I am hoping some people going through admissions now can help with a prerequisite question. My daughter has Honors Bio, Chem, Anatomy and physiology, and AP Enviro so far. Next year she wants to take ECE Bio along with Medical Microbio (.5) and MicroBio(.5). Is there any reason she MUST take Physics? I feel like what she plans to take is much more geared toward Nursing but some may know better if Physics is required for any programs. YES, she probably;y should have taken Physics instead of APES this year but that is water under the bridge bc she wasnt certain she would go into Nursing yet. Thanks in advance
I would advise her to create a spreadsheet of all the schools she is interested in, look at websites for this information, and contact admissions and/or the nursing program person to ask this question. I expect many websites don’t fully address the requirements (or recommendations)…this is important info to know and the words matter: to take one example, at selective programs ‘recommended’ would equal ‘required’. She can also ask what proportion of those admitted took physics in HS.
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Look at each school but some just say bio and chem.
Some don’t break out nursing and want three years of lab science. She’ll have 2.5.
Anatomy wasn’t neeed - our schools don’t even offer.
Physics may help or may be unnecessary - depending on the where.
Good luck.
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Thank you. I am calculating 4 years of lab science though Bio, Chem, APES, and then ECE Bio is a lab science (8 UCONN credits)
The nurse practitioner who I know best did take physics in university. I think that it was a required course for her nursing program. This was quite a few years ago. It is likely that university level physics is going to be easier for a student who first takes high school physics.
I agree that you should check the requirements for a few nursing programs and see what they say.
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I remember that University of Iowa requires physics for direct admit nursing:
I haven’t looked closely at any others because my D26’s high school requires physics anyway – but the Iowa requirement stood out to me – I don’t remember seeing any others.
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I had to take one semester of physics for my BSN many moons ago but agree with others - some programs now might not require it.
Also just want to say that I also took it in HS which made it easier for me to understand it in college.
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thank you. very helpful
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I think UCONN is one school that did require it, the last I looked, but most programs do not.
Mine took a college credit plus version of Physics in high school and it was very challenging, but she learned more than physics by taking it. If you ask her, though, she would make a different choice lol. I do think it might have made her application stand out a bit.
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Does she not have to take physics to graduate high school?
She wouldn’t need physics for nursing per se but she might to get into college.
I did not have to take physics in college for my BSN but had to have taken a form of physics in high school to get into college.
You can’t go wrong with the classic high school trio of chem, bio, and physics. That is the core of a traditional basic science curriculum. Usually colleges want to see a strong foundation in basic science courses. The highly specialized science classes such as anatomy or microbiology in high school are a more recent trend.
Specialized courses in HS can be helpful and fun for students hoping to learn more about their interests. But they don’t necessarily help prepare better for college. For example, my kid’s HS offers quite a few engineering courses. My engineering major kid took none of them, but instead, the highest level traditional math, chem, and physics courses offered (and computer science at the community college). He explored his interests in engineering in other ways (hobbies, summer camp). This was a great decision and his mastery of the basics has been invaluable in college.
If your child knows she’s interested in nursing, she doesn’t need to worry about taking specialized HS courses for preparation.
I’m not sure about nursing program requirements, but my personal opinion is that I would encourage my child to take physics and forego the more specialized courses. Unless there’s a good reason not to, and you investigate and discover it will be fine for applying to direct entry nursing programs.
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My daughter was recently admitted to Penn ED for nursing - she asked about physics and decided to do it because it seemed like the answer varied by school. She took Bio freshman year, honors chemistry sophomore year, anatomy and advanced (her school version of AP) chem junior year, and is now taking honors physics and advanced science term courses for her senior year. She thought it was an advantage to take physics as a senior because she says it is easier with more calculus knowledge, she’s in her 2nd year of advanced calculus.
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