Total out-of-pocket cost for tuition, room and board, for Illinois State (in-state) and St Louis U (after application of financial aid - which is @ $51k/yr for Saint Louis) will roughly be the same - $15k/yr.
NCLEX pass rates are comparable too: 94-96% currently, and over 90% for the past decade for both.
What’s “weed-out” criteria? Thanks.
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Daughter has committed to UTK starting this fall. Does anyone else have a daughter starting there - looking for potential roommates/suitemates and just to connect to some kids in the program in advance. We are coming from the greater Chicago area.
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Nursing majors often have grade or GPA requirements to stay in the program. The GPA requirement may be as low as 2.0 or as high as 3.5. In programs with high GPA requirements, it is likely that a significant number of direct admit students are weeded out.
These requirements are usually in the nursing major handbook for the school.
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More about weed-out criteria-
Sometimes there are requirements for certain grades in nursing classes, perhaps a nursing class cannot be repeated, or maybe a certain GPA is required in science classes or other required classes, etc.
Read that handbook.
Watch out for the really sneaky stuff some DA BSN programs have in the fine print, such as competitive secondary admission requirements to clinicals… URI is one of these programs-- claims to be DA but the handbook states that progression into the clinicals is actually a competitive process… no guarantee of progression and on-time graduation.
Now that is is almost over, It will be helpful for next year’s applicants if parents post a quick summary of their experiences (and results) and offer any insights.
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Daughter has committed to the University of Texas at Austin School of Nursing (Direct Admit). Just completed both student and family orientation for incoming freshmen. Learned just how incredibly competitive the program is. Best advice is it is never too early to start preparing that application if nursing is the path your son or daughter wants to take. Most all of the applicants for UT Nursing have great academic records. “Fit to Major” is very important at Texas so an applicant’s essays can make or break their application — especially the two Nursing Essays. UT Austin is a great university and my daughter feels very fortunate and blessed to be part of such a world class nursing program.
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Hello—months later but can you tell me a bit about admission to OSU’s direct admit program? Not too much info on their website. My dd hoping to get accepted to this program as a current senior in HS. Thx!
Yes,on their website it says:
Senior-level high school students can apply directly to the BSN program provided they meet the following criteria:
- Meet the Traditional BSN program admission requirements and prerequisite requirements completed by the posted deadline in May of their senior year of high school.
- Complete The Ohio State University’s application process for freshman admission by the regular deadline.
- Be admitted to The Ohio State University’s Columbus campus
- Must be 18 years of age by the first clinical course (NURSING 2270), which occurs in the spring semester following admission into the BSN program.
So my D applied to OSU early and was accepted into prenursing in December. She did the online interview and essay over Christmas break. I think she got her acceptance into the direct admit in April.
She needs to take the required classes this year with a 3.2 gpa to stay in.
Feel free to message me if you have more questions.
Thanks for your response! I can’t figure out how to message you directly…
Few questions. Assuming your D was a high stats student—do you know how many students were accepted/enrolled in this direct admit route with her? Seems fairly selective, correct? If school does not rank, how strict is this top 5 percent rule? Were the interview ?s and essays all nursing related? Thanks for any info!
There are 30+ kids that got a direct admit (we had a separate orientation and I think that is what they said). My Ds school did not rank. When you apply to OSU, the admissions will determine where your kid “ranks” depending on their application. Then the college of nursing takes their lead. We heard back about Buckeye and Maximus scholarship in January- so I was happy bc they had assigned her a good rank to get that scholarship. A letter from the school is helpful (we don’t rank but…)
The interview had 2 essays (took a couple of hours I think). Then “timed” questions- so stressful. The clock shows 30 sec. It might just say “introduce yourself” but I would freak out by the clock. My D was not phased by it. It’s general stuff like:
why nursing?
discuss a challenge you have had and how you overcame
a time when you were a leader
I had googled “nursing school interview questions” and we practiced some which I think helped to talk out “why nursing”,etc.
Good luck!
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Ok, thank you so much! So, your d just went on, signed in, and did the interview/essays on her own, correct? All this after applying early action, I assume? My d has already submitted her app and it seems she can complete this next “step” before Feb 1 to be considered. Seem accurate? Thx for all the info!
Yes, she picked a day during break to do it. We did talk though general topics and then she went above garage and took it.We were thinking of rehersing the "interview "question before answering because she thought she had 2 min before the recording. You have like 15 seconds! No time to practice! So she read the question and started answering.
Yes, she applied EA. So far she loves the program.]
what were her stats pls
Daughter applied to 10 programs - both DA and secondary application programs. She was admitted to all in the end, but chose Univ of Tennessee (Knoxville). Merit aid from all to the point none were outliers in that respect. She just loved the campus, location, vibe - and the direct admit aspect was the icing on the cake. Supposedly the admission rate into the program at UTK was in the teens last year as compared to the number of applications. We know that her essays made a huge difference virtually everywhere. She has a chronic medical condition and was able to write about that. Her HS classes included electives that showed her interest in this path (Medical interventions, Anatomy, Microbiology, Human Body Systems). I know GPA and test scores get you to one point with these programs, but I have no doubt the essays and digging deeper into their classes, extracurriculars, grade trends, etc. make a huge difference. Happy to share anything else we learned in the process with anyone interested. (Admitted to: UTK, Alabama, Baylor, TCU, Kentucky, ASU, LSU, Univ of Tampa, Louisville, Auburn)