Hello everyone!
I have a question about applying to the University of Arizona as a freshman.
I thought there were 3 options:
Pre-nursing major
BSN
BSN Direct Admit
But is the Pre-nursing major being phased out so now there are only 2 options?
In the BSN-DA section, under Advanced Standing Conference, it says “The College of Nursing will make every effort to meet the students preferred start semester and campus within one year of their eligibility.”
Does this mean we choose between BSN-DA (which is guaranteed admission but there may be a gap between the 1st 2 and last 2 years) or BSN (which is not guaranteed but is a continuous course of study with no gaps)?
I think that direct entry nursing option for University of Arizona is new for Fall of 2025. Another great option to add to the direct entry list of colleges.
Great list! My daughter was a Fall 2024 Direct Admit Nursing Applicant. She applied to some on your list so I can share our experience with admissions. This community was such a wealth of information for us and I was so glad to have found it. Hopefully this helps. Good luck on your journey!
W 96.7 (Test Optional), 15 IB/AP/ Dual Enrollment/Honors, Great EC’s, Varsity Sports, Volunteer, Nursing Internship @ Hospital, Honors Clubs, etc
Accepted:
• Ohio State (Accepted Pre-Nursing in Dec & received Direct Enrollment Pathway in January (Direct entry option). No Merit.
• Sacred Heart University. Merit.
• Pitt. No Merit. (I think it helps to apply early. She applied in September and had acceptance by end of October)
• University of Maryland: Accepted biology, but did not apply to Nursing. Loved the campus, but did not want to go to Baltimore for the nursing program junior & senior year). No merit.
• Penn State: Accepted, but gave her Altoona Campus. No merit.
• U Delaware (Accepted, but not into nursing program, UDel gave her biomedical sciences / Pre-PA Pathway instead)
• URI (Honors Nursing). Merit.
• Binghamton University: Deferred in December, Waitlisted in March, Mid-May was given 24hrs to accepted a spot. We would have liked more time to make decisions on this one since excellent in state for us, but such as life
• Fairfield. Merit.
Deferred / Waitlist:
• UConn: Given waitlist for Storrs Campus for Fall 2024 or start abroad Fall 2024 and start Storrs in Spring 2025 (didn’t give her nursing). Declined seat.
Rejected - they were major reaches:):
• UVA
• Villanova: (Deferred to Reg. Decision in January, Rejected in March)
In the end it came down to Ohio State and Sacred Heart as her top two. She loved both nursing programs and campuses. We also loved our visit to Pitt and were very impressed with the program, but with zero merit and OOS…it was too expensive. OSU and SHU are two very difference schools, but she loved them both. In the end, SHU was a bit closer to home and SHU gave great merit and I think she just envisioned herself happiest @ Sacred Heart.
Good luck!
I’m going to add information for the nursing program at University of South Carolina (my daughter is a freshman).
They are generally NOT direct-admit but DO have a direct admit program for students within the Honors College. It’s called Smart Start and they aim for 20-30 students in total coming from that program. For the current freshman - I believe they have 34.
They currently are working to have a cohort of 280 students entering upper division. This has expanded and will continue to slowly expand further with a goal of getting to 320 students in the next 5 years or so. They can expand due to a brand new building and agreement Lexington Medical that allowed for not only a building but LM also is providing faculty. That said, clinical take place across the 4 healthcare groups around Columbia and students must agree to travel as far as 80 miles for a clinical their senior year. The cohort is divided between those who begin upper division in the summer and those who begin in the fall. Students can request which they prefer but there is no guarantee.
Admissions to upper division last year had an average gpa of 3.78 and the lowest gpa they accepted was 3.4. 95% of the application to upper division is based on grades and the remaining 5% is based on interviews.
Beginning this year the College of Nursing began a program called P.A.S.S. with the goal of helping to qualify as many students into the upper division as possible. This includes specific tutoring for nursing classes (that is done in conjunction with USC’s Student Success program), workshops on figuring out how you learn best, the best studying techniques for an individual, taking time to stay mentally healthy, etc.
If your student gets one of the direct admit spots through the Smart Start program, they will have to also do a senior thesis (and honors college requirement). Because of the regimented nursing schedule, they begin preparing for the thesis the first semester in college and plan to have it completed by their Junior year. Many students drop out of honors due to that thesis requirement.
