<p>I am currently a high school junior and I am interested in nursing. I took a tour, and my guide didn't know too much about the program, and the website doesn't give too much information either. To current nursing majors here or anyone who knows about the program, could you please give me some more info? Like are there simulation labs, what hospital would I do clinicals in it, how difficult is it to get into jmu first and then the program...things like that. Thank you do much for any help! I live out of state and am female if that helps give more info.</p>
<p>My son is a senior at JMU, and has many friends who wanted nursing major as freshman, did not have the overall GPA necessary during sophomore year when you apply to the nursing program, and did not get in. He has heard the nursing program is small and the competition to get in is quite high. You need something like a overall college GPA of 3.7 to be competitive when you apply during second year. Something you might want to look into if nursing is what you absolutely want.</p>
<p>It would be much less risky applying to colleges who offer “direct entry” to nursing as a freshman major. If you go to the CC Nursing thread there is a Masters List of Direct Entry Colleges for Nursing. You might want to have a look at it to see what schools are available.</p>
<p>If you are looking for an excellent Nursing Program at a school around the same size as JMU I could suggest the University of Delaware. It is direct entry. They have a state-of-the-art nursing simulation lab and have a newly opened Nurse Managed Health Center (2years old) located right on site at the main Nursing building. UD has one of the most beautiful campuses in the country and is conveniently located just off I-95 in Newark, Delaware. The freshman class includes about 80 OOS students so it is, like most highly rated Nursing Priograms, highly competitve for admission. I would estimate you would neeed a HS GPA of at least 3.6 and SAT scores of 1900+ (along with a lot of honors/AP classes in HS) to have a reasonable chance of acceptance. You can check out the Nursing Program at UD’s website (Udel.edu). Actually UD and JMU are in the same athletic conference (Colonial Athletic Association) and play each other in football and many other sports every year.</p>
<p>Hope this info is helpful. Best wishes to you as you pursue a Nursing career in the future.</p>