Chance/match me for nursing school: 4.0 UW, 1540 SAT, NJ resident [NMSF likely]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics

  • US citizen, chinese female
  • State/Location of residency: central NJ
  • Type of high school: large public high school
  • Other special factors: no hooks

Cost Constraints / Budget

none

Intended Major(s): nursing

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 4.0
  • Weighted HS GPA: 4.7
  • Class Rank: N/A
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 1540 SAT (740 RW / 800 MATH)

List your HS coursework

(honors and ap listed only, italicized for senior year)

  • English: honors english 1, 2, and 3, AP lit
  • Math: honors geometry, honors pre-calc, AP Calc AB (predicted 5), AP Calc BC, AP stat
  • Science: honors bio, honors chem, AP bio, AP Chem (predicted 5)
  • History and social studies: american history honors, AP micro, AP psych (predicted 5)
  • Language other than English: Spanish 4 honors, AP spanish lang (predicted 4)

total of 9 honors and 9 APs

*I was unilligible for APs as a freshman/sophomore

Awards (this is where I’m definitely lacking)

AP scholar

national merit scholar semifinalist/finalist (not guaranteed but likely because my PSAT score is 1500)

Honors award for ABT ballet exams

NHS

Extracurriculars

  • pre pro ballet student: ballet class 5x a week, supplemental classes include jazz, musical theatre, and flamenco (9,10,11,12)
  • member of youth ballet company with various lead roles (9,10,11,12)
  • classical violinist, passed ASTACAP exams up to level 8 (9,10,11,12)
  • president of homefront club (12), vp (11), treasurer (10), member (9)
  • published 2 duckweed DNA sequences on research database for a summer program (11)
  • summer camp job at aops for writing classes (11, 12)
  • library volunteer 100 hours (10)
  • shadowed a nurse during the summer (12)
  • NHS tutor (12)
  • member of red cross club (9,10,11)

Essays/LORs/Other
strong LORs from calc teacher and director of ballet studio, mid from spanish teacher

Schools

  • upenn (ed)
  • umich
  • case western
  • umaryland
  • u pitt
  • osu
  • rutgers
  • boston college
  • purdue
  • Georgetown
  • umass
  • emory

I know most of these schools have very competitive nursing programs, please let me know if I should add or remove certain schools (also I don’t care much about size, location, or prestige, just needs to have a strong nursing program)

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Budget?

You are a very strong candidate. But, from what I understand, if your goal is a job in nursing and not continuing on to a more advanced degree, you don’t need to be overly concerned with ranking. Think about other preferences you might have like size, access to opportunities to dance, and campus culture.

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From an overall university POV, you’d get into many. But some nursing or pre nursing programs have single digit acceptnce rates.

I would join their nursing admission info sessions - so you can better estimate if you’d be good. Or add two “lesser” programs.

After all, for nursing, I’m guessing where you go matters little. My nurses at Vandy went to no name (like I’ve literally not heard of them) trade schools.

If you need to add any easier (and you may already have easier on your list like Rutgers or UMass), you’ll know right away after comparing your stats to other nursing admits, etc.

But if you were bio or another major, you’d get into UMD, Pitt, OSU, Rutgers, Purdue, and UMASS for sure.

Good luck.

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I think that you are doing very well.

A nurse who I know very well has told me that the ability to speak Spanish has been useful in every job that she has ever had. She is not fluent, but does speak well enough to deal with patients who only speak Spanish.

Good for your school! If I were the god of all AP classes for the USA, I would not allow freshmen to take AP classes, and would probably either do the same for sophomores or limit them to 1. University admissions will not penalize you for your high school’s policy in this area.

I do not think that you are lacking in awards. To me it looks like for ECs you have done what is right for you. That is what you should do. Experience in a medical environment (such as shadowing a nurse) will be helpful to your applications. I do wonder how much your nursing-related ECs might compare with other students, and wonder whether this is the only not-quite-stellar spot in what otherwise looks like an exceptionally strong application.

Have you run the NPC for U.Penn, or are you and your parents fine with being full pay? How much debt would this require (if any)? You do not need to apply ED anywhere, and you probably should only apply ED at all if a school is both your clear top choice, and either you are fine being full pay or the NPC has given you a result that you are okay with.

I am wondering what your budget is. Nursing is an area where there are many jobs. You do not need to attend U.Penn to get a very good job as a nurse. However it is true as you say that nursing programs are competitive for admissions. Also, you would be better off if you can avoid debt, or minimize it as much as you can.

Nursing is an area where no graduate school is needed. However, a master’s degree is possible and the potential cost of this is something to be aware of.

I am wondering what your safeties are. Given that you are in-state with excellent grades and test scores, I would expect that Rutgers would be a safety for general admissions, but I am not sure about the nursing program. I would also check out the physical location where the nursing program has patient-focused experience and make sure that you are okay with it (what I have heard is based on very, very old information and only one source).

I think that you should add Seton Hall as a probable safety. It has a very good nursing program.

U.Mass Amherst is very good. I quite like the location. In general some merit aid is possible out of state, but I do not know how common this is for a nursing student.

U.Mass Lowell also has a very good nursing program. I am not sure if an out of state public university is ever a safety, but I would expect your chances there to be very good.

But I also think that you already have a very good list. The one thing that concerns me has been mentioned above, which is that nursing can be a very competitive major for admissions. As such I would be careful about making sure that your safeties are solid.

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What do you mean by this?

