Nursing School vs. Regular Admission

I’m really confused on the nursing school applications. If my daughter applies to a university’s nursing school - which I know are really competitive - and she gets denied, will she receive admittance to the regular college? or is does every university consider it differently? Her grades and test scores are average (3.6 at a college prep + 26 ACT). The universities she is applying to should be right in her sweet spot for application to the university overall, but may not be for a more competitive program such as nursing. is it better in that case to just apply to the school as undecided? Any insight would be great.

Each school will be different and you’ll need to check with admissions to be sure. SDSU, for example, doesn’t consider alternate majors for nursing applicants

That said there is a path to nursing for most every dedicated applicant whose heart is set on nursing regardless of stats. There was a thread in this forum listing options for B+ students with 26 ACT scores a couple of years back.

Thank you! The schools must get this question all the time because they all replied to an email inquiry within an hour. My daughter isn’t expecting an admit unless someone just isolates her science grades. She’s still digging out of her hole from freshman year at a college prep + while she’s really involved with a few activities and works part time, it is not at all related to the field. I just didn’t want her rejected from all of the colleges she was applying to because of the nursing designation!

Yes - schools have different policies. My daughter went through the process last year (2018-2019). Most did accept directly into nursing. One direct entry school (U of TN) accepted her to the university in December, but she had to wait until February to find out that she was accepted into the nursing program. I think that was the only one - and she applied to 12 schools.

@Finalthree If you are worried about your D being denied everywhere due to Nursing (not likely, as many schools admit to the college overall, first), then why not throw in some schools where she is likely to get merit, but that do not have a direct admit to nursing, but may have an accelerated nursing degree? That way, you can save money for the extra 18 months… They don’t actually even have to have the accelerated program.

She did! Only one school will deny her outright if she doesn’t get into nursing. The rest will admit her the the uni first. Two don’t even do direct admit. So a healthy mix.