it’s not for everybody.