Scholars Day - this weekend

coleman4
Sun, 14 Apr 2013 17:16:48 +0000

NJMOM3 - Nursing update from Scholar’s Weekend:
My son brought home an info sheet that essentially has the same information as on the School of Nursing website for the BSN program ([Bachelor of Science in Nursing - College of Nursing | University of South Carolina](Bachelor of Science in Nursing - College of Nursing | University of South Carolina))
It includes Overview, Adm, Reqs., Progression Reqs., and Curriculum. There were about 40 kids in this session and my son was the only male! He was fine with that of course!!

My husband actually took notes:

Advice from presenters:
- Communicate, Organize, Get a Planner, Sign up for University 101 (more on this below), Join SNA (Student Nursing Association).
- They accept approx 400 into the lower division (freshman) - disclaimer: my husband said this part was a little vague but that’s what he got from it.
- Of those initially accepted, they generally take the top 200, but refer to the Progression Requirements for other requirements (i.e. 45 hrs total to incl. 8 hrs science and 9 hrs of the lower div nursing courses)
- As I think you already learned, the lowest GPA from this year’s acceptances was 3.4- they confirmed the same, but obviously varies from year to year.
- Of the lower division nursing reqs, NURS 210 (Intro to Human Genetics…) is all online so this may be their first online course. NURS 216 (Biophysical Pathology) is a difficult class. Since these must be taken in progression, I suspect this one would be taken your sophomore year-in the spring - after you already applied. You still need to do well, just saying.

That’s all I have from my husband’s notes but I also wanted to mention my son also attended the session on the University 101 class and is very interested in that class. Look it up on the website- [University 101 Programs - Welcome](University 101 Programs - University 101 Programs | University of South Carolina) There’s a lot of information. At first I wondered how much value that had (before he attended the session on it) but apparently the assignments incorporate your homework you have from your other classes so it’s totally geared to help you succeed.

Also, I’m not sure which direct entry programs your daughter is considering- my son was also accepted to Florida State Univ, which also has a direct entry nursing program. I was encouraging FSU for that reason (direct entry); but he gave some very compelling reasons for USC. Son’s reasons may not be the same as your daughters has but I’ve found writing out the pros and cons of each of the schools really helps. My husband calls that the “Ben Franklin” method of decision-making! …

A few of son’s reasons for USC were:

More places and variety of places to eat (he’s a 6’1" boy on the swim team- big appetite)

The Greek Housing appears to be all together in a ‘neighborhood’ which makes it seem a bit safer than other schools we’ve toured. It is very nice.

The campus itself appears less spread out than other campuses and is very easy to navigate and get from A to B in a reasonable time. Also, it’s not as integrated with the city as some other campuses, hopefully making it more safe.

The diversity of students… with USC’s Honors, Capstone and generous OoS scholarship programs, there is a wide variety of students from all over the country. Our state (NC), can only accept 18% OoS to each state school, so it’s mostly NC students.

A few of his swim team peers go to USC and love it. That’s what convinced him first.

Finally (one more thing) - My son brought home info on an ‘extended orientation’ program for incoming freshman: Pillars for Carolina - [Pillars | Student Government](http://www.sa.sc.edu/sg/pillars/) that is in the summer for 5 days that I signed him up for. It sounds like fun and fairly inexpensive ($350 for 5 day residential program) considering 6-day camps I’ve signed them up for in the past were nearly $1000.

Hope this info helps you decide! :)