Major: Nursing
Minor: Math
Demographic: Indian
Sex: Male
Stats:
I took the ACT and got a 30
English 31
Math 32
Reading 26
Science 31
I have taken 6 AP’s and plan to take 2-3 more my senior year
Schedule/AP scores
9th
Gym
AP Human Geography (3 on exam)
English
Choir
Honors Government
Physical Science
Spanish 2
Honors Geometry
10th
World History
Spanish 3
Honors Algebra 2
AP Biology (3 on exam)
Honors Chemistry
Honors English
Honors Precalculus
Health
11th grade
AP Calculus AB (5 on ab subscore)
US History
AP Chemistry (4 on exam)
Spanish 4
Organic Chemistry
AP Calculus BC (4 on exam)
AP English Language and Composition (3 on exam)
Classes signed up for 12th grade
AP English Literature
Electives
Senior Economics
AP Physics 1
Anatomy
Diferential Equations and Linear Algebra
Current UW GPA: 3.77
Current W GPA: 4.06
EC’s
Volunteering at Hospital for 3 years
Counselor for 2 religious camps
National Honor Society (NHS)
Youth Extended Service Club
Science Bowl
Mock Trial
Spanish Club
Badminton Club
Teacher Assistant over the summer
I received the President’s Volunteer Service Award for my service hours
I also received the AP Scholar with Honor award for my AP scores
WHAT IS THE MOST SELECTIVE COLLEGE YOU THINK I CAN GET INTO WITH THESE SCHEDULE, STATS, EC, etc.
From what I have heard, the University of Minnesota has a very good nursing program. Given the quality of your in-state public university’s nursing program, I don’t think that there is much reason to try to get in anywhere that is more selective.
Your guidance counselor at your high school should have a pretty good sense of whether your stats are competitive. Nursing programs can be more competitive than other programs and thus I am not sure exactly what it would take for you to be accepted there. The fact that you have been volunteering at a hospital for 3 years, and did not just take this up recently, is likely to help you.
Direct-entry nursing programs are often much more competitive than the school in general, so make sure you research program-specific stats and not just overall averages. Also, the most selective school you can get into is not necessarily the best school in terms of the quality of specific programs and the ability to blend your areas of interest the way you want to.
As mentioned above, your own state flagship is excellent. Minnesota students also get tuition reciprocity at UW-Madison, so that’s another great option. But Wisconsin’s nursing program doesn’t have direct-admit, so you’d have to compete to enter the nursing program as a junior… whereas Minnesota has the Freshman Nursing Guarantee Program https://admissions.tc.umn.edu/admissioninfo/nursing_guarantee.html With your stats, this looks like a possibility but not a slam-dunk.
St. Olaf is the most selective liberal arts college in the nation that has a nursing program, and math is another of its notable strengths, so it could be a great choice for you. If you would enjoy a smaller school (although not small as LAC’s go - >3000 students), this could be a great option, and you might have a shot at some merit money. St. Olaf has direct entry to nursing, and also has a much higher Early Decision acceptance rate than Regular Decision, if you were to decide before the ED2 deadline that it was a clear first choice. (ED1 deadline is 11/15 which would probably be a bit hasty at this point.)
Truman State is a great public LAC that has direct entry to nursing. It’s a phenomenal bargain through MSEP (less expensive than Twin Cities in-state), and you’d get additional automatic merit off the already low MSEP price. A terrific financial safety and an excellent school.
In terms of selective private U’s, U of Miami would be worth a look. URochester and CWRU would be reaches, since they’re high-match/low-reaches for you in general and probably more competitive for nursing. There are many excellent OOS publics, but Minnesota and Wisconsin are such a good value that I would expect only a very few OOS publics to be potentially worth the additional cost and still within reach admissions-wise.
With your interests, you might think about pursuing a field like health informatics. UW and UMinn both have graduate programs in this field. Having both a clinical credential and a skill-set in this area could be a very marketable combination.
BC is a high reach with OP’s stats. A 30 ACT is 25th percentile there. Among the Jesuit schools with nursing programs, Villanova and Gonzaga could be worth looking at.
Definitely apply to St. Olaf for nursing. Also apply to Luther College in Iowa–another small liberal arts college with an excellent nursing program. It’s about 2 and 1/2 hours from the Twin Cities.
You don’t have budget limitations or you haven’t discussed it with your parents and they haven’t mentioned any? You should talk to them and find out how much they’re willing/able to pay.
Don’t worry about what the most selective college you can get into is. Look instead for schools you like instead. Big or small? City or rural? You’d like a merit scholarship from a small LAC? Any state university is going to offer a quality nursing program. Look for schools with good connections with a hospital. First find your match schools you like. And then look for your 2-3 ‘safe’ schools. Your selective reach school are the least important to research. It’s the target and ‘safety’ schools that should be nailed down first. And beter don’t spend time asking others to ‘chance’ you. At best you get unreliable ‘you’ll probably get in’.
And definitely, absolutely have the money talk with your parents. It’s a critical variable to know as you research colleges. If they expect you to take out loans when the yearly bill is above a certain amount, they should tell you ahead of time.
@aquapt You apply to the various colleges at BC (education, arts & sciences, business, nursing). Getting into the nursing school, especially as a male, will likely be easier than business or arts & science. A 30 ACT would not keep him out. (And Villanova isn’t Jesuit.)