<p>Hi, I'm a senior in high school and I'm trying to figure out what CSUs to apply to. (I know UCLA and UCI are the only UCs with nursing programs, and I will be applying to both) I plan on only applying to a SoCal school where I can graduate with a BSN so that I can take the NCELX to become an RN and hopefully in the future become a Nurse Practitioner. (I'll worry about grad school later; my priority is applying to what colleges lol!) So what schools in California with nursing programs are you going to/did you apply to? Thanks! :)</p>
<p>My Stats:</p>
<p>-GPA: 4.4 weighted, 3.8 unweighted
-Volunteering: around 150 hrs at a hospital
-670 on SATII Bio
-SAT: around 1900 (I'm taking another one this Oct)</p>
<p>Janet, with respect to So. Cal schools, if you wish to attend an all-girls school, you may want to look at Mt St Marys; they have a great undergrad program, the school is incredibly beautiful, and student activities on campus are really a lot of fun (according to my niece, who spent four years there). They also are very generous with aide. Check them out! Cal State LA has a great program, but you’re running against huge number of applicants, who may not be as talented as you, but hey.</p>
<p>The two UC schools have amazing Nursing programs, but if you would prefer a public CSU, CSU Bakersfield has one of the most competitive and best nursing programs out of all the schools in California. It may not be very popular, but the Nursing major is impacted because of the level of competitiveness. You can also try CSU Long Beach, and San Fran State.</p>
<p>Awww, thanks! Well my SAT’s weren’t all too great, around 1800 ( i was going to take it again but my dad passed away and that complicated things…). I had a 4.5 UC GPA and 100 hospital volunteer hours. I also did the IB Diploma Programme in High School. I also did tons of other extracurricular activities. I do believe that it is pretty difficult to get in as a nursing major at the UC’s, I think it’s around 6% for both schools. Good luck! Oh and btw, nursing at the UC’s is direct entry. Meaning there is no need to apply again your sophomore year for the upper division nursing classes. Once accepted as a freshman at a UC nursing school you are already a nursing student. The UC for nursing tends to be a bit more theoretical compared to CSU nursing programs. This is because the UC aims to produce advanced practice nurses (grad school) rather than just floor nurses.</p>
<p>How crazy, we have the same career goal! You’re GPA/SAT and volunteering time is much better than mine though. I have a 3.6 weighted (I don’t know what my uw is) and 1730 SAT (560W, 540CR, and 630Math).</p>
<p>I’m a senior too and I think I finally got my list narrowed down to 4 choices. In order from my first choice to my last choice:
-San Francisco State
-CSU Fullerton
-CSU Long Beach
-CSU Bakersfield (My backup, because I live in Bakersfield and wouldn’t have to pay room&board)</p>
<p>One good thing about the CSUs is that most of them are fixing their nursing programs so that nursing students can graduate in 4 years (it used to take 4.5). Take a look at the road maps for the schools your interested in to find out how long it will take to graduate. </p>
<p>I think for nursing schools, the programs are all pretty much the same in the end and the difference really comes down to the professors. I’ve recently been trying to talk to people from the schools on my list and see what they thought of their professors and how prepared they felt for the NCLEX. I was hearing some really bad horror stories about a school (I don’t remember which, but it wasn’t a CSU or UC anyway) that had professors who NEVER taught in front of the class, they just put up pre-made power point shows or read straight out of the textbook, and none of the students felt prepared for the NCLEX, so definitely get opinions on professors! </p>
<p>*Sorry for any spelling/grammatical errors. It’s 1am and I’m not thinking!!</p>
<p>thanks thatonedude822! your reply was very detailed, which helped me out
oh… and did you ever consider SDSU? I heard SDSU has a pretty good nursing program.
Since an aspiring nursing student is not really considered a nursing student (for CSUs) until after completing the school’s pre-requisites, I’m super scared that I would not be able to get into the program after completing those pre-reqs, wasting a year basically O_O</p>
<p>You can find the NCLEX pass rates for all California BSN schools on line.
Some Scores for 2011-2012:
UCLA 91.3%
UCI 78.26
UCSF 95.40
CSU Fullerton 66.67
CSU Long Beach 96
CSU Bakersfield 96.84
CSU-LA 89.69
San Francisco State 85.58
Univ. of San Francisco 83.12
San Diego State 88.38</p>
<p>I have looked into SDSU because one of my friends wanted me to go there with her (she wants to be an engineering major). To be completely honest, I wasn’t too fond of the idea of going to San Diego, so I didn’t really look up too much on it. I have heard some other people say that they were pretty happy with nursing there though.</p>
<p>I’m also scared I won’t get into the program after prereqs. I was reading that the average prereq GPA for those who are admitted into the nursing program at SFSU is around 3.8. I’m pretty sure the prereq courses are transferable to all CSU campuses though (don’t take my word on that though, because I’m not 100% positive) so you can take prereqs at one CSU and apply to the nursing program at another CSU. <— I THINK you can anyway. I’ve been trying to find out for a while, but I haven’t gotten a definite answer.</p>
<p>@Mwallenmd - It’s interesting how UCI has one of the lowest pass rates, even though it’s a UC (a supposedly “better” system). My guess would be that it’s because they offer the Nursing SCIENCE major as opposed to the nursing major. They take a more science based approach to Nursing whereas the CSUs (and the NCLEX) take a more practical approach. And Fullerton must have had an off-year. The year prior, they had an 84.21% pass rate. These pass rate trends are interesting.
<a href=“http://www.rn.ca.gov/schools/passrates.shtml[/url]”>http://www.rn.ca.gov/schools/passrates.shtml</a> There’s a link to check out the pass rates of all CA Schools all the way back to the 2007/2008 year.</p>
<p>^Centennial
I’m personally only interested in CSUs and UCs (well, nit UCs - I’d never get in) because I don’t see the point in going to a private school for a nursing degree - a degree is a degree in the world of nursing. And I’m not interested in CCCs (CA Community Colleges) because that would tack on an extra year or two to get an MSN/DNP (haven’t decided which I would stop at yet, I’m mainly concerned with my BSN right now).</p>
