Hi, I’m currently a high school junior. I’m very sure that I want to be a nurse so I wanted to know what my chances are in getting into a nursing program at a CSU or UC.
GPA: 3.5 (I know, not the best)
SAT/ACT: pending, will be taking very soon. What scores should I aim for?
Internship: Will be interning at a local hospital
Summer college program: I’ll be taking a “summer enrichment” program focusing on nursing, studies of nursing,health professions, cpr training, etc. This program gives both HS and college credit.
I’ll also be dual enrolling at that same college for anatomy and physiology during my senior year if it’s worth mentioning.
I know nursing and college admissions is very competitive, so any advice and tips are appreciated. Thank you!
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/nursing-major/
^^^^ Look in the Nursing Major thread above. Read through all the posts in the last year there because a lot of people have offered advice and assistance on exactly what you want to know Good luck!
I assume you are asking about direct-admit nursing programs. While that is the best option if you can get accepted, 4-year nursing programs are very competitive. So you need a plan B. The end goal is to end up with a BSN, the pay is better than for just an RN and increasingly it is a requirement for promotion.
One alternative to direct-admit is going to a 4-year and taking the pre-nursing program and then applying for the BSN program there (as well as applying to xfer to other colleges with a BSN). But if you don’t get into a BSN program after 2 years you are kinda out of luck, and admission is quite competitive. You don’t have to initially enroll at a school with a School of Nursing, you could look up what nursing schools require to transfer and take those classes at most 4-year schools, .
Instead of applying after 2 years for nursing, a great alternative is to get an RN at a community college (an ADN degree) and then go to one of the RN->BSN programs. Look for a good NCLEX pass rate at the CC. I know nurses that have done this. RN->BSN programs tend to much be easier to get into than direct-admit or nursing from pre-nursing BSN programs. See http://www.rn.ca.gov/education/rntobsn.shtml for a list. Many are part-time and/or online, but some are campus based. Fullerton, for example, offers both online and on-campus and says
If you go the CC->BSN path you are a RN and are highly likely to get a BSN if you continue, the downside is the college experience is not quite the same as the 4-year path.
We have a couple people in this forum who have been through the process in California.
I always pick on @Banker1 with tagging because our daughters applied to one of the same schools.
Here are stats for SDSU and UCI direct admit BSN programs to give you an idea of what stats you will need to be competitive. GPA under a 4.0 (capped weighted) will be problematic.
https://nursing.sdsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Freshmen-Admission-Statistics.pdf
UCI Nursing Stats:
Fall 2018 freshman applicants: 2,887
Fall 2018 freshman admissions: 72 (2.5% admitted)
Average UC GPA: 4.24 GPA
Average total SAT score: 1914
Average total SAT score (new version): 1332
All direct admit BSN programs are highly competitive in California and the 2+2 programs can be equally competitive and impacted. You might want to consider some OOS options or Community college to a 4 year BSN program.
@EliMag Hello! I encourage you to read through the thread below which is the 2023 Nursing Admissions Thread and the year before 2022 thread. Also you can get info from the Fullerton Thread, SDSU admissions, UCLA and UCI threads. It is competitive for nursing in California both for direct and non-direct. Good luck
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/nursing-major/2108166-class-of-2023-nursing-admissions-p39.html
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/nursing-major/2039571-class-of-2022-nursing-admissions-p13.html