My junior is looking to go to Rutgers Camden Nursing (Traditional BSN). She got a 1090 on her first try SAT and a 24 on the first try ACT. Neither score is great, but the ACT I think is a ‘better’ score - at least if you look at the concordance tables.
But the admissions rep (general rep but she knew daughter is applying to nursing) said they were looking for about 1100 on the SAT and about 27 on the ACT. That doesn’t make sense to me as I thought an 1100 on the SAT is only equivalent to around a 21 or 22 on the ACT.
Our plan was to have her do more prep on the ACT and take it again. We are going to a nursing specific information session next week so I will have her ask again. Do I misunderstand the score concordance?
Here is the admitted student profile. I hope that it helps. It seems that Camden asks for much lower scores than Newark and New Brunswick. ACT range for Nursing at Camden is 23-27 where the range is 27-29 at the other schools.
Maybe Camden is looking to have a consistent range so that people are not looking to apply to Camden as an easy route to the nursing program. Maybe people are not passing the boards at Camden at the rate they are at the other two schools and Rutgers is seeing that there may be a benefit in having a consistent GPA/Score range at all 3 schools
Remember that Nursing is competitive. An 1100/22 would be on the low end.
If she can get higher, then she should definitely get a higher score to increase her chances for admissions.
@sybbie719 I did see this information before - the NCLEX pass rate has been favorable at Camden according to the State of NJ website. But this information is why I was confused about what the admissions rep said-- it doesn’t make sense to me.
And it looks like she did do ‘better’ on the ACT so I think that should be our prep route.
@toomanyteens You are using the concordance correctly. It seems the admissions rep gave you the lower end of the SAT range and the higher end of the ACT range. You will want her to aim for the higher end of the mid-range on the admissions profile. Some kids do better on one test than the other and it seems she’s may be better of focusing on the ACT. I’m not sure what techniques she has tried.but a good part of it is to get used to the format by having mock tests that mirror ACT testing. Have her sit in a room by herself, no noise, etc on a couple of Saturday mornings at 8am in conditions that will mirror that of the test site. Timed sections and break and then see how she does. It’s amazing how much just being familiar with the test and taking a couple of tests in true testing conditions will help keep her calm during the actual test.
@paveyourpath thank you – I am going to pony up for a prep class for her. I tend to agree she should be closer to the mid-range and I am sure with some preparation she can do that. The one I found gives them the test 4 times and then coaches them through test taking. My step daughter did well with the prep and it paid off in the end. All of our kids did better on the ACT … well not sure about the eldest she didn’t take it (only SAT) but the others are 4 for 4 on scoring better on ACT the first try.
@toomanyteens,
when you look at the data for students who graduated May 2016, 75% of the students who graduated from Camden passed (25% failure rate) the NCLEX compared to 80% of the students who graduated May 2016 from New Brunswick (20% failure rate). You may say that 5% is not much, but it is a lot if your kid is in that 5%.
Also take into account that those new SAT scores are made up using the college board concordance tables and there are not actual received scores. The jury is still out if CB is right on that. At this point an ACT score will be a bit more of an accurate predictor.
Have you looked at Quinnipiac U? My sister’s “bonus daughter” goes there for nursing and just raves about it. She did a semester in Ireland and raved abut that. She’s graduating this year and going on to grad school, I believe. I just took a quick look at your DD’s SAT’s are in line.