Naviance not much help in determining admission chances for nursing?

College Majors Nursing Major
1

Hello,

Just wondering how to calculate my daughter’s chances of getting into various nursing programs. Most of what I read about college admissions seems to indicate that since every high school’s rigor varies, it’s really only Naviance that’s a truly reliable indicator of admission chances. However, since nursing programs are so competitive, it doesn’t seem very accurate.

I want to be sure she has several safeties, targets and reaches in her mix.

Thanks so much.

2

@2020Nurse It is difficult to discern specific nursing stats from Naviance IMO. Generally look at the schools stats and plan on it being more competitive. Look at the number of kids in the major as well at each school. Direct nursing programs vs “pre-nursing” are also something to ponder. Without direct nursing programs, if the child gets through the first two years “pre-nursing” and meets all the requirements there is great competition for those upper division spots at many schools

3

My D’s school used Naviance and while it showed GPA and scores for overall acceptance it didn’t delineate by major… Reviewing the Class of 2022 Nursing Admissions thread within this forum might be worthwhile. It shows a sample from last year’s nursing hopefuls including applicant stats, schools considered, acceptances and merit awards.
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/nursing-major/2039571-class-of-2022-nursing-admissions.html

4

Also, if you have schools in mind already you can ask their admissions for the admitted student profile for their BSN program. I know SDSU posts this info on their website. If you’re still looking for the right school you can also review the listing of direct entry BSN programs.
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/nursing-major/1994851-list-of-direct-entry-from-high-school-bsn-nursing-programs-p1.html

5

My daughter checked every school’s nursing website and some (not all) offered expected gpa and sat. That combined with the school’s overall acceptance rate was at least a bit of a clue. Some schools also gave an idea of acceptance rates during official visits and open houses. Also it helps if you know other students from the high school that applied to nursing and their results. Maybe the guidance department can share anonymously some of the nursing results. It takes a bit of work but last year I think we gauged my Ds chances about right.

6

Thanks very much! These comments are extremely helpful.

7

For most colleges, if you look at the stats for the middle 50% of accepted students, I’d assume you would need to be above that.

For some colleges, students list their stats on this website along with their major and whether they were accepted or not. You can do a search for the name of the college, nursing and accepted for instance to see some example stats.

8

I would go on the assumption that the nursing stats will likely be higher than regular admission to the university - that was our experience. In competitive majors, you have to be above the average.

At my daughter’s school, the ACT and GPA scores were both several points above regular admission. We found that out through an open house but it wasn’t anywhere on the website. You could probably call/email and ask.

9

Naviance is definitely inaccurate for nursing majors since Naviance shows the acceptance for students of all majors applying to the schools and it is not by specific majors. I’m sure for nursing, you should be at the 75th percentile of GPA and Test scores for the schools you are looking at since nursing programs are definitely way more competitive than most of the other majors at the school. Make sure to apply to direct-entry programs so you wouldn’t need to apply to the nursing program in your sophomore or junior year again for the actual major. Pre-nursing programs aren’t that great since you’ll stress again on getting into the actual major later on.