I posted in another thread (Parents of the Class of 2022 - 3.0-3.4) with the information below, and I received some good ideas there. However, folks thought that I might get some more nursing specific information if I posted here.
My youngest DD qualifies for this thread (the 3.0-3.4 thread) if you just count core courses, and use unweighted GPA. She has a mix of As and Bs, with two C+ on the transcript. While she and I have discussed where she’ll apply, and she does have a list, I thought it might be worth asking for ideas. We can see how those ideas line up with her list, and find out if there are some new suggestions. She will be applying for direct admit BSN programs.
She has taken mostly Honors and AP courses, and weighted GPA is 3.7+ (they don’t weight a lot - an A in an Honors or AP course is 4.3). She took the SAT once, does not want to take again, and has a solid score (1480 - 740V, 740M). We are on the East Coast, Northeast/Mid-Atlantic, she prefers an urban school (for ease of getting to clinicals) and probably doesn’t want to go further west than Ohio.
Be sure to check what the weed-out college GPA is for direct admit nursing students. Some schools appear to over-admit, then weed-out students with GPA requirements like 3.5.
I’ll make sure we check any GPA requirement. While I wouldn’t push a school with a requirement such as a 3.5 GPA, I am not overly concerned about her ability to achieve a higher GPA in college. My eldest had a similar HS GPA, and similar SAT scores. In college, once she was taking the courses she wanted to take, and had some skin in the game (with loans), suddenly the GPA was over 3.9.
My daughter from NY with an overall 85 or so average overall narrowed down BSN Direct Admit to York College PA and U of Akron. Both were very good with merit with Akron being outstanding. She ultimately chose Akron because she wanted a little bigger and more urban setting. While her grades were average she was still accepted into many programs with merit including Widener, Mount St. Mary College, Kent State, Marywood, IUP but not Bloomsburg nursing.
York has a great program but Akron’s size and more to do in the area appealed to my daughter. I hope it works out. She starts in Fall. Akron has 75 direct admit seats a year. They were incredibly generous for merit.
So many schools in Northeast! She probably has already applied…but with her scores, she’s a shoe in for merit scholarships…Pitt, Duquesne, PSU main, Messiah, Villanova ($$$$), Sacred Heart, Fairfield, Immaculata (she could get full scholarship with 13500+ SAT scores), Quinnipiac
She is finished applying to schools. In addition to the five schools I listed above, she applied to Drexel and West Chester.
Penn State is too isolated. My eldest seriously considered going there, though she ended up in DC (not for nursing). My middle one would not even apply due to the “middle-of-nowhere” feel.
Villanova is definitely out. It would have been a good choice for any of my three kids, though they didn’t want to go so close to home…as in if you can walk there in under 15 minutes, it is too close.
Plenty of kids around us go to Delaware, and they all seem to like it. However, she is finished applying to colleges - she’ll end up at one of those schools. Good chance that she’ll go to Pitt, as she has seen it and likes it (one sister went there), and plenty of great medical facilities nearby.