Very anxious. Very low GPA & SAT. [Nursing] Please chance me!

Chance Me / Match Me!
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Hello! I am a current hs senior applying to college. I am very anxious about my acceptances, as my GPA dropped from a 4.2 to a 3.6 from freshmen year to junior year. I will be very open about my situation, as I also wrote briefly about it in the Covid section in common app, but in a positive light by discussing how I grew.
It began with depression in lockdown along with taking difficult STEM classes online. Then in person junior year, I had family issues, jumped from med to med, and in and out of the mental hospital. I was also diagnosed very late with ADHD this past summer. Do not worry, I did not include any details in my brief explanation.
I have a very low GPA and SAT for the competitive nursing school. I also didn’t plan on applying to any prestigious schools, but people convinced me to apply ED to Cornell College of Human Ecology, and I chose Human Development as my major. I checked Naviance and there has been students at my school with similar stats that got in, but they were probably athletes or legacy. I did some research and saw that the acceptance rate for ED College of Human Ecology is around 40%? I think I show that I am a fitting candidate in my other areas, such as my ECs and best performance in classes that are Human Development prep. But, I know that I have like 1/1000000000 chance of getting in, so I would like you all to be brutally honest and shut any hope down.

Demographics

  • US domestic (US citizen or permanent resident) or international student
    US citizen
  • State/Location of residency: (state is important if you apply to any state universities)
    Maryland
  • Type of high school (current college for transfers):
    Public high school in the third richest county in the USA, so fairly competitive?
  • Gender/Race/Ethnicity (optional): Female/South Asian/Bengali
  • Other special factors (first generation to college, legacy, athlete, etc.):
    Veteran father?

Intended Major(s)
Nursing. Human Development in Cornell

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 2.9
  • Weighted HS GPA (incl. weighting system): 3.6
  • College GPA (for transfers): N/A
  • Class Rank: N/A
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 650 in ela, 610 in math, 1260 total
    Not sending to Cornell of course.

Coursework
(AP/IB/Dual Enrollment classes, AP/IB scores for high school; also include level of math aforeign language reached and any unusual academic electives; for transfers, describe your college courses and preparation for your intended major(s))

AP Compsci, English 9 Gifted & Talented
AP Psych, English 10 GT, Alg 2 GT,
APES, AP Human Geo, US History GT, Biology GT, Human Growth & Dev GT/Dual Enrollment
English 11 Honors, US Gov Honors
Independent Research 1 & 2 GT,
Chemistry GT, French 2, 3, 4 Honors
Math 141 College Algebra dual enrollment
English 121 dual enrollment,
Modern World History honors,
Anatomy & Physiology, Band, Precalc honors
Business Calc GT, PE/Health

Alg 1 GT, French 1, Geometry GT were taken
in middle school

GT is weightiest same as AP.

Awards
County cheerleading champs

Extracurriculars
(Include leadership, summer activities, competitions, volunteering, and work experience)
Founder/President of Psych club,
Neurology Internship, UNICEF,
HOSA, Receptionist at nail salon,
Babysitting, Model UN,

Essays/LORs/Other
(Optionally, guess how strong these are and include any other relevant information or circumstances.)
I would like to preface and say that the following is not to brag, just to try to encompass every little good thing I may have. I think my common app essay is fairly strong. I discussed the unique identity complex I had about being a muslim military brat, how I eventually accepted myself, and how my dad was treated after 9/11. It’s partly a narrative piece of a memory. Everyone I showed it to either raved about it, or said it’s a good essay. I was told I was an amazing writer by a few.

My Cornell College of Human Ecology essay is definitely less stronger, since I decided to apply ED last minute- and wrote it last minute. I discussed how I lived in Fort Drum which is in upstate New York- and fell in love with Cornell when I was young. Then, I moved on to why and how I am interested to Human Development + Psychology. Next, I discussed my plan on being a child psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner to give back to the world, and help kids receive the mental health care just like I received. Again, it’s last minute and not the best. However, everyone said it’s good and they liked it. My nursing supplementals for other school I believe are quite strong.