NCLEX pass rates at USC are 100% which is amazing for such a large program. They completely revamped their program a couple of years ago because they were unhappy with their pass rates and the changes are really showing.
It was one of a couple of non-direct admit programs my daughter applied to. She ended up in the Smart Start program which definitely helped her make her decision to attend there.
My daughter was accepted to both Iowa and Pitt nursing yesterday! Pitt acceptance said nursing, the Iowa one we need to investigate because we thought they were direct entry, but acceptance reads “with an interest in nursing,” so we are wondering if there is actually a second level acceptance? Is anyone familiar with Iowa nursing and how they accept?
Yes, I believe it is a two-step process at Iowa. Apparently 24-48 hours after submitting the general application with nursing interest checked, eligible students (criteria on website) will get a link to a second supplemental application for direct admit. The supplemental app is due 12/16. According to the website, direct admit nursing decisions come out in early March.
Edited to Add: Congrats on Pitt too! My D26 visited this summer and really liked it!
Congratulations on Pitt acceptance! It’s great she already has an awesome option in September. If you don’t mind me asking, would you please share your daughter’s sats? My daughter (HS class of 2026) just started exploring direct admit BSN programs and Pitt is one of her dream schools. Pitt nursing is very competitive and it’s OOS for us, so might be a little expensive though.
Her school doesn’t do traditional GPA, they just put grades on their transcripts, but she has had all As in a rigorous course load, so I’m guessing 4.0. She has a 34 ACT and got her CNA license over the summer, as well as extensive hospital volunteering and shadowing.
Thank you for the reply. That’s strong stats! My daughter would like to get a CNA license but unfortunately the age requirement is 18 years old in my state. She won’t be able to obtain it until the spring of her senior year.
Hi everyone, I have no idea if I’m doing this “right” so apologies. I could not figure out how to make a “new post” in this thread.
I wanted to share this journey with all of you. No idea what to expect.
My daughter will graduate this spring 2025. She did high school in 3 years. We’re in San Francisco and the direct admit/entry competition here in state makes me think we should look out of state.
I’d love suggestions. We’ve stumbled on Purdue and that looks like the right idea and budget limit.
I don’t think we’ll qualify for much financial assistance but maybe she could get merit scholarships.
We don’t want to spend $$$$$$$ on college. Any suggestions are most welcome.
I wonder if it’s even worth our time applying in state.
She has a 4.0 unweighted and weighted is 4.16.
She’s 16. Will be 17 in May.
She’s got volunteer hours about 100 non-medical
She’s in varsity volleyball.
She would like to go somewhere suburban, even rural and less openly hostile to her Christian faith. She said it would be neat if she went somewhere it snows.
There are many direct entry BSN programs in Pennsylvania. Messiah University might appeal to your daughter if she is okay with a small private school. Messiah has a strong nursing program. The campus is in a rural setting but is actually part of suburban Harrisburg. Many Messiah students receive merit aid and/or need-based aid. I can personally vouch for the caring faculty, staff, and students.
I checked the tuition and unless she got some merit scholarships it would be more than I’d want to pay. We have three other kids in the pipeline. Her brothers are presently 14, 13, and 13 so we’ve got to make some careful decisions on tuition.
I think the majority of Messiah’s students do receive merit aid. Make sure you run the net price calculator for any college you are considering. Many small private schools end up cheaper than state universities, especially for out of state students. My daughter received both merit and need-based aid from Messiah, making it much cheaper than Penn State would have been for us (instate).
Hey there, perhaps look at UMaine/UNH/UCONN/UVM if she’s willing to travel that far! These four are direct entry with no sneaky secondary progression requirements.
My D22 is a junior BSN student at UMaine. Very happy, and they are generous with the merit for deserving OOS students. We live in NY.
A plus is there is an int’l airport 10 minutes away in Bangor.
Good luck!
Hi I am looking for some reccomendations to add to my list, I am finalizing it right now and was wondering if people could reccomend some targets for me!
Here are my stats:
3.7 W GPA ( my school uses a 4.5 scale)
A- average
1350 SAT
12 Honors/APs/College Classes
involved in many extracurriculars (4 leadership/ student government, 3 community service, part time jobs)
I live in new england but am open to anywhere on the east coast!
Some of the schools i really loved were elon, sacred heart, and udelaware