Hello, I am a junior in NC and my hopes are to go to UNC CH next year. 3.9 gpa, 4.65 weighted, ACT 30 (superscored). I have taken APES, AP Bio, AP Human Geog, and next year I plan on taking AP Stats & AP Psych. I am planning on going into nursing and based on my pre-calc experience I am really not looking forward to taking Calc next year. As I understand it Calc is not important for nursing so I plan on taking AP Stats instead.
Would the perception from admissions be that I am “bailing out” if I avoid Calc in my senior year? I want to avoid Calc if I can but not at the expense of it jeopardizing my chances of admission.
@ncnrs2be No you don’t need calc to be a nursing major, HOWEVER, please check the colleges that you want to apply to for their requirements! They may want to see 4 years of math and if you’re already at the Pre-Calc level, you may need to take Calc for that reason.
AP Stats counts as the fourth year of math in every school I know. Of course do check to see if that’s the same in your high school.
Nursing schools will prefer stats over calc. I looked at a vast number of nursing school requirements and I never seen calc as a requirement.
University of Michigan that has a great nursing program clearly states that in its website.
You should check about Physics though. Most nursing schools don’t require it but there is at least one that I know (U Conn) that does. Might be more that do.
Thank all for your input. I checked the requirements for the colleges I intend on applying to and it looks like AP stats does meet the requirements of a fourth year of math. For now I’m 50/50 on whether I’ll keep Calc A/B on my schedule for next year. Time will tell.
You should be aware that UNC CH is not a direct-admit nursing school. I’d recommend that anyone planning on nursing at least consider alternatives that are.
One other thought after reading your post – math is not something everyone enjoys, and I agree with previous posters that Stats may be more useful, but your struggle in pre-calc may be indicating something else.
Many HS students, often in fact the better students, have never learned to study effectively and just get by on native smarts. After they go over the material a few times it seems familiar and they think they “know” it, confusing recognition with recall. Usually they remember enough to complete short-answer questions or recognize the likely correct multiple-choice answer, their verbal skills let them craft good essays, but it is tests in subjects like math that reveal the problem. I notice that you don’t list having taken Chem or Physics, two other classes that those without good study skills find difficult.
In college many more classes are going to require a deeper understanding of the material. For nursing there is no escaping Chem and the like. To up the ante, at a non-direct-admit school like UNC a poor grade in these classes frosh year may well doom your chances of getting into the nursing program, even if you later improve your study skills.
So if this study-skills angle sounds at all applicable I strongly suggest working on improving your study skills & habits. There is a recent book “Make it Stick” that discusses what research has shown about learning, along with plenty of explicit suggestions for HS and college students. It will go over ideas like distributed study and how/why you should be testing yourself rather than rereading the chapters and homework.
Thanks, I have taken Chem but it was honors chem. Chem, bio, anatomy & physiology, stats, and psych are what I am focusing on. No physics and probably no calc mainly because they seem less likely to be in my nursing prerequisites.
I am aware that UNC CH is not direct entry for nursing. I prefer to tay here in NC and unfortunately no good choices for direct entry BSN programs here in NC. The closest OOS direct entry nursing programs I am considering are Clemson and University of Delaware. Thanks for the book recommendation, I’ll definitely check it out.