Cost Constraints / Budget
(High school students: please get a budget from your parents and use the Net Price Calculators on the web sites of colleges of interest.)
My parents told me to apply…

Schools
(List of colleges by your initial chance estimate; designate if applying ED/EA/RD; if a scholarship is necessary for affordability, indicate that you are aiming for a scholarship and use the scholarship chance to estimate it into the appropriate group below)

  • Safety (certain admission and affordability)
    Salisbury U Pre Nursing, UMBC Pre Nursing

  • Target *
    Rutgers U Nursing, GMU Nursing,
    Temple U Nursing, UVermont,
    UCincinnati Nursing,
    Rhode Island College Nursing,
    Umaine Nursing

  • Likely (would be possible, but very unlikely or surprising, for it not to admit or be affordable)
    Ohio State Nursing, Michigan State Nursing,
    Udel Nursing, Uconn Nursing

  • Reach
    Cornell, Upitt Nursing, UMD, Penn State Nursing, Umass Nursing

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I think because you applied to public schools your covid stuff won’t be held against you but I would not have written that - because even if you think you wrote about it in positive light, you don’t want to bring these things up.

Everyone cares about you - til you bring that issue to campus - and they don’t want that. So i would not do so if you apply anywhere else.

Just leave that alone - they’ll see you fell - they don’t want to hear excuses.

Sorry - just being honest. People are risk averse.

Nursing is difficult - some schools - like UNH - not a hard admit but we’ve read for nursing it is.

I hope your safeties are that (for nursing) - but that might be all you get. Maybe URI, U Maine.

You’d get in - but I don’t know about nursing.

WIth a 2.9/3.6 weighted, you’ve over guessed.

Take a look at these schools in the link. These are direct admit. If you apply to anymore, don’t excuse your grade drop. LEave it alone. They all know about covid but you don’t want to highlight other issues.

Schools like Alabama, UAH - you can get in - but will be pre-nursing - and that means you have to then do well to get into nursing school. So you might look at them.

And those on the link which are direct admit - you can look to some with lesser stats…like Marshall U in West VIrginia.

Good luck.

PS - one last piece of advice. Don’t be anxious. There’s no need. But you need to redo your list and put in apps at schools you will get into - I think you overreached but check out Bama, UAH, Marshall for starters…and the link below.

Good luck.

List Of Direct Admission Nursing Schools - Direct Admit Nursing (google.com)

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You can always start at a community college and transfer to a 4 year school later. Nursing can be accomplished at many schools, and is not really prestige dependent. If your goal is to be a nurse, you can do that, just not on your original path.

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I think all of the direct admission nursing schools/programs you are considering are reaches. Every single one. I hope you have checked out the stats of students admitted to the pre nursing programs at Salisbury and UMBC, as i doubt that even they are safeties.

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A 2.9 HS GPA does not look good for getting into a direct admit BSN program.

Perhaps consider an ADN/RN program at a community college. From there, you can work as a nurse, although some jobs prefer BSN nurses. But you then have the option of doing an ADN/RN → BSN program at a four year school.

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I am also concerned there are no safeties on this list, and that your parents haven’t given you a budget. Have you run any of the schools’ net price calculators and received a result that is affordable?

Here is Cornell’s: Net Price Calculator

How are your first semester classes going? You didn’t say which round of admission you applied to the rest of your schools, but if your classes are going well, you might wait until those grades are in to apply (where that works deadline wise).

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Are you sure? A 3.6 isn’t good enough for UMBC and Salisbury???

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Majors: Nursing. Human Development in Cornell

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I submitted 3.6 into common app. Would that not help?

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My safeties are UMBC and Salisbury?

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I think you’ll get accepted by UMBC. Not sure if it’ll be for pre-nursing though, but you have a shot.
Good luck!

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Many schools will use your unweighted 2.9 GPA for admission purposes, and they will also look at your courses, number of core courses, and rigor (in addition to the rest of your app).

Regarding Salisbury and UMBC, I don’t think those are safeties for admission (plus a school can’t be a safety unless they are affordable…have you run the NPCs?). Do you have Naviance/Scoir at your school to help categorize schools? How does your HS GC categorize them?

