Hi,
I am a rising sophomore at UNC Chapel Hill where I am currently a pre nursing student. My first year at Chapel Hill was very difficult. It is a big school and the classes are really tough. I spent my life in my dorm studying and my grades weren’t reflective of the amount of hours I put into my courses. I made a few A’s, mostly B’s, and a C- in my chem 101 course. My main goal is to become a nurse practitioner. I am extremely passionate about it but nursing school is very competitive. I have applied as a transfer student to Appalachian state. I realize that I need to boost my gpa and complete the prerequisites to get into the nursing school of both institutions but I am having a very hard time deciding which one to choose. I am willing to take an extra year to boost my gpa and prepare myself to apply to nursing school since I didn’t realize it was what I wanted to do until the end of my freshman year. Carolina has an amazing nursing school and a great hospital but classes are huge and the course work is extremely difficult. I don’t know if I have it in me to make the grades. I also couldn’t get into 5 of the 6 classes I needed for fall because my registration time was so late and everything was full before I had a chance. While app state is just as competitive gpa wise (both nursing schools accept an average gpa of 3.5) I feel as if the smaller classes might help me. I have heard that App states courses aren’t as tough as carolinas but I don’t want to make the change only to realize that they are just as difficult. I have also heard that Carolina is less strict about Gpa due to the fact that it is a harder school. This is a very difficult choice for me. Does anyone have any advice ?
The nursing club has a Facebook page at (search for SNAAppalachian) so if you wanted to talk to a current student you could send a message using the in link in the “About” and ask if you could chat with someone by phone.
I doubt anyone is going to be able to compare difficulty of classes between the 2 schools; you’d have to find someone who took classes both places and these people may not exist (or read this forum if they do). Smaller classes may help, but I don’t think the material itself gets much easier no matter where you study it. Since you write “my grades weren’t reflective of the amount of hours I put in” it may be that you aren’t studying effectively. Read the book “Make it Stick” this summer that talks about the science of learning with lots of tips for college students. Many students spend time re-reading the chapters before tests, looking over old homework, but these are 2 techniques known to be less effective than others.
You also should think about plan B ways to get into nursing. One way to investigate is getting a RN degree first, perhaps at a community college, and then