I realize that the only direct admission nursing spots are for honors college students. I am curious if anyone knows the acceptance rate for pre-nursing students to move into the upper-level BSN program. We are focusing on direct admission programs but otherwise USC is a great fit for my daughter so I am trying to determine if the traditional BSN route might still be reasonable there.
You should email the department and ask.
My D emailed the department and asked. For fall 2024, the admission stats for pre-nursing to nursing were as follows:
67% acceptance rate
GPA average 3.8
302 students accepted
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My D also asked if there were any differences in curriculum between the honors (Smart Start) cohort and the regular (pre-nursing to nursing) cohort, and was told there are significant differences in curriculum. The honors students have to complete nursing plus honors requirements. There are about 27-28 Smart Start nursing students selected by the Admissions team (not nursing).
My D ended up taking this one off her list – the honors requirements seemed significant, on top of the nursing requirements, and wouldn’t give her as much flexibility as she wanted.
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Honors programs typically have requirements. Some might be more extensive than others but benefits can outweigh the effort.
Good Honors programs typically have better advising, opportunities and benefits. I also think the good ones look out for their Honors students. It would look bad if they didn’t succeed.
I’m fairly certain it helped one son with on-campus jobs and internships. He was also admitted to a competitive major a year early. He earned it but it didn’t hurt.
From my experience, while direct admission spots are limited, the traditional BSN route can still be a viable option—encourage your daughter to focus on strong grades and relevant experience, as transfer into the upper-level program is competitive but definitely possible.
Direct admission spots are limited, many pre-nursing students do successfully transition into the upper-level BSN program, so it’s worth considering USC’s traditional route if the overall fit feels right.
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My D24 is in the Smart Start program. The benefits so far have been wonderful. She has taken honors versions of several of the lower division courses which typically are with the best professors as well as much lower class sizes. There was an additional class she had to take freshman year on research in nursing and she is taking a 1 credit course both semesters this year to prepare her honors thesis (since they will be in clinicals beginning junior year, they urge the nursing honors students to complete their thesis by end of junior year if possible. She also took a different course for genetics than the non-honors students take that allowed them to work in hospital labs that she enjoyed.
It is true that the honors college has requirements that go beyond the core curriculum but the honors classes are typically interesting (although my daughter does question why she decided to take Buddhism last year). Next semester there is only one pre-nursing course left to take (Nutrition) and she’s finishing up her core and honors requirements.
I do agree that there is not a lot of flexibility in the schedule, but I think that is true with many nursing programs. My daughter did enter with lots of credits due to DE and AP courses which eliminated most of her core requirements and was even able to get out of a couple of her pre-nursing courses (Statistics, Psychology, and Math, I believe). It has left her with some flexibility each semester which has been nice.
When I’ve asked my daughter if she’s been happy with the Honors program, I’ve gotten a resounding ‘yes’ from her.
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Maybe we should have kept it on the list then! Too late now, but I am glad you reported your experience for future readers. Thanks
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