How competitive is the admittance to the nursing programs (i.e. upper division)? Is it based just on pre-nursing GPA and test scores? Who can compete for the nursing spots? Any undergrad from any other schools that has fulfilled the pre-requisites? Community college graduates? current RN nurses that don’t have a BSN? Would some category be favored - e.g. a certain community college, or the pre-nursing sophomores from the same school are favored? In particular, I am interested in U of Arizona and Cal State Long Beach. Thank you!
The answers to your questions will vary greatly depending on the school. I suggest you contact each school directly to ask these questions.
Are none of the direct entry schools to which you have been admitted affordable?
The direct admit ones so far are all OOS and are more expensive than the non-direct admit. We’d prefer that she stays within driving distance from San Diego.
I am expecting that all CSU non-direct admit nursing would have the same policy and someone would know.
Hopefully someone with knowledge of the non-direct entry CSU nursing programs will respond. I have heard that admission to the clinical part of the programs is extremely competitive, but that is all I know. I am in Pennsylvania so am mostly familiar with the many direct entry programs here.
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My DD got into U of AZ and CSU Long Beach pre-nursing. She got into direct admit at ASU (Arizona) but she doesn’t like the downtown campus. She got rejected from nursing direct admit at CSU San Marcos and Fullerton. Our only hope for direct admit in CA (we are in San Diego) are San Diego State (SDSU) and UCI, but they have abysmal acceptance rates for nursing (less than 5% for SDSU and 1% for UCI).
Current ADN / RN holders commonly have a different pathway to BSN, which is called the RN → BSN program. These are commonly less competitive than frosh direct admission BSN programs or pre-nursing → BSN secondary admission (but getting into the ADN / RN program at a community college is typically competitive, in contrast to other programs that are open admission at community colleges).
For BSN programs other than RN → BSN, the details on who can apply when vary by school.
CSULB has some stats here: Undergraduate BSN FAQ and Application Instructions . For pre-nursing → BSN admission in spring 2022, 77 (19.8%) of 388 applicants were admitted, with average science / GE GPAs of 3.95 / 3.94 and average composite / reading TEAS score of 90.76 / 89.90.
University of Arizona has some information at https://www.nursing.arizona.edu/academics/bachelor-science-nursing-bsn/admissions , but does not appear to indicate how competitive pre-nursing → BSN is.
https://degrees.apps.asu.edu/major-map/ASU00/NUNURDBSN/NURTPBSN/ALL/2023?init=false&nopassive=true says that direct admit nursing majors at ASU need to keep a “3.50 minimum semester critical (prerequisite) courses GPA in term 1-4 (includes +/- in computation) with no grades lower than a C.” This is relatively high compared to many other direct admit programs, although it seems easy compared to CSULB competitive pre-nursing → BSN admission.
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Thank you so much! This is so very helpful to know, in case SDSU admission in nursing doesn’t materialize. My DD is a senior HS , a strong STEM student with 4.6 full weighted GPA/4.0 unweighted, top 10 (5%) of her HS in San Diego and I feel like that she would be ok even with the pre-nursing. At U of A I also heard that only 20% of the applicants got into nursing, so pretty similar.
Note that getting a 4.0 or 3.9 GPA in college is usually significantly more difficult than getting a 4.0 GPA in high school.
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Here is some 2022 Data for BSN Nursing at CSULB as a Transfer.
Number of applicants: 1870
Number of admits: 71
Admit rate: 3.86%
Admit GPA: 3.75
The data does not breakout which students were Pre-Nursing at CSULB as Freshman admits and then applied for the program vs. transfer applicants from community college or another university.
You might want to call the Nursing school admissions at CSULB and ask how many internal transfers are admitted.
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I am pretty certain that it will vary by CSU. Some have larger programs, some have both a fall and a spring start, some have community colleges that feed into them, some will have interviews. Probably all give extra points to those who have served in the military. My CSU gave extra admission points if you had PAID healthcare experience or if you were bilingual (had to reach a high threshold for this to apply). Also if you were “native” to the school you got a little boost. My experience is recent-ish. Graduated nursing school in 2019.
Good luck to your daughter.
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Thank you for the great info and advice!
Thank you!
But those 1870 applicants are transfer, that means not ‘native’ pre-nursing, correct? There was data above where the prenursing to BSN rate was almost 19%?
Not sure if these numbers are for external transfers or not. Not much detail given.
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I agree with other responses. Each 2+2 program will vary on who (and if) they give priority to. For example I remember when my daughter was applying to nursing school and I recall reading at some universities priority was given to existing student enrolled in pre-nursing and then they would look to the outside applicants. But to answer your question (generally) yes your daughter is potentially competing for spots from JC applicants, current pre-nursing students, other university pre-nursing students. Most ADN to BSN programs are specific and those may be excluded in your daughter’s competition pool. If there are specific universities you’re thinking of I would call the school of nursing directly to ask if it’s not posted in their website.
IMO I would take a direct admit offer over a 2+2 any day. Maybe your daughter can reconsider ASU even though it’s downtown.
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Thank you! So, is the reverse also true - I mean, when a student in pre-nursing at a school applies for nursing, can she apply to other schools nursing programs (non-direct admit) too? E.g . other CSUs (of course, if she meets the specific requirements)
Thanks! I wonder if U of AZ nursing is less competitive than CSULB; we visited and heard they admit about 20% of the applicants