@theally1 I am going to Gonzaga for sure. Definitely clicked the most with them!
Good for you! D is visiting USF, Gonzaga, UP, Purdue and U of Del during spring break and hopefully everything will be illuminated! Best of luck to you.
@theally1 If you have any questions about Gonzaga lmk :)!
@theally1 sounds like you’re going to have a busy spring break 
Let us know what you think about the schools once you visit all!
@Charliesch some of us in CA do not have the luxury to attend out of state colleges due to cost, family, distance etc.
I would like to share my experience this year. I was fortunate to get accepted into Freshman Direct Entry nursing programs at CSUF and SDSU. My stats are not that stellar, 4.08 GPA and 31 ACT. I did follow the advice about taking the ACT and performed better on the ACT than the SAT 1280 which I think helped me. I also took anatomy and physiology in high school and got A’s in all my science classes. I only took a few AP classes: Spanish, Biology, Government and Ceramics which probably hurt my chances at UCLA but did not hurt my chances at the two CSUs. GPA and stats will always be the most important and extracurriculars will be secondary at UCLA and UCI. I like SDSU because it has a high NCLEX pass rate of 96%. About 300 were accepted. I just spent the day at SDSU and learn that I will be in a class of 120 freshmen this fall. If I had not gotten into one of the Freshman direct entry programs, I would have gone to my local community college in Sacramento and transferred to CSU Sacramento State which also has a high NCLEX pass rate. I was rejected from UCLA, but to be honest I would have still chosen SDSU over UCLA as the NCLEX pass rate at UCLA was 85% last year and the tuition cost is double that SDSU. My family is middle class and I do not qualify for financial aid. In order to get a merit scholarship you actually have to be have super high stats.
Please feel free to message me or ask any questions!
@davisgirl First of all congratulations on your acceptances to the two CA CSUs. This is a great accomplishment. However, your are doing yourself and worthy future non-A+ students a disservice with your comments (as well as for taking @charliesch to task for recommending to consider privates or OOS. ) - sorry.
I started this thread specifically to show that A-B+ students can Successfully and Affordably get in and attend direct entry nursing. With a 4+GPA and 30+ ACT, you are in fact an A+ student and calling yourself “less than stellar” is unfair to yourself 1st of all and other wonderful similar students - this thread is not for you all. You don’t need it. But, unfortunately, that is just a reflection of our current CA college environment where a 4.6 GPA and a UCLA admission is the only thing that is being sold to our kids as worthy.
Cost-wise, to reitterate my original post, most of the colleges my daughter was accepted to are within and lower than UCs and some are at CSU cost!!! Also, to clarify for those like me who did not know the difference before reading CC, merit $ is assigned usually at admissions and has nothing to do with financial aid, which we also do not qualify for. Super high stats are not necessary for merit $ OOS and privates; amount depends on where u fall in their percentile, as well as many other things.
I agree with you that going down the path of transfer into a program as a junior is definitely an option and I discussed that briefly. However, I reittirate again, to get into a CA public nursing school as a junior, you usually need at least, a 3.6-3.7 GPA. This is a college GPA of prerequisites full of chemistry, bio, micro…etc, which is far from a sure thing, even for a high school A student.
Again, best of luck to you and the other 300 wonderful kids who were admitted to the CA publics. This post is for the other 4,000 who did not get in - there are direct nursing options out there for you, that can also be affordable. Some are in CA - so even additional travel is not required.
Ultimately, every student and his/her parents need to make a decision. The point of this thread is to show that options for non-A+ students are not as limited as most people think.
Yes, it varies greatly from college to college. Many private colleges that are not in the top 100 will offer 50% off of tuition merit aid to students who have very good stats, but not extremely high stats. Tuition discounting is extremely common among the majority of private colleges.
The most selective private colleges usually emphasize need-based aid. It is not unusual for a student from a moderate income family to pay less for a very selective private college than for a public college.
@charlieschm For CA students particularly, cost of public college has gotten so high and cost of living/dorm cost are so reficulous, that a good student can get enough merit $ at privates or even some OOS flagships to come close or even get below the UC price, and even CSU.
This is an older thread, but just wanted to thank *** theally1*** for posting such helpful details of your daughter’s and family’s college journey, with regard to the Direct Entry Nursing programs in and out of California.
We also reside in California (in San Francisco). My daughter is a senior in HS and is in the midsts of working through the essays and applications. Her GPA is 3.55 and SAT is 1180 (hoping she can raise it with one more upcoming test). Since she’s expressed an interest in Nursing, I proceeded to comb through any posts and online info (exhaustive research, almost as if I were the one applying, lol). Of course, we looked at the UCs and then the CSU’s … and then the Privates. We live so close to USF, not what she/I imagined for her college experience, but it’s actually her top choice because of the BSN program and it’s link with UCSF.
