So I’ve made my decision and I’m going to pursue Nursing as my career. There is basically one challenge that comes my way with this:
Maintaining a 3.5 GPA with these classes: Intro to Psychology, English Composition, Gen Org Bio Chemistry, and Intro to Statistics.
Did you guys find these classes hard if you took them, and if you didn’t, did you hear anything about these classes? How hard would it be to maintain at least a 3.5 GPA since nursing programs are extremely competitive?
It will depend upon the college and the prof. If you take a class over the summer, you may be able to lighten your load and increase your GPA. My daughter took an online class each summer that had flexible hours, so she could still work full time over the summer. (She needed to take 128 credit hours for her BSN degree, so the summer classes allowed her to avoid 17 and 18 credit semesters).
Most nurses do not need to a take a full semester of organic chemistry. That is good because some universities use that class as a very difficult screening class in order to reduce the number of pre-meds.
High school seniors should try to take Stats in high school, so they will have an easier time with it in nursing school (and possibly place out of it). There is no reason to take calc.
Are you talking about maintaining a 3.5 in order to progress into a nursing program - in other words, a non-direct admit program?
My daughter is entering a direct-admit program this fall, but there is scuttlebutt among the nursing students about which classes are harder than others. Perhaps you can ask some students (online?) at a few of the colleges you are considering. My daughter said biochemistry is something to be endured at her school, and is curved quite a bit.
For most DA programs, you have to maintain around a 3.0. The non-DA programs can get very competitive, and from what I have heard rank you by GPA, and then within that your science GPA.
Bearscatfan yes I have to complete some pre requisites before entering the program (which is at a different school) and my advisor told me that it’s extremely important that I maintain a good GPA because it’s so competitive. He said the requirement is 3.0, but if I apply with a 3.0 they probably won’t even look at it.
@rafaeld101 Yeah, I would agree with that. Get the best GPA you can, especially in the sciences. The closer you get to 4.0, the better.
Good luck!