The undergraduate nursing program can only fill 110 seats per year, leaving the rest of the applicants questioning their future in the healthcare field.
Pre-nursing students spend their first year taking 35 credit hours of required prerequisite courses.
Admission into the program is competitive and the selection process is based on the student’s GPA in those courses.
Early admission is possible for freshmen with outstanding high school achievement and high SAT/ACT scores.
Around 200 students apply to the program every year, but only about 55 percent are accepted.
Assistant Professor of Nursing Gina Schaar said because of the classroom and hospital clinical spaces, 110 students is the maximum number accepted into the program.
“When the students go to clinical, our state board dictates that for every 10 students, you have to have one faculty member,” Schaar said.
As for the students who aren’t accepted into the program, there are other options regarding what to do next.
Jenae Gries will be applying to the program in the Fall 2014.
“My junior year in high school, I began to shadow my friend’s mom, and that is when I knew it was something I would like to do,” said the freshman pre-nursing major.
Knowing that she needs a high GPA, Gries said she is striving for a 4.0 this semester in her prerequisite courses.
She studies five to six hours a day.
“I usually start studying as soon as I get home until I am ready to go to bed,” Gries said.
She plans on reapplying to the program the following year if she isn’t accepted next fall.
For the students who are not accepted the first time around, the nursing professors and advisors encourage them to retake prerequisites with a grade of C or lower.
Nursing Program Director Constance Swenty said they have some five-year students who are tenacious and reapply to the program.
“Generally, those 110 are students who have GPAs of 3.5 or higher,” Swenty said. “I think it is unfortunate because students who have a 3.2 could be good nurses, we just have that higher demand.”
For the students who choose not to reapply, they may change their majors or apply to other healthcare programs available at USI, such as dental hygiene.
Diagnostic Medical Sonography Program Director Claudine Fairchild said although they prefer students to be committed to only one program, they understand that students have their futures in mind when there is a possibility of something not working out.
“Students are covering their bases,” Fairchild said. “This is their life and their career. They want to know.”
