I am trying to build a college list for my kid that offers a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, but you don’t apply to the nursing school or declare nursing as your major until mid to end of sophomore year (vs direct admit to the program as a freshman). This is how Emory University does their nursing program, so I am trying to find similar schools. I am not 100% sure if kid wants pre-med or wants to go into nursing, so they would like the first two years of college to decide. Kid likes a mid to larger (but not gigantic) sized college, warm weather location, east coast, west coast or south (but not midwest), school spirit and vibrant social life (but does not need to be centered around sports). I am trying to build the typical reach-target-safety list, so please suggest colleges with any level of selectivity that fit the other requirements. Kid currently has a 3.95 unweighted GPA and a 31 on the ACT (which they took as a sophomore with no preparation or studying to see what their starting point was and they are hoping for at least a 34) and is on the “highest rigor” track at their high school in both STEM and humanities classes.
Paging @2plustrio
The University of Tampa. My daughter graduated with her BSN two weeks ago, she applied as a freshman for pre-nursing and then applied to the nursing program fall of sophomore year. I can’t say enough about the program and the school. She loved it so much that she is staying in Tampa and already has a job at Moffitt Cancer center.
Duke and North Carolina/Chapel Hill are colleges comparable to Emory which are not direct admit to nursing.
An alternative would be to obtain a 4 year college degree and pursue nursing after graduation. If they decide to pursue nursing, they can major in health sciences to have the prerequisites in place for nursing. A particularly attractive route for this option is at Gettysburg College, a liberal arts college in Pennsylvania. Gettysburg has an agreement with John’s Hopkins, which is perhaps the top nursing school in the country, whereby Gettysburg students receive priority consideration for admissions to JHU’s MSN: Entry into Nursing Program. The acceptance rate at JHU for Gettysburg students is 48% vs the overall acceptance rate of 11% at the JHU MSN program. The Gettysburg program is regarded as a back door into the highly competitive MSN program at John’s Hopkins.
The advantage of this approach for a student who isn’t ready to commit to nursing right out of high school is that they complete the process with a master’s degree, which is considered a higher level of training and which will normally receive higher pay from most employers than a BSN. In the case of Gettysburg/Hopkins program the master’s will be from one of the most prestigious nursing schools in the country. There are other MSN programs at top, highly competitive universities which offer this same master’s level alternative to a second bachelor’s degree for non-nursing majors at the accelerated BSN programs.
JMU in Virginia has a strong nursing major where students apply for formal admission in fall of sophomore year. Admission to the BSN Program - CHBS - JMU
I also know students who have chosen to major in Health Sciences and successfully applied to accelerated nursing programs post graduation.
JMU is about 20,000 undergrads and has tons of school spirt. Weather-wise it is a warm-ish location. Definitely has 4 seasons, but winter is generally pretty mild.
Has your kid shadowed or spent time with nurses/physicians to help clarify the interest in healthcare?
The TV version is very different from the reality. There are other healthcare careers that don’t involve quite so many body fluids, or as I’ve posted before, asking dozens of times a day “When was your last bowel movement?”.
I think the idea of waiting to commit is fantastic- but there are lots of other careers out there.
Yes, kid is currently in the process of obtaining their CNA license and once they have that in hand will try to find either volunteer positions or a job as a CNA. But, as I said, they’re not 100% certain about nursing vs med school (vs some other career path), which is why they don’t want to commit to a BSN directly out of high school. They also volunteered at a health program last summer in a developing country doing health, eye and dental exams on children.
Thank you, this is an interesting option that we look into.
Thank you, adding this to the list to look into.
Thank you and congrats to your daughter. Added to our list to look into.
A benefit at JMU is that the local volunteer rescue squad abuts campus. The Harrisonburg Rescue Squad has many nursing, health science and other pre-med track students on its staff. No matter where your child lands it would be worthwhile to join a college EMS service. The pre-hospital patient contact it provides can be invaluable.
Note that frosh/soph pre-nursing courses can be voluminous, and different from pre-med courses, so it may not be possible to remain undecided for long.
Note that while Emory secondary admission to the nursing major is non-competitive and assured with a 3.0 college GPA (equivalent to a direct admit nursing major with a 3.0 weed-out GPA for progression), many colleges’ non-direct-admit nursing majors’ secondary admission is highly competitive, to the point that the minimum college GPA of admits may be as high as 3.9 or 4.0.
I can confirm that many secondary admission nursing programs are competitive due to seat limits. Many times there aren’t enough available professors or open classrooms to meet the demand. That bottleneck can raise the GPS threshold for admission.