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@2plustrio

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Pay attention to how the nursing major is structured:

  • Would you be directly admitted to the nursing major?
    • If so, what are the criteria (e.g. grades and GPA) to stay in the major?
    • If not, how difficult and competitive is getting into the nursing major in secondary admission?
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Thank you. I forgot to mention this, but I’m actually planning to go to graduate school to become a nurse practitioner. Given this, should I be more concerned with ranking? As for my budget, I don’t really have one, but one of my parents believes that all nursing schools will provide the same opportunities so I should just go to the cheapest one possible. The other thinks that I should go to the most prestigious school, regardless of the price, in order to better my chances of getting into a good np program. What are your thoughts on this?

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Thank you for your help. If I’m planning to go to grad school to become a nurse practitioner, do you think that my choice of undergrad would still matter little?

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IIRC, you will need to work as a nurse for a couple of years before applying to a NP program. That being the case, you want a school with a good pass rate on the board exams. Then you need to get a job. Your work record will be important when you apply for NP. We know a number of nurses who actually attended classes part time to get the NP degree while they were working.

@2plustrio should be able to offer some advice to you.

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I appreciate your help. I agree that my ECs are not as nursing-focused as they should be, I’ve tried to volunteer at my local hospital but they actually have a 2-year waiting list because there are so many high school students in my area who are planning on going pre-med. Do you have any other ideas for nursing-related ECs?

As for UPenn, the main reason I planning on applying ED there is because one of my parents is a doctor at a Penn Medicine hospital, which would make tuition free. That combined with it being ranked number one in the country, my parents think its a no brainer. I’m also planning to go to grad school to eventually become a nurse practitioner, do you having gone to UPenn would give me an upper hand in getting into a good grad school and finding a job? Thanks for the recommendation of Seton Hall. Do you think Drexel would be a good safety as well?

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I think your first step is to nail down an actual budget. Especially considering you are thinking about grad school.

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Have you been to an info session yet - try one at Drexel. They’ll tell you your odds (I’d have to think good).

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It is my understanding that working for a few years is important before applying to grad school to become a NP. This is what will be important.

I would choose an affordable school with a high pass rate for the boards. You may want to also consider the ease of getting to clinicals.

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This is not really my area of expertise. The one thing that occurs to me I have no idea whether or not it would work. That would be to volunteer to shadow home care nurses. You should have some home care nursing programs in your part of the world. I might be inclined to mention that you speak some Spanish just in case this matters (although this might depend upon how you feel about your Spanish ability).

This makes sense to me.

I do not think that I am personally qualified to use the word “safety” in this context, but yes I would seriously consider it.

This is my understanding also. The nurse practitioner that I know did indeed practice nursing for a few years before going on to a master’s degree program.

I think that you can do well with a nursing degree from any university on your list, or from Seton Hall or Drexel. I think that good work experience and good results as an undergraduate student and good references will speak louder than which one out of many very good universities you get your bachelor’s degree from.

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I am one who doesnt believe in safeties for nursing majors.

The name of the college where bsn is earned does not matter for grad school. Its sadly very easy to earn an NP degree.

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It’s hard to beat a nursing school like Boston College because of the caliber of the hospitals where you’ll be doing your clinicals. I suggest that you look at each of the nursing schools on your list in the same way. Are the clinicals at teaching hospitals where they employ best practices and uutilize the latest research? Are the locations of the clinicals easily accessible? Will you need a car to get to them? Is the distance from campus reasonable?

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I am not a nurse and I do not have any family members who are nurses. I do, however, have a family friend who recently (within the past few years) left a combined MS/NP program after a few days. This was an accelerated program for non-nurses so does not directly apply to you. Here is what they learned:

  1. They did not enjoy the experience, even after just 2-3 days. Not saying this will be you, and this can happen with any career path.

  2. When speaking with recent grads from this program, they learned that it is very, very hard to get a job as a NP without bedside experience. One recent grad (NP) was employed, but it was not what she wanted to do and not where she thought she would be working.

My advice as a non-nurse (others will know better) is to prepare yourself for bedside first, which is not as “glamorous” as being an NP, and is also very hard work.

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I think you have a good list based on the following -

  • You have schools that are safe for you.
  • You have schools with solid nursing programs.
  • You meet one parent’s goal of prestige.
  • You meet the other parent’s goal of value.
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I agree, at least for many, probably most, direct admit programs.

OP, I don’t think you have any likely direct admit nursing schools on your list. I assume you mean Rutgers New Brunswick…direct admit nursing widely rumored to be below a 5% acceptance rate. Rutgers Newark has a higher admit rate. Same for UMass: UMass Amherst acceptance rate quite low, UMass Dartmouth and Lowell higher.

My biggest concern is that you haven’t worked with patients. Without that, it’s difficult for me to understand how you are certain you want to be a nurse and apply to direct admit programs. This will be a disadvantage in your apps. Maybe consider non-direct admit (traditional) nursing programs?

I would do some more research, attend virtual sessions, and ask what the direct admit nursing acceptance rates are at each of your schools. Some schools will tell you, some won’t. You can also look at some third party sites that have nursing schools with nclex pass rates, with some acceptance rate data. College transitions has one and is free, there is a subscription based one at directadmit bsn dot com. I’m not necessarily recommending spending the $, but the blog might be helpful. DIRECT ADMIT BSN - Blog

You might also find this thread helpful: Direct Admit BSN - Creating a College List - Class of 2026/2030

I agree with this, and have a similar story. Last year, a friend’s D went to a highly ranked master’s of nursing program for students who didn’t have a nursing undergrad. She dropped out as soon as they started seeing patients, because, well, she realized that was not for her. It was quite an expensive mistake.

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