<p>Hello, I would just like to know what my chances are with what I have:</p>
<p>3.7+ GPA
1500 cumulative SAT
Chinese Honor Society
Honors: Chinese, English, and History
500-1,000 hours of volunteering
Student Council
Club executive board member
Top 30%
Well involved at school and outside of school
Second Honors freshmen and sophomore year
First honors junior year
Member of many clubs
Top 20 in my grade with service hours (I have a select class for that)
Varsity tennis player</p>
<p>With what I have, are my chances for being a nursing major at the University of Delaware good? Or how about health sciences?</p>
<p>I would recommend you take the ACT ASAP. While your GPA is competitive for Nursing admission your SAT scores are unfortunately well below that which is usually seen in applicants accepted to Nursing (figure a minimum of 1900 to really be competitive in most cases). Only about 20% (or less) of OOS applicants are accepted for Nursing, which makes Nursing one of the two most highly competitive majors for admission to UD (along with Chemical Engineering). UD does not have a specific Health Sciences major but does have a Kinesiology & Applied Physiology major, which I understand is very similar. I really don’t know what the specific competitiveness is for this major but overall most healthcare types of majors at UD are pretty competitive. I wish I had a better response to give you. Good luck. </p>
<p>Thank you. I am considering taking the ACTS in December. I finished my application I just need to finish my writing supplements for UD. </p>
<p>Another question, if I don’t get into the nursing program, will I be admitted to another program that I specified as my second choice on the common app?</p>
<p>Yes that is possible. I know of a number of applicants who were not accepted into Nursing but were accepted into their listed second choice (obviously no guarantee, but most other majors are less competitive for acceptance than Nursing). However I would not do this with a specific intent to subsequently try to transfer into the Nursing Program later. The odds of being able to do this are very low as usually there are very few slots that open up and the competition for the few slots available is extremely intense (our D was a Nursing major at UD and she said that some students who tried to transfer into Nursing from other UD majors were not successful even with 4.0 GPA’s). The numbers are so low that UD no longer even accepts applications for transfer into the Nursing Program from other colleges outside UD. Again best of luck to you. </p>
<p>The overall competition for admission as a biolgical sciences major is less intense than for Nursing but again it would depend on the overall applicant pool and the competition for acceptance has been steadily increasing over the last 5+ years. Your cumulative SAT scores are unfortunately still in the low range for acceptance but your GPA is very good, especially if you have been taking a number of honors/AP etc. type of courses and your GPA has been steadily improving (at least not going downward) over the span of your HS years. Scheduling an Admission’s interview, while not required, “may” improve your chances. Obviously none of these things can guarantee acceptance but would maximize your chances. It is becoming increasingly difficult to predict an applicants chances for acceptance. A higher ACT score (compared to your SAT scores) would increase your chances IMHO. Once again best of luck. </p>
<p>I just got accepted to the nursing program, I had a 4.0 GPA, 1820 SAT, 27 ACT, a bunch of AP and honors courses and a lot of volunteering in an emergency room at a local hospital. I also went for an interview. Good luck! I would say get your SAT scores up and you should be okay </p>
<p>Congratulations jessg777! Did you find out on the portal or in snail mail and are you in or out of state? My daughter has similiar stats and we havent heard yet, we are OOS.</p>
<p>I just thought I would give your D some food for thought regarding the extremely high quality of the Nursing Program at UD. It does have one of the best Nursing Program on the East Coast, if not the country, and graduates are very well thought of by Hospital Systems and Grad Programs. </p>
<p>Our D graduated from the Nursing program in 2010. She worked her tail off and did very well academically. Following graduation she passed the NCLEX exam on her first try with the minimum questions required. She then landed an extremely competitive entry level RN position (over 900 applications for about 10-12 positions) at Cornell Presbyterian Medical Center in NYC on a new Neurology ICU unit Cornell was opening. Other new Nursing grads hired along with her included graduates from Penn, Columbia, NYU, BC, and UConn (not a bad peer group to be identified with). She felt the education she received at UD was equal to, and in some areas even exceeded, the educational experiences these individuals received at their respective schools. She stayed there for almost 2 years, was asked to preceptor RN-BSN students from Columbia Univ., studied for and passed the Critical Care Registered Nurse (CCRN) certification exam on her first try, and was promoted to Charge Nurse. She applied to, and was accepted by, a number of the top Nursing Grad Programs (including Penn) for her MSN degree as a Family Nurse Practitioner. She decided to attend the Univ. of Miami (she is a warm weather and beach person) and just graduated from there in August with top academic honors. She passed the FNP certification exam on her first try and landed another highly competitive FNP position at Jackson Memorial Hospital (Univ. of Miami’s primary teaching Medical Center) in Miami in the ER. She also accepted a faculty position as a Clinical Instructor in the School of Nursing at the Univ. of Miami and will be teaching BSN students in their 3rd year in January. She feels that the Nursing education she received at UD was the major contributing factor allowing her to accomplish all these things.</p>
<p>I am not necessarily saying that our D’s experiences are typical of all UD Nursing Grads, but I do believe it shows that if a student applies themselves to the best of their abilities that the Nursing education one can obtain at UD can provide an excellent foundation for an individual to pursue any career in the Nursing field that they may aspire to. If you have any other questions please feel free to ask or PM me. Best wishes to your D in making her decision. </p>
<p>Mwallenmd, thank you VERY much for all the info. I will certainly share with my daughter when she gets home! She has narrowed it down to UDel or Duquense. You can be in the city and see the skyscrapers but still be on Duquense’s small campus, that is the draw there for her. Udel has a better NCLEX pass rate and I like the location, (we are in MD), but I want her to make her own decision. </p>
<p>Duquesne does have an excellent Nursing Program. I assume that your D is aware that Duquesne is one of the increasing number of Nursing Programs that requires Senior Nursing Students to score high enough on an exam called the HESI before they will be given their BSN degree. This is an exam that gives students the odds that they will be able to pass the NCLEX Exam (you cannot take this exam until after you have graduated with your Nursing Degree) and also identifies areas they are weak in. I don’t believe this is an issue for most Sr. Nursing students but it may be a minor concern to some. Again best wishes to your D in making her decision.</p>
<p>UD does utilizes the HESI (or a similar exam) to help Nursing students identify areas they are weak in but does not require Sr. Nursing students to score at a certain level in order to graduate (UD’s NCLEX pass rates are high enough that they don’t feel they need to do this-due to the quality of the Nursing curriculum provided; which is a research based design geared toward addressing the dynamic ongoing evolution of the BSN Nursing education field which the NCLEX exam is also being modified to assess). IMHO some Nursing Programs are so fixated on their NCLEX pass rates that they have implemented this new procedure (rather than feeling confident enough that their Nursing curriculums prepare students adequately to pass the exam). You probably will find that most of the highest quality Nursing Programs utilize the HESI (or a similar exam) the way UD utilizes it. Just my perspective. But please don’t misinterpret what I am saying. Most students who attend Programs that now require the HESI in the way I mentioned in my previous post don’t have problems scoring high enough to get their degree. But of course it could be a stressful situation for Sr. Nursing students who have not applied themselves to the best of their abilities in their studies up to that point. Again best wishes to your D in making her decision. </p>