<p>Hi! I'm an incoming senior and have recently decided to become a neonatal nurse practitioner int he future, but I keep hearing that nursing schools are SO difficult to get into. I was wondering if my stats were good enough or close enough to have a chance of being accepted.
Schools considering: UCLA, UCI, USC, Mount. St. Mary's, USD, Concordia (first two are top choices)</p>
<p>Unweighted GPA: 3.95
Weighted GPA: 4.67</p>
<p>SAT: 2000
CR: 560
Math: 740
Writing: 700</p>
<p>Subject Tests
US History: 680
Math 2: 800
Chemistry: 770</p>
<p>APs:
Calc AB: 5
US History: 4
Chemistry: 4</p>
<p>300+ hours of community service
Class Secretary/Treasurer
President of Make-A-Wish
Varsity Basketball
Mock Trial
Violin 8+ years</p>
<p>I’d guess you’d be at the top of the applicant pool for most east coast nursing schools (other than the very most selective ones). I don’t know anything about California schools.</p>
<p>From the discussions on this website, it sounds like the California colleges may be more competitive for admissions than some other areas of the country. Some people might also apply to some out of state colleges that offer direct entry 4 year BSN programs.</p>
<p>UCLA’s program accepts less than 50 freshman every year, with literally thousands of applicants. Their undergrad program just restarted in 2009. Clinical hours max out at about 700. UC-Irvine is a new BSN program, modeled after the UCLA program, but easier to obtain admission. Faculty is very nice, caring, helpful. Your numbers are very competitive for UC-Irvine, but I don’t think they stand out for UCLA, as they really want sky-high SAT/ACT scores (2200+,33+). Mount. St. Mary’s, an all girls’ school, is absolutely beautiful, on a hill in Brentwood, and has a really nice program. No undergrad program whatsoever at USC. USD’s program is Grad only. Not sure about Concordia. Have you thought of USF (new Lo Schiavo Science Center), Dominican (San Rafael), or one of the schools that work with Samuel Merritt in Oakland (Mills College, St Mary’s of Moraga, Holy Names)? Or how about U Portland or U Seattle? Again, UCLA’s program isn’t that strong undergradwise, is very dificult to get into, is tough to get out of in less than 5 years (just a UC thing these days), and doesn’t matriculate into UCLA grad programs (which are ranked in the 20s nationally anyway). This is the challenge for kids with strong academic records, high volunteer hours/ECs who wish to stay on the West Coast.</p>
<p>You have a nice set of credentials. The problem with nursing school is that each program only admits a set amount (called seats) of students. Bigger universities will have only a few seats and hundreds of applications. This means that you need to be open to multiple possibilities. Don’t be too picky on the program, because just getting in a program is 99.99% of the battle.</p>
<p>For instance, I originally wanted to attend a large public state university. Sadly, they only have 40 seats open per program with hundreds of applicants. This means that I probably would have been wait-listed. (I have heard of some programs that have wait lists going back three years!) I, instead, chose a small private university and, after my TEAS exam, I will be in the program.</p>
<p>My motto with nursing school is: Get in, pass, and get out!</p>
<p>Well, I’m going to UCI for Nursing in the Fall and I think you have a pretty good shot here! Some stats from Fall 2012 for Nursing Science at UCI: 1,379 applied for the Nursing Major and only 91 were accepted! It’s hard to get in anywhere. Best of luck! Although a distinct advantage of going to a UC for nursing is that it’s direct entry unlike the CSU system.</p>