I loved the campus + my sister is at Duke so it would be very convenient for my family. Though honestly based on acceptance rates I’m expecting a rejection lol.
The nursing threads from previous years were very helpful to us. Here is our cycle result in case it helps future students. We are California resident. Cumulative GPA 4.1; SAT 90+ percentile; hospital volunteering over 100 hours; heavily involved in sports (school/region record holder) but did not apply to play in college; founder and president of a unique club for all four years in high school; strong essays. Demographically not under represented.
We feel extremely lucky about his acceptances. Even though we are thankful for his choices, i feel California with all its wealth and resources should expand its undergraduate nursing programs. So if you are from California apply broadly.
UC Irvine - applied nursing, admitted biology. UCI has been his dream school ever since he was a child and the cheapest choice after Cal State Fullerton even assuming he will get a BS first and continue to accelerated BSN. UCI is close enough to be a commuter school, but he plans to dorm if he goes to UCI.
Cal State Fullerton- applied nursing, admitted alternate major. Not excited about this one.
Cal State Long Beach - waitlisted pre nursing
UCLA - rejected
San Diego State - pending decision. We are assuming it is a no and moving on.
University of San Francisco - applied early action; submitted SAT; deferred to RD, sent letter of continued interest plus the senior grades (3 APs and all A). Admitted direct entry nursing with $24K merit. U San Francisco is the most expensive but it is in CA, we have family nearby, and only 5/6 hours driving distance.
Case Western - applied regular decision; accepted with $45K merit. Did not submit SAT here. His sister is a medical student in CWR so he has support there. Cost for 4 year at CWR is similar to UCI. So the cost of attending is attractive and their nursing program is the best within his options. He is, however, not thrilled about Cleveland nor the long winters
Arizona State - applied early action and unofficially submitted SAT score. They placed him into alternate major. He reached out asked for re evaluation. They told him if he submitted his official SAT score they will reconsider him for direct admit nursing. He did so and got admitted with $14K merit. Most expensive after U San Francisco.
University of Portland - applied early action and admitted direct entry nursing with $32K merit.
Seattle U - applied early action and admitted direct entry nursing with $26K merit.
Let’s make the decision making start 
10 Likes
I just wanted to reiterate how helpful this thread is for future applicants. Thank you @RinoMom and others who have taken the time to post. Good luck with your decisions!
4 Likes
Just one addition @RinoMom - for many programs, males are considered an under-represented group. Something for others to think about in the future.
3 Likes
This is a good point, and it shows how difficult it is to get into direct nursing in California. He didn’t get into any of our public schools direct entry nursing. Not even pre nursing in Cal State Long Beach.
1 Like
Check the weed-out / progression requirements for each program. For example, ASU requires a 3.5 college GPA in major prerequisites and requirements each of the first four semesters to stay in the nursing major.
1 Like
My daughter enjoyed the Sunday night social. She met a couple future nursing students then. If it is the same schedule as when we went, you go to the College of Nursing introduction from 10am-12pm, which includes a panel of student nurses and then they bus you over (walking distance but I think they bus over to speed things up) to the Nursing school to look at the facilities of their new building. It was very impressive.
Thank you - looking forward to it.
Anybody knows about Purdue BSN program? Trying to decide between Purdue and UPitt.
Those were two that my daughter was deciding between. She chose Pitt because of much closer clinicals, higher number of clinical hours, and city location. Cost was very similar for us, so that wasn’t a factor.
1 Like
Is she currently studying at UPitt? How is the workload and support from faculty?
She is currently a junior at Pitt and is really enjoying it. Workload freshman year wasn’t bad at all. Sophomore year is regarded as the most difficult, with the hardest classes and having clinicals for the first time. She has found the faculty very supportive and approachable. I’ve been impressed by how many opportunities she has had in her clinicals - most semesters they are assigned to a hospital floor, but then there are certain days they can sign up to shadow special groups such as a wound care team, hospice, surgery, and many more that I’m forgetting. There are also a lot of research and work opportunities that are made much easier with the hospitals so close.
