Hey all, my daughter was accepted to pre-Nursing. She has also gotten in to other direct entry programs. I’d love some feed back from any parents or students who have done this pre entry and then applied to nursing here Year 2.
It makes my daughter extremely nervous about having to apply after year one. She’s a good student but it’s year 1 of college away from home. Things happen. We are thinking of turning down Ohio State for this reason. Supposedly only 47%of last years pre class were admitted to nursing as sophomores. Any feed back good or bad would be appreciated. Thanks!
If you have a direct entry for nursing, take it and don’t look back. If you have more than one, jump around in excitement and choose the one you like best. Congratulations to your daughter, it’s very impressive to get more than one direct entry.
I’m curious to see any feedback from current Nursing students as well. But tend to agree that direct entry is a lot less risky. We visit OSU next month and I’ll try to post back what we find out first hand regarding the OSU program.
@MYOS1634 Thanks for the feed back. I’ve always valued your opinions. I feel the same way but she wants options. I meant to say she is in at another direct entry program. She is in at PITT and we should hear from UCONN any time now. She should get in but as we are finding with Nursing it’s cut throat. Who knows. Wait listed at a few others. The risk does seem crazy especially with a great program already in play.
@ Banker1 I’d be curious to see what you think after your visit. Your D is direct entry with honors if I remember correctly. That’s great. Appreciate the feed back as well.
I have the same issue. My daughter got into a couple of direct admit programs but loves ohio state. I am worried about their program and the stress of having to apply after the first year
@love3kids yep. That’s my feeling as well. I’m kinda like take the chance if you love it mentality with my D but she is terrified of the thought of applying and getting denied AFTER falling in love with the school. I don’t blame her. I agree with some of the early feed back. If she has another good choice even if it’s not her 1st choice she should jump on it. As long as the other schools have good programs she will be in good shape.
The allure of Ohio State and others is powerful. No doubt. My D got wait listed at Penn State. It was a target school for her and she loved the prospect of going there. The thought of her NOT getting in after spending a year at a school like Ohio State is Unthinkable. Just my opinion. Where else did your D get in?
@Collegedad33 our OSU status is still up in the air. Even though accepted we haven’t heard about Honors or merit. While one enrollment services officer assured my D via email that she was direct entry Nursing, the official letterhead mailing we received later indicates pre-Nursing. So my D will visit the campus since she’ll be out that way next month but there are plenty of red flags and uncertainty telling us to consider alternatives.
Another data point against pre-Nursing programs in general (not specific to OSU) - as a safety school my D applied to a local state school that offers only pre-Nursing. That way if she didn’t receive any direct entry acceptances at least we’d have this fallback. She was notified recently she was accepted to the state school CSU CI for pre-Nursing. Her acceptance packet included a pamphlet regarding the Nursing program stating that acceptance into pre-Nursing was no guarantee of being admitted to Nursing. And that after a year upon completion of pre-requisites hundreds of freshmen and transfer students apply to Nursing. And the program chooses the top 40 approximately. No thanks! She will take her chances with a direct entry program and evaluate those including any progression requirements.
@Banker1 I’m sorry she wasn’t direct entered in to Honors. I thought it was a done deal. You’ve been very helpful along the way with Ohio State info. Much appreciated. I agree with you 100% about taking a direct entry to Nursing. Risk is not worth the reward in my opinion. Ohio State was the only pre Nursing D applied to. It seems like a lot of people are in the same boat. Hopefully any advice helps along the way. It’s amazing to see how hard these direct entry programs are to get in to. I’ve heard the same thing about year 2. They get a TON of kids transferring in. It’s like going back to day 1 of applying to college and hoping u get in. Good luck to everyone.
she got into Binghamton decker program, Delaware . She pulled her applications and is going to Ohio State. Her plan B is going the PA route.
My daughter is in the same boat. Admitted direct to U of Iowa, but loves Ohio State. I am also worried about the stress of going through the application process again in less than a year. The one good thing about Ohio doing the application during the Freshman year is that if they don’t make it in they can then apply to the many other nursing schools that require applications be completed during their Sophomore year. We are really struggling with this decision. It is so frustrating how few they are accepting from their own pre- nursing program. I wish they would at least be given priority over students from other schools and that we would be looking at more like an 80% acceptance rate. Another issue with Iowa is the cost, because with merit money, it appears Iowa will cost about $5000 more per year. She is so in love with Ohio that she seems willing to risk it, and I actually do understand why she feels this way and with the additional cost at U of Iowa, it makes the risk easier to swallow.
