We are trying to look at options to the extremely competitive public direct admit programs in California.
I was wondering if anyone has information on the number of pre-nursing students accepted freshman year compared to the number of spots available to them in the nursing program. Another helpful statistic would be the percentage of pre-nursing students that end up completing the nursing program. Statistics for any California schools would be welcome, but we are most interested in:
Chico State
CSU Channel Islands
CSU San Marcos
Long Beach State
Sonoma State
University of Nevada, Reno
I wish I had more specifics in terms of the raw numbers the OP is seeking. My D applied to 2 of the schools on the list for Fall 2018. Both her acceptance letters from CSULB and CSUCI stated that her acceptance was not a guarantee for admission into the Nursing program. And that she’d later apply after freshman year. Each letter provided acceptance rate estimates for the nursing program at under 10%. My D questioned why she should take on that risk.
At that point we had received some acceptances from direct entry programs and we were no longer interested in those CSUs. My D didn’t visit either campus but I would want to know if pre-Nursing students received any preference over external applicants. I don’t believe they do. If we felt going the pre-Nursing program was the best path we’d probably go to a CA community college to take the prerequisites before applying broadly across the many CSUs. There are other pre-Nursing programs outside of CA with higher acceptance rates that may still be affordable and worth investigating. GCU is one that comes to mind. Winona State is another.
I would still try to find and apply to out of state direct entry programs that offer enough merit money to bring the costs in line with CA UC schools at least. @bearcatfan may know of one or two.
Thank you for your response @Banker1 . Knowing that the acceptance rate estimates for the nursing programs at CSULB and CSUCI are less than 10% is very helpful. I have found that some nursing programs, such as Chico State, give a slight advantage to local candidates (including currently enrolled pre-nursing students), but the advantage seems to be minimal when weighed against all the other requirements. I just don’t see pre-nursing at CSUs as a good option for us.
Your advice to seek out of state direct entry programs with merit possibilities is sound. A few that we are looking at include:
Seattle University
Regis University (not direct admit, but has an admission guarantee)
Xavier University
University of Cincinnati
A couple of factors that are important to my DD are good airport access in a medium to large city and not too far from home in California - Cincinnati is a stretch. Does anyone have other suggestions?
Look into U of Portland. They give good merit. My D preferred that visit over Seattle U. I think she wanted west coast. She visited USF (too expensive even with $25k/yr merit), Gonzaga (Spokane too small). She also visited U Cincinnati and Xavier, UTK and Belmont.
All of the programs you listed are impacted. No official numbers here as we looked at them and then targeted direct schools. Anecdotally the least being Channel Islands and then Chico State. University of Nevada Reno have a substantial number that must go elsewhere after not getting in. San Marcos given its proximity to San Diego is very impacted.
Long Beach is a popular destination as well and makes it clear how to get into the nursing program (see website) It has a great pass rate to for the NCLEX.
If you are wanting a pre-nursing with a good chance of getting in later if you make grades, with a good community of nursing students and lower cost housing Chico is the way to go. It is a party school and is near the hard hit Paradise Fire area so be aware. Be sure and visit to make sure your student likes it.
If you go the non-direct route just instill in your student that they must be on all aspects of the nursing from the get go. Grades, classes, nursing related clubs, any pretests, applications, and back up plans so that there are no surprises later.