Oldest son wants to pursue a BSN and has been accepted to direct admit programs at Arizona State and Robert Morris. Accepted to pre-nursing at Ohio State, Ohio U, UC Colorado Springs, University of Northern Colorado, Kentucky, and University of Nevada Reno. We are currently stationed in Ohio, but will be leaving in 2025 so location is not an issue.
OSU is the highest ranked on the list, but also highly competitive. We are concerned that he might be lowering his chances at making it into a BSN program by attending there. However, we just don’t know much about how all this works. He is leaning towards the UC Colo Springs based on his campus visit.
Any parents who have gone through the nursing school rodeo have any advice or insights on how to choose? Whether the direct admit is so valuable you should just grab it? Any info is appreciated.
My D24 and I are going through this now. A few schools she’s been accepted to, we are learning SAY direct admit nursing on website but technically are pre-nursing–after 2 years there are hoops to jump through. We’ve learned at some of the schools there is only a small percent of SEATS for the pre-students to proceed. YIKES (not happy about paying some of those app fees now). D24 like your son, is leaning campus life wise toward a pre-nursing school… but we are waiting until we get all acceptances in. I honestly think REAL direct admit is the smartest choice–it’s guaranteed as long as you keep your grades up. The gamble seems too high to not get one of those coveted seats once you’ve already invested 2 years. But it’s D24’s life so when the time comes I’ll give my opinion and accept what she decides. (sigh…lol)
If the applicant is 100% serious about Nursing, true direct admit is the only smart choice. It’s very true that some schools play tricky games with secondary admission criteria down the road; ask lots of questions and the right choice will surface for you. Good luck!
My D21 is a junior BSN major at UTampa. She entered as a freshman pre-nursing and had to apply to the BSN program in the fall of sophomore year. She applied to 2 direct admit programs out of high school (UTK and Clemson) but did not get in. (admitted to UTK for second choice major and waitlisted at Clemson) So we looked at the non-DA programs she was accepted to and decided UTampa was the best fit. There were 125 applicants for 88 spots in her cohort. Originally her class had over 300 pre nursing majors, so many ended up not applying to the BSN program for whatever reason. Don’t be afraid of a non-DA program, but definitely do your research as to how many are accepted and what the criteria is. Good luck!
Re: UCLA… not a target for anyone. We live in LA and per their info session and talking directly to someone in nursing admissions at an event–they have 40 seats, last year over 6,000 applicants. We also learned there is no “second choice” at UCLA when you apply to Nursing. If you’re not one of the forty…your application dies.
What happened for us on this journey is my daughter ended up with reaches and safeties. Her grades are strong but since there are so few seats in nursing, what SHOULD be a target on paper was really a reach.
I’m happy to circle back to this post when all of the decisions are in to share her results. From your list-- so far my daughter was deferred by UPenn ED. (also fyi–at Emory you have to apply to nursing Junior Year)
I work with number of nurses to know, nobody ever asks where they went to school.
I also teach human physio at a CC where my class is a pre req for Nursing, and all these student will kill to get into any program, anywhere affordable, many struggle because they just can’t get in because the vast number of applicants and how competitive pre-nursing is.
So IMO, the best place is the direct-admit already accepted AND the cheapest place. Many BSN go on to do PNP, CRNA, PhD which adds times and money.
Thanks everyone for the replies. I think we will be looking at the DAs for sure. It’s a shame that this major is so competitive considering the need.
It comes down to how nurses are trained. There is only so much space in hands on skills labs, simulation rooms, and at hospitals.
Direct admit is best but not the only option. Good luck to him!