I don’t think the non-direct nursing programs are any more competitive than the direct admit, to be honest. Direct admit nursing programs can have acceptance rates as low as 1% because they are so tiny, with very few seats. We have toured several colleges with direct admit programs and they have all said that the acceptance rates for nursing are frequently significantly lower than the “general” acceptance rate for the college. That being said, if Kid was 100% certain on nursing, a direct admit program would likely be better as you can spread out the risk across many applications. However, that’s not a reason to pigeon hole oneself into a very specific degree program (that honestly has lots of options to get to the same end result - being an RN) right out high school if you’re not sure that that’s the desired outcome.
Also, is it too much to ask that people just answer the question or just don’t reply? All the question is asking is for recommendations of schools that offer a specific program (non direct admit nursing) that also fulfill a few other basic requirements. I’m not really looking to discuss the merits of direct vs non-direct, the acceptance rates of both, whether my kid has done any shadowing or not, whether nursing prerequisites would allow them to still be on a pre-med track (my research has shown this would not be an issue up until the end of sophomore year) etc. Just looking to get some suggestions of colleges to further look into/research/visit etc.
This is a public board. People with similar/parallel questions are going to find your post-- and if they aren’t as knowledgeable as you are about different pathways, they will appreciate even the “off topic” responses you are getting.
You just ignore the information that doesn’t apply to you. And once you are done getting your question answered, ask the moderator to shut down the thread. Easy-peasy.
And sometimes there is a nugget of wisdom in an “off topic” response that really helps you!
And although you didn’t ask- this is NOT universally true:
“whether nursing prerequisites would allow them to still be on a pre-med track (my research has shown this would not be an issue up until the end of sophomore year)”.
There are U’s where switching at the end of sophomore year likely means paying for an extra semester or year because the pre-requisites for medical school do not always line up in the Fall/Spring configuration and depending on the U, your kid could be behind the 8-ball. If you aren’t worried about an extra semester or two of tuition- then yes, likely not a problem. But your research is incomplete w/r/t this issue. I know many kids who ended up either doing a post-bacc (not cheap) or an extra semester/year (also not cheap) because of this miscalculation.
Salisbury university in MD - I have a friend who’s son was just accepted into the nursing program spring of sophomore year. It’s a popular school here, would be a safety I think.
These schools appear to meet the desired criteria:
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Appalachian State (NC): About 19k undergrads and application and admission to the nursing program occurs at the end of sophomore year (source).
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Baylor (TX): About 15k undergrads. Application for nursing happens in sophomore year. If accepted into nursing, however, they spend their last two years in Dallas (while their first two years are in Waco). (Source)
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East Carolina (NC): About 21k undergrads. Application to the nursing program is when nearly all gen ed and nursing prereqs are completed (source).
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Florida Gulf Coast: About 14k undergrads, and the BSN program starts after students have completed 60 credit hours (source).
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Georgia College & State: About 5700 undergrads, and students generally start the nursing program their junior year after completing prereqs (source.
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U. of Alabama: About 33k undergrads. Although it talks about students declaring a pre-nursing major, I don’t see why a student can’t take the prereqs before applying for the upper division nursing courses (source).
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U. of Arkansas: About 27k undergrads, and applications are due 1 year prior to the term when one wants to start the nursing classes (so, I suspect, apps are done in sophomore year for a junior year start…source).
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U. of Kentucky: Has a direct admit route as well as a route for students already enrolled (not in nursing) to transfer into nursing (source).
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U. of Miami (FL): About 13k undergrads. Students need to complete gen eds and pre-reqs before starting the clinical coursework in junior year (source).
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U. of Nevada – Reno: About 18k undergrads and students start the nursing program after completing 61 credit hours (source).
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U. of Tennessee: About 29k undergrads. There is a pathway for change of major students at UTK, and it appears as though 44 credit hours need to be completed before entering the nursing program (source).
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Virginia Commonwealth: About 21k undergrads. Students need to complete pre-reqs before entry into the nursing program, but it seems possible based on the prereqs/collateral reqs (about 39-40 credit hours) that the nursing program might start earlier than some of those mentioned above (source)).
Since App State and ECU both have this type of start, I suspect that other NC publics may, too. Since at least one public school in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, and Tennessee do, then so might others
Thank you for your super helpful response. That is a great list for my kid and I to start exploring.
Thank you. Safeties are important too! Especially in this college application climate!