Hello everyone!
I will be a junior this coming up school year in high school. I really wanted to hear some feed back and opinions from others about my odds for these CSU and UC direct entry nursing programs. Currently i want to be a nurse and i will list some important merits of mine.
GPA:4.1 as of soph year and projected 4.35 from 10-11th combined
SAT:1300 plus (projected) [1240 on PSAT]
Award: Gold Presidential Volunteering Award
I volunteer at Kaiser Permanente every Sunday for 3 and 1/2 hours and I currently have 300 hours. I also am in a paid internship through Kaiser where I shadow nurses, get one one one interviews with them, and work in a medical department. I will be attending the UC Irvine Nursing Training Camp this summer too. I am also heavy involved in my church (I do Greek Dancing, Volunteer, Help out, and obviously attend church).
Keep in mind I still have more than a yea before I have to start writing college apps and am planning on obtaining more opportunities over next summer.
I would greatly appreciate if I could get some feed back on things I should do and what my odds seem to be for these big Nursing Schools!
Hi @NurseStav It is early at this point. Keep in mind California public university nursing schools are highly impacted. You are on the right track. I would say that too much is “projected” at this point with your stats. You need a higher SAT score. The grades are they weighted or unweighted? Keep studying and earning the most As possible and take higher rigor course. AP classes at your high school with anatomy, physiology, psychology, biology among others are good for these schools. Your volunteering is good. Your activities definitely show what you want to do. I would study extensively for the SAT and raise your score to the 1400s. Continue with nursing or medically related activities. Read the 2023 Nursing and 2022 Nursing threads on this site to follow others with similar stats. Good luck!
You are on the right track but as you stated, you have another year with probably a more rigorous schedule so there are no guarantees that you will get those projected grades or test scores.
Direct admit nursing programs in California are highly competitive and with low acceptances for all three schools listed, there is really no way to chance an applicant.
Here is a link for SDSU’s Nursing stats but 2019 data is not available and had a 6% acceptance rate.
UCI Nursing Stats:
Fall 2018 freshman applicants: 2,887
Fall 2018 freshman admissions: 72 (2.5% admitted)
Average UC GPA: 4.24 GPA
Average total SAT score: 1914
Average total SAT score (new version): 1332
Make sure you apply widely and have 2 safety schools on your list.
the projected for SAT is what I have been told what I can get based off of my PSAT, now for the GPA I am taking 5 weighted classes next year and just did an assessment on what my grades would be at the worst based off what I am capable of and teacher options. I am also planning on taking some college level courses over my junior to senior summer. But I don’t know if u noticed of not but I am a male. I just have no clue how much this will help my application. Thanks for the feed back it means a lot!
the projected for SAT is what I have been told what I can get based off of my PSAT, now for the GPA I am taking 5 weighted classes next year and just did an assessment on what my grades would be at the worst based off what I am capable of and teacher options. I am also planning on taking some college level courses over my junior to senior summer. But I don’t know if u noticed of not but I am a male. I just have no clue how much this will help my application. Thanks for the feed back it means a lot!
@NurseStav UCLA admission is difficult regardless of gender and doing “all the right things” so you have to prepare for that. Being male will only help so much so don’t count on it, have it be an added benefit. Just plug away at the GPA and SAT. UCLA and UCI don’t use freshman year grades so make sure you make junior year count. SDSU does us freshman grades. They (SDSU) have an index that is made up of GPA and SAT but if you do well you should be competitive. We cannot chance you easily because the three schools are difficult to pin down. Lots of great nursing applicants get denied at all three every year. Naviance and online profiles do not illustrate adequately the difficulty in admission for nursing at UCLA, UCI, and SDSU. No guarantees
UCLA/UCI and SDSU all look at Freshman grades to make sure you pass and the meet the a-g course requirements. All three schools use only 10-11th grades in their GPA calculation. The UC capped weighted GPA= CSU Capped weighted GPA, but SDSU does not consider EC’s or essays while UCI/UCLA will consider these items.
UC’s and Cal states do not consider Race/Ethnicity/Gender in their admission decisions.
Some other Direct admit Nursing programs to consider in California are University of San Francisco, Cal State Fullerton and Azusa Pacific. Apply widely since as stated above, the competition is tough.
Again, projected stats mean nothing until you actually get the grades and test scores. Come back at the end of Junior year with your CSU/UC GPA and test scores but in the meantime try to find some solid safety schools that you could consider attending.
California publics are banned by law to consider Race/Gender in their admission decisions. This does not apply to private universities like USF or Azusa Pacific.
@Gumbymom oh yea I knew it was “banned” yet in so many different cases they do end up accepting a minority, cause if there are 100 spots in a program and 101 applicants and only one of those is a male who has the lowest stats in the pool of applicants, they will take that man although it’s “banned”. This upholds to Nursing Programs where they do accept the minority, I have been told his by many nurses and also current nursing students
Again as stated by @readthetealeaves do not count on being male making a huge difference on your chances unless you also have the stats to be competitive in the first place.
@NurseStav Some colleges and universities admit to the college first and the major second. Hence why I said to get a high GPA and a high SAT over 1400. That way you would be admitted and then chosen male or not. If they don’t admit you to the school and you are a male nursing student you won’t get a spot. With private schools you may have some definite interest in getting you in versus a female with the same stats or to round out their class or what have you. The three schools you cited are not suppose to care about gender, race, religion etc. I have found a lot of people got rejected who thought they had an in of one sort of another. So, make yourself a successful candidate and you will have many choices
check out the updated list at the thread below for direct entry nursing programs (BSN). Please go to the end of this thread for the most updated list.
As far as East Coast schools with hospitals on campus you will have to check through the list and inquire. Most programs use hospitals in the nearby area and partner with multiple hospitals when there are more than one. Urban areas like New York, Boston and Pittsburgh have several hospitals (not necessarily on campus) and several colleges and universities that have nursing program relationships there. For instance,U Delaware, NYU, PITT, Dusquene, Penn State, all have direct entry with hospitals nearby