Hi, I was recently admitted off the waitlist to nursing at UC Irvine, but I am already committed to Arizona State for nursing. I am in-state for UCI and it’s nursing program is highly selective, but I can’t really find info to compare these two schools and two programs. Could anyone help me out ???
Direct admit at both?
Cost and debt?
ASU requires that direct admit nursing majors keep a 3.50 college GPA in their first four semesters.
https://nursingandhealth.asu.edu/programs/bsn/traditional
You may want to check if UCI has any similar college GPA requirement.
UCI requires a 2.75 GPA upper division. UCI is a direct-admit program so if you are sure you have been accepted as a Nursing major and not just as an undeclared UCI student it may be a better choice. I wouldn’t worry about rankings; you could look at the NCLEX pass rates but it isn’t likely that really matters. UCI accepts about 2-3% of frosh nursing applicants so if they accepted you then you are pretty likely to get an RN if you do the work.
yeah I was accepted as a nursing major, I was surprised because I always heard that they don’t have a waitlist but it says my major is nursing in the Sue and Bill Gross School of Nursing
If you believe these, then it looks like UCI nursing science courses have rather high grade distributions, so it does not seem to be extraordinarily difficult to keep a 2.75 GPA there.
https://zotistics.com/
https://zotcurve.github.io/
There does not appear to be much grade distribution information for ASU (outside of the CSE department), but 3.50 GPA is typically much harder to maintain in college than in high school.
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Isn’t ASU nursing at the downtown campus? Don’t know much about it, but my initial impression is that being on the smaller split campus would diminish the overall experience. Do you start at the Tempe campus and move over for last two years? Commute? I would try to understand that.
Do you want to live in CA after? There are so few 4 year BSN programs at the UC level that I would think UCI is pretty prestigious. I don’t know much about UCI, how residential is it? What are the nursing facilities like?
I would look at the 4 year curriculum plan for both to get an understanding of your specific path. Do either of them include summer classes to get through? 3.5 can be a tough pull given how tough some of the pre-req classes can be, ie anatomy and physiology, microbiology, pharmacology, etc.
Have you posted on the CC Nursing board?
I would think that UCI would cost less? My initial reaction was UCI>ASU.
Google reviews, search the nursing board for comments on either school, good luck!
https://nursingandhealth.asu.edu/programs/bs/nursing says that the BSN program is at Downtown, Eastern Arizona College, or Online (not at the main Tempe campus).
Read the thread linked below, I’d be checking if the 60% direct admits at ASU still don’t make it through, yikes! Not much social activity on downtown campus, it is not sounding ideal.
@Bonchien has a daughter at UCI, do some searching and pm-ing!
With a 3.50 weed-out GPA requirement for the first four semesters, it is not surprising that most do not retain their place in the major.
@noready the interesting thing about that 60% is when I talked to my advisor I was told that people usually maintain their direct admit status and it’s rare that they don’t. I believe there is 9 advisors for the nursing college and each year they are given a list of students in the program and she said on her list she usually has only 1 or 2 who do not maintain the 3.5 GPA.
Let’s see:
- UCI has a much lower weed-out GPA than ASU.
- UCI nursing is in the main campus, not a separate campus that appears to be mainly for nontraditional students like at ASU.
- UCI is in-state, so it costs less unless ASU gave you a big scholarship.
What would be the reason for not choosing UCI in this situation, if you are a traditional student graduating from high school?
@soco48 reading your comments it sounds like you really want to go to ASU and are deflecting arguments against the school. So go there, don’t look back!
@ucbalumnus I got a scholarship that would make ASU the same price as UCI. I think a big part of my reasoning comes from the student life at ASU in general, regardless of campus. It is a much bigger school and has the more typical college experience. Also the support I have already received from ASU is overwhelming, advisors and people who work there are constantly emailing me and calling me asking if I have any questions and there replies are very quick, whereas UCI has provided no information or support. But thanks for the insight
@mikemac haha I think you may be right, I have already committed to ASU as I only got off the waitlist for UCI a few days ago. There was actually a scandal this year where thousands of students were told they were accepted at UCI only to be waitlisted or rejected hours later, I was unfortunately one of those students. If you refer to my comment above you can see other reasons why I like ASU more and I think deep down my heart lies in Arizona! Thank you!!!
ASU’s Downtown campus is about 10 miles from the main Tempe campus. It also appears to be oriented toward professional school and non-traditional students, so you may not find the “traditional residential college experience” there.
Would you regret choosing ASU if you earned a 3.4 GPA one semester and got weeded out of nursing and had to choose a different major?
Not for Nursing, but my daughter was just admitted off the waitlists for UCSB and UCSD and is still going to ASU Barrett Honors. I really like the school and they seem to be making the right moves. Like you, we were really impressed by the amount of support they give you. (my daughter will have 3 advisors!) Not a big fan of UCI and the area. It’s pretty suburban and boring, and we live in SoCal.
I also think ASU will survive this downturn better than the UCs whose budgets should be majorly impacted. Only downside to ASU would be being downtown versus Tempe, but you will still have football, basketball, and hockey games a few minutes away by car or metro (when they happen again). And you can have fun on Mill Avenue to blow off steam.
One more thing to think about. Like at UCSB, housing will not be guaranteed at UCI.
https://housing.uci.edu/apply/How_To_Apply.html
Looks like ASU Nursing has pretty nice housing:
https://nursingandhealth.asu.edu/student-life/housing
Forks up!
But then there is that 3.50 weed-out GPA at ASU nursing that must be earned each of the first four semesters.
It’s a valid point. This is an article that the OP should read: https://www.statepress.com/article/2019/04/spmagazine-nursing-school-meeting-says-change-your-major
@sbdad12 yeah I actually got off the waitlist for ucsb, ucd, ucsd, and uci but im still thinking asu. Ive also talked to a bunch of students at the downtown campus who really don’t find the distance to tempe a problem, they say you still get the typical college experience without the pressures of being at the main campus with all th distractions ! thanks so much\
@ucbalumnus yeah I probably would regret it if I got weeded out, but I also think I would regret everything I would be missing out on if I went to UCI, either way there may be regrets. I’ve also been a very strong student in high school, I have a 4.5 uw gpa, with a 5.0 this semester and had a 32 ACT. I’m very determined and now how to study so although college will be much harder than high school, I have faith in my ability