Due to her stats, the options seem very slim in California. We visited Azusa Pacific and for similar reasons that you mention, it’s off the table. Did a drive by at Dominican University and it is beautiful, but too small/quiet for our daughter, who is used to City energy. Without your post, we now would not be considering Univ of Portland, Gonzaga, Seattle U.
Take the ACT too. It has an emphasis on science, so pre-nursing students often do better on it.
@SFCA2018 glad my post was helpful! Best of luck! And let me know if you have additional questions.
Like many of you, I was in the same boat applying as a nursing major about 2 years ago. I was absolutely a B+/A- kind of student in high school (3.8 non-weighted gpa), and had very low SAT/ACT scores (25/1730). I applied to a wide variety of nursing schools, because I thought my stats were not as competitive to get into one of the 4 direct-entry nursing public schools in CA. However, to my surprise I actually ended up getting accepted to all four public direct entry nursing schools and rejected or waitlisted at the many privates schools. I also applied early actions to most of the private schools. Also I do not feel like I had anything in my application that made me stand out. Although I am Hispanic and by definition first generation, even though my mother is an RN with an ADN. I also live in a very affluent community and my families income is well over 100K. When I got accepted to UCI and UCLA I was very confused after not getting accepted to the other private nursing schools. I just wanted to share this because its seems like many of you had the opposite situation happen where you were accepted to most of the private schools and rejected at most of the public schools.
Accepted
Seattle U (Nursing)
CSUCI (Pre-Nursing)
CSU Fullerton (Nursing)
Cal Poly SLO (Nutrition)
Davis (Nutrition)
UC Irvice (Nursing)
SDSU (Nursing)
UCSB (Biology)
UCLA (Nursing) Attending
Waitlisted
U of Portland (Nursing)
Gonzaga (Nursing)
Berkeley (Nutritional Sciences and Toxicology)
Penn (Nursing)
Rejected:
U of San Francisco (Nursing)
Stanford (Biology)
USC (Biology)
NYU (Nursing)
Georgetown (Nursing)
@theally1 thank you very much for your post on your D’s journey to pursue the nursing degree in college. I am also from CA. I also want to be a nurse. The nursing programs in CA are so competitive. You almost have to be a straight A student to get in. Your post really helps me to open my mind to look outside of CA. I have also applied for some schools mentioned in your post. May I ask which school your D finally chose? Thank you very much!
Great info…I know I am late but if anyone is still reading this…Has anyone heard about nursing at Coe College in Cedar Rapids? My junior wants nursing, we are on west coast, and they look like they offer lots of aid and a clinical in Africa…The college fair rep. was wonderful selling the whole school and I do know Coe was mentioned by Loren Pope in his “Colleges That Change Lives” book but Coe was just in the back as an honorable mention. Anymore info. would be great if anyone has any? Thanks!
Thought I would add an update in hopes of helping others interested in BSN and California schools. My daughter submitted all of her applications before Nov 1,2017, the privates were Early Action.
–Her stats ended up being:
GPA (weighted): 3.7
SAT: 1240
–Applied Early Action to:
Univ. of Portland, Nursing - Accepted!
Seattle Univ, Nursing -
Gonzaga, Nursing -
Univ. San Francisco, Nursing -
–Applied to these California schools:
UC: Davis, Irvine, Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, Riverside (selecting Anthropology, Psychology majors)
CSU: San Francisco, Cal Poly SLO
She/we didn’t bother to apply to CSU San Diego or Fullerton, anticipating that her stats would not be high enough.
Best wishes to everyone!!
This thread has been wonderful. I appreciate all the information. My D has applied to many of the same schools and is looking forward to visiting USF, UP, Seattle U and Gonzaga among others.
D ended up at University of Portland and loves it there. This was her first choice outside San Diego State. She is finishing up her finals this week and loves it!
Adding on. We are Jewish and she just sent a post of her and a group of other friends lighting a menorah in her dorm lobby. University of Portland has made her and her non-catholic friends feel very welcome. So, if anyone is worried about that part of applying to a catholic college, they shouldn’t be. At least at UP. Good luck to all and let us know final results. I am so glad the info I left is helping others! These kids deserve to follow their dreams and not worry about an extra few Bs in high school.
Did anyone else who applied EA to Gonzaga’s nursing program notice the change in the portal? Otherwise, no word yet.