Hi!
My high school junior is interested in attending a BSN program. We are having a hard time figuring out the acceptance rates for nursing programs (vs. the overall acceptance rates for the colleges/universities). Nursing programs can be really competitive, so the acceptance rates can be very different from the overall rates. Does anyone know if a reliable source for this info?
Many is not most universities do not publish acceptance rates by program.
@PopsisTops This information is difficult to find and varies from year to year, with each year in recent years more competitive than the last, especially for the more popular direct entry programs… You will most likely have to contact each individual school for this information. You may want to post in the nursing forum.
You would have to check each specific schools website to see if they have acceptance rate stats. For California universities, I know of 3 schools that publish this information.
Thanks all!
We found a good rule of thumb to be that we needed to be in the top 25% of accepted students stats to be competitive for the direct admit BSN programs.
I did find that if you approached admissions officers directly they were pretty forthcoming with this information and , as a result of this outreach, overall my daughter was pretty successful in the schools she applied to. I think even if you haven’t visited, making direct contact also shows interest. Also make sure she spends time on why this school answer on common app and gets specific about why this school stands out.
What caught us out in 2 cases was being admitted to school with great merit but finding out 3 weeks later it was to the college not to nursing program, and being admitted to alternate major to nursing.
I think it’s important to apply as early as possible to schools with rolling admission deadlines and to def apply by any EA deadlines if possible. Having said that one of the schools she likes most now she only applied to in Dec!
Coming from CA I think it also helped my daughter to apply to schools quite far away ( not WA or Oregon for example) ; schools in PA for example are interested in having western state students in my opinion.
If the school of nursing is large enough, it will have an admissions administrator of its own who will have that information. At the school my daughter is attending, there were special “up close” nursing admission open houses where the administrator gave all sorts of stats about admission. If you are lucky enough to be applying to a school that admits holistically (perhaps with an interview component) it’s not always stats-driven. I know of several high-stats students this year who were not offered direct admission.
But, assume nursing admission is harder than regular college admission.
And, if at all possible, you may want to focus on direct admission - admitted into the program freshman year, as opposed to having to wait a year and then apply.
I have found that colleges that are NOT Direct Admit are much more open with those statistics. (no idea why)
I agree that many times if you attend an info session, the colleges whether they are Direct Admit or not, will share that info. And that being in the top 25% of the stats does definitely help. I will say that depending on how holistic the school is, that top 25% can either be very true or if the school is more holistic and looking at other factors, such as rigor or classes / experiences you’ve had, it doesn’t always stay true
My biggest piece of advice for Direct Admission schools is to just remember that even though they say they only have a class of say 125 or 150 students, the number of admitted students are much higher than that. (colleges have shared 600-800 students admitted to eventually net a class of 125-150). Direct Nursing admissions are scary enough but thinking you have to be 1 of 125 students accepted is even scarier. So I just always remind that the admission rates are much higher than the class sizes that they have room for. Not everyone will go to the colleges that they are admitted to and the colleges know that. So they give admission offers to more students knowing how many students eventually end up committing to the program.
I’m wondering about this as well. We are looking at a school for D21 that she is likely to get into, despite her pretty low (2.75) gpa. According to CollegeSimply, 22% of their accepted students are 2.75-3.0, and their average ACT score is 20 (her pre-ACT was 26), so it seems quite likely that she can get in. But I’m wondering what this means for their nursing program–they did say that the average GPA accepted into their direct admit nursing is 3.2-something, but that’s “average” vs. “minimum”. I’m hoping that her test scores would help them want to take a chance on her.
I happen to teach at a direct entry to nursing university and in talking with many, the cost is often a huge factor as its a more expensive option. However, I know that in our state BSN programs that do not direct entry into nursing, its very competitive with often needing a 3.8 in college classes to gain admittance to the nursing program. Students then have to get B or higher in all courses to remain in the program. Some students decide to press their luck at the cheaper schools and hope they get into the nursing program after 1-2 years of college courses but I sadly know many who ended up switching schools as they weren’t accepted in.
Some nursing schools have the requirement of being CNA certified before entry, some don’t. So that is something to consider doing before applying as it may or may not give you an edge (very school dependent so talk with admissions to colleges you are interested in).
If you live in a state that has good opportunities for associates degree prepared RN’s, some tech schools now have dorms and lower requirements for entry so that may be a more cost effective option. There are many online BSN completion programs now as well after obtaining an associates RN. Some hospitals provide some tuition reimbursement (often with a commitment to work contract) but it does help some.
@g8rmomk8ans I would email the admissions officer for the school asking for their nursing school class profile - GPA and ACT range. Also their yield - how many spots they offer to fill their class. I found them all to be very forthcoming with this info.
In my daughter’s experience , you can’t assume by looking at the overall school stats that they will work for nursing admission. At one college my daughter got their top merit scholarship award but was then not admitted to their nursing major.
It also shows interest to reach out directly.
You are well ahead of the game doing your research, so will have a good list of schools for her to apply to by next summer !
Acceptance rates for direct entry nursing (BSN) programs for
- UCLA,
- University of Virginia,
- UC Irvine, and
- University of Michigan
can be found on this older thread with the sources for the data: http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/2154385-admission-rates-to-bsn-nursing-programs.html
- Cal State Fullerton's acceptance rate is 1%-2%.
Their direct entry BSN program gets 4,000-5,000 applications per year for 40 seats. They usually admit "a little bit more than 40 students" to account for yield. Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsK5JNJXq3c (at 20:57).
Good luck to all. I suggest others add stats for other schools below – it’s unfortunate that the information is not more easily available for prospective nurses. Acceptance rates for direct entry BSN programs are usually considerably lower than acceptance rates overall or for other programs at the same college.