This week is National Nurses Week and May 8th honored Student Nurses. Few will realize how much work it takes to get accepted into Nursing School, make it through the grueling course work, then graduate–to dedicate their lives to serving others. This perseverance takes an exceptional person.
What is the acceptance rate of Nursing School?
At our local Nursing School, Boise State University, admittance has been historically limited to 60 students in the spring and again in the fall semester. However, beginning Fall 2019, BSU raised the number to 80. It remains a very competitive program; the program accepts less than half of applicants, though the chances are better spring semester. The minimum GPA is 3.0, though they note, “These are minimum requirements, and to be competitive, you should aim much higher.”
How to get In to Nursing School
When beginning your program to get a bachelor’s in nursing, you don’t start as a “nursing” major. Instead, you declare your major as “pre-nursing” and spend 2-4 semesters completing the required pre-nursing courses.
The school does look at your high school transcripts; however, for admission purposes, they primarily look to the GPA in these pre-nursing classes:
- Chemistry
- Nutrition
- Anatomy (2 semesters)
- Statistics
If you’ve ever taken any of these classes, you know how difficult they are. To get into the program, you should have a very high GPA. This puts a lot of pressure on a Freshman’s performance in these classes. BSU prides itself on a 92% completion rate and isn’t about to mess that up by letting people who can’t cut it. The nursing program lasts five semesters, 2.5 years, so you will be in college the traditional four years with the pre-nursing program.
Nursing Graduate Programs
BSU also has an online Graduate Nursing Program rated #42 in Best Online Master’s in Nursing Programs by US News and World Report.
You’ve graduated from nursing school. Now what. It turns out that your career path in nursing can go in several different directions. If you’d like some ideas, here’s an infographic to give you some information on the job market in the next ten years and the earnings you can expect. If you’d like a career in nursing, take a look at Bluebird Health. We have openings in many departments.