My child was direct admitted to 2 nursing programs in the Big10, but had her heart set on a school that only had the “pre-nursing” program.
I talked to nursing admissions at that school to get an idea what her chances were. I said “she’s a 31 ACT, top 10% in her HS class, AP Bio, AP Calc, etc etc” kind of expecting the lady to say “oh yea, that’s the type of kid that gets in after the first year”. Instead, she was quite frank and said “thats what most of the kids have”, she told me the average gpa after their freshman year was a 3.8 and that their university had no limit as to how many kids were admitted as “pre-nursing”.
She told me that a direct admit “would be hard to turn down”. Honestly, that scared me off and I didn’t want to risk a year of pre nursing classes that might not transfer to another major.
This was not OSU, but I guess my point is, when you visit, ask direct questions one-on-one I think you’ll get a good feel for your kids chances. Good luck 
@flo123 yep that response is enough to scare most off! I’ve heard the same thing. They take a TON of pre nursing students and very few for Sophmore year. It’s a risk we can’t and won’t take.
Like so many have said take the direct entry and run with it if you get it!
@Rmcgrath I know it’s not my money but $5,000 hardly seems worth it with out a guarantee she’s there all 4 years. And the problem with trying to transfer Sophmore year is there a ton of other kids doing the same thing. It’s like going back to sq one in my opinion. Obviously lots of schools have pre nursing so there’s got to be plenty of success stories too. I just haven’t heard any. Hopefully a parent or kid who went through it with success chimes in with their take. Good luck. Tough choice.
Unless Iowa’s 5,000 is a real hardship and/or you’d have to take on a loan, it’s worth the insurance. Transfers don’t get merit aid so you lose any chance at merit if transferring from Ohio State and may have to be full pay. Calculate costs. Odds for pre admits are low no matter what. A cold at the wrong time can be the difference between getting in or not.
The $5000 per year difference turns in to a $20,000 difference, which nearly pays for an extra year at Ohio state or another school (when you include merit money.) I am concerned about the merit money if she did not get in and had to change schools so she would be limited to schools that either offered merit money or were in state/reciprocal state or she could look at PA programs or 3-year nursing programs that lead to NP after a Bachelor’s degree.
Transfers don’t get merit money (or very rarely) and generally get lousy aid. So she may well be limited to instate universities if tOSU doesn’t work out - $20,000 extra over four years for iowa may or may not cover the difference at another university where you’re full pay for three years. And if she’d admitted to a private university where she’s full pay for three years but not to an instate program it’s likely to be larger.
I love Ohio State and my child LOVES Ohio state. Can’t recommend it enough HOWEVER If your daughter is 100% sure on nursing she should absolutely not pass up direct entry. The medical fields with pre programs are HIGHLY competitive. I am in one of those professions and I always advise direct entry.
Niece opted for pre program (not OSU) but other large university. Every one of her friends she met in the program freshman year had to transfer junior year because they did not get in.
Another niece has tried for two years to get into an OT program to no avail.
Much easier to transfer out of a direct entry to another major but you can’t just transfer in. I recommend choosing direct entry and she will probably end up loving it. She could also try applying into Ohio States program sophomore year and if she gets in she can transfer and if she doesn’t nothing really lost cause she’s already in a program.
Good Luck
Thank! Great to get the opinion from a Ohio State parent. Sounds like you are of the popular opinion to take direct admission to Nursing for sure. Ohio State sounds incredible…to bad the nursing isn’t direct. Thanks for your take. Sounds like your kid is at the right place. Congrats
Always, always, always take the direct admit if your family can afford it. This isn’t just so for nursing; it’s true for any other field, too.
Agree with all the advice to take the direct entry. My 3 DDs all did direct entry programs into healthcare fields . It didn’t take many campus visits to be told the hard reality of getting in-if 400 kids apply and they take 40, those aren’t great odds. As someone else said, most will be just as qualified as your student . Did my kids get to go their absolute first choice school? No , but they all realized the benefits of direct entry, especially watching other kids apply and the pressure those kids were under .