Also note that UMBC requires 2 years in pre-nursing at which point you have to leave UMBC to finish your degree (if you are staying in nursing).

If you do have budget constraints you might consider two years of CC rather than UMBC.

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Naviance says UMBC, Rutgers, and Salisbury are 100% matches. Those are just the few that I frantically looked up just now, just to make sure I wasn’t dreaming when I chose safeties. I used the 2.9 for it as well. My parents and I aren’t worried about the cost.

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The issue is that Naviance doesn’t break out impacted majors so for competitive entry programs, like nursing, it may not be very accurate.

Also, if your user name is your given name, please message @CC_Jon or @CC_Sorin to change your screen name.

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Nursing or pre-nursing is almost always a much more competitive major for admission than general admission to the school. So unless Naviance is listing specifically for nursing or pre-nursing, it is likely that their nursing or pre-nursing programs are more difficult to get admitted to than Naviance is indicating.

Note that pre-nursing means having a secondary admission process later, which may be highly competitive (at some schools, a 3.9 or 4.0 college GPA is needed to advance to the nursing major). Direct admit nursing majors sometimes have weed-out processes requiring a high college GPA to stay in the major.

The two-step process of starting with an ADN/RN is worth a look.

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Community college ADN/RN programs are also likely to be very competitive, often similar to pre-nursing programs at 4-year schools in that a high GPA in prerequisites and a high TEAS (or similar test) score is needed to advance into the clinical phase.

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You will not get into Rutgers - even non competitively - I don’t believe.

Here’s another issue though - it’s nursing.

There was a student or parent who posted the other week. Their daughter had a 3.9 or something like that and was not admitted for nursing at UNH, normally not a hard school to get into.

We researched and saw they had a 4.0 cutoff.

Nursing, at some schools, is brutally tough…so while the school overall might be easier, getting into nursing might be more like getting into Georgetown or Duke or Harvard, etc.

Someone with a 4.0 and perfect ACT is going to get rejected at a school like Cornell (and some will get in) - but you are not even close to that, so I would rather you spend your time focusing on easy to get into schools.

I think you’ve way overreached. I hope you get into Salisbury and UMBC - but you might be better to find a direct admit school that you can get into (hence I mentioned Marshall in WV) - and sent a link of others - so you can be assured of studying nursing vs. having to hope to qualify in two years after being at the school. But if pre-nursing is ok, you’d get into Bama and UAH (also in Alabama) - so I’d find other schools like that. For in-state, check out Frostburg (sounds like you’re in Maryland).

Good luck

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If you’re looking for safeties for nursing or pre-nursing, I know of some in the deep south, but I don’t think you’re interested in going that far away. I have heard that there are a number of 4-year public or private school options that are easier admits IN PENNSYLVANIA, as there are 50+ 4-year nursing programs there. You may want to check out the nursing subforum, as you may get more assistance insight about the effects of selectivity on nursing and some schools that are likely or safeties for nursing. York College might be one.

ETA: Realized I forgot to mention the state where all these nursing programs were. :woman_facepalming:t5:

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@mdnursing I suggest looking into some of the small, less selective private and public colleges that offer nursing in Pennsylvania. York College of Pennsylvania might accept you into their pre-nursing program (or the nursing program if they use the weighted GPA). IUP (Indiana University of Pennsylvania) might also be a possibility if they use your weighted GPA. You could also check whether the Penn State branch campuses that have nursing programs still offer a pre-nursing pathway. However, if you do decide to apply to any of these schools, do so ASAP, as nursing programs at most schools fill up early.

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I agree with everything @kidzncatz wrote. I work in a peds rehab and the nurses who take care of our medically fragile kids many with various psychiatric issues are all graduates from all types of nursing schools. Community college ADN then finished the BSN online, small schools attached to local hospitals that nobody ever heard of and highly recognizable names like Rutgers and UPenn or Drexel. They work with each other on the same patients and no difference with pay based on college name. A 2.9 is quite low for most public college nursing programs because they’re so competitive. Definitely look into the vast number of direct admit programs. The requirements to stay in a nursing program is usually more forgiving than the requirements to apply your 2nd year in college with organic chemistry and A&P on your transcript.

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