4 Likes
My daughter is a sophomore at Pitt, and she is on the struggle bus a bit!! 15 hours of clinical and 17 credits of tough material is definitely challenging!! I will say her professors have all been very accessible and supportive. She loves how close clinicals are and how many opportunities there are to get involved. I also think it’s great they start clinicals first semester soph year so if for some reason they aren’t sure about the career path, they learn that early on. Another tidbit is that Pitt’s “weedout” GPA and C in any nursing classes is more forgiving than many other programs, so I would check out the criteria for Purdue as well.
5 Likes
Just checked portal, my son is waitlisted for Nursing at SDSU
1 Like
UPDATE:
CSU Sacramento (no direct entry, pre-nursing): ACCEPTED
USF (direct entry): ACCEPTED 24k merit
Dominican University of California (direct entry): ACCEPTED 24k merit
CSUF (direct entry): DENIED
APU (direct entry): DENIED
PLNU (direct entry): ACCEPTED 22k merit
SDSU (direct entry): waitlisted
UCLA (direct entry): DENIED
UCI (direct entry): waitlisted
Anyone know the chances of getting off the waitlist at either UCI or SDSU for nursing?
1 Like
My daughter is a nursing junior at PLNU. Amazing campus, right on the water! Great program! The nurses who she’s done her clinicals with always comment that ‘Loma Nursing Students’ are the most prepared. My daughter got into SDSU nursing, but ultimately chose PLNU as it was the same cost after merit as SDSU and she loved the location and sense of community (and private school education). Good luck to your son! It is such a great career!
3 Likes
Thank you for that information. Are you guys in state? SDSU seems to still be a little cheaper than PLNU even with Merit (without knowing any FAFSA info since FAFSA is late this year).
Yes, we’re from CA. My daughter got $20,000 a year merit from PLNU, bringing the tuition/room/board to about $33,000. SDSU was a tad higher. SDSU room & board is $19,000 a year and PLNU is $12,000 a year, so that has made a difference too. She lived on campus in an apt this year and opted out of the meal plan, so her charge is only $7,000 for her apt. It’s been an incredible value for a private education and the location is just incredible! Let me know if you have any questions!
1 Like
@Buffy24 just curious how the rest of the cycle went for you and if you have made any decisions.
Received final decision today. So, to summarize:
*CA resident
*Unweighted GPA: 3.93 / Weighted 4.22
*6 AP’s
*53 hours of community college classes (none of these are applied to her high school transcript, so concurrent enrollment, not dual-enrollment), IGETC certification (CA) completed 12/2023 with GPA: 3.9,
*CA State Seal of Biliteracy for Spanish
*Competitive Dance Team independent of school system, 8+ years, 20+ hours per week, also teaches classes as a paid instructor.
- Volunteers at local hospital for 6 months
- American Red Cross Volunteer
Applied to:
USF - Denied
UNR - applied on 10/17, accepted on 10/26.
UCLA - Denied on 03/15
UCI - Denied for nursing 03/08, accepted into Public Health. She rejected offer.
CalFullerton - Denied
SDSU - Denied on 03/20
ASU - Applied on 10/17, accepted on 10/25, notified on 11/1 of Scholarship of $12,500. 03/13 increased to $14,500. Only school that will accept 80% of her community college classes, which will save her at least 3 semesters. She will go here, and do the +1 more year to get her Masters, too.
Had I not found this site, we would have never applied to ASU - so thank you! In retrospect, probably should have applied to more schools outside of CA, but thankfully she got into ASU.
TIP I LEARNED: If you really want to go to direct entry CA Nursing, slots are help for ROTC / Military every year. You can sign up for ROTC, and complete commitment in Reserves. I think if you have a child who is willing, this is your safest way to ensure a spot into a direct entry program. I have a son in ROTC at SDSU (not nursing), and that’s how I finally figured this angle out. ROTC has been fantastic for him.
I’m grateful for the shared intelligence from this site - so thanks and good luck to everyone.
11 Likes