The field of nursing is simply booming, and more and more people are looking to enroll in nursing schools. Furthermore, students are just as eager to participate in online schools as traditional programs. And why not? Doing so ensures that they have a flexible schedule and that they are able to complete classes in a more streamlined manner. However, you need to make some preparations first – what prerequisites are necessary for online nursing school exactly? Read on to find out.
In this post:
Prerequisites For Online Nursing School
Practical Experience
It’s hard to become a nurse if you don’t have at least a bit of practical experience behind you. An example of an optimal situation is if you have an undergraduate degree in nursing, and you are going to graduate school online. At that point, you likely have a lot of practical experience, and you will be able to fill that requirement. In the event that you don’t have practical experience, you’re almost definitely going to have to do an internship or something of that nature. Try to start volunteer at least weekly now somewhere health-related.
Science Courses
In most situations, you’ll need to take science classes to even be considered for nursing school. Anatomy and biology are two big ones, because these courses teach you a lot of information about the human body. Be sure that your school is aware of any advanced courses that you have taken, and this is especially important if they are in one of the two aforementioned fields. Schools will want to see that you are dedicated to the sciences – so also take chemistry, some mathematics (either calculus or statistics) and round it out with some psychology or physics.
Your Grades
Grades are probably of major concern to you, and you may be worried that you won’t get into the program of your choice because of them. The exact scores that you need are really going to depend upon the school and whether it accepts ACT or SAT scores, or something else all together. If you are applying to a graduate program, then you will need to be concerned with the results of your GRE. On top of that, you should aim to have as high of an average as possible. Some schools may accept a 2.75 GPA, and others will require at least a 3.25 or higher to get into the program.
The School’s Requirements
It’s impossible to give a complete view of what requirements you need to have before you are accepted into online nursing school. The simple reason is that each school is going to have its own requirements in terms of prerequisites. Before you even apply to the program, you want to make sure that you meet the requirements or are willing to meet the requirements. If you are not, then it would be a waste of your time and the time of the school to apply to the program. After all, you want to select programs that are the best fit for you – be sure to look into residency/internship requirements. Many online programs require you to be on campus for one class or practicum – and if you can’t make it happen, you can’t graduate!
Online nursing school presents many opportunities to people who are maybe unable to attend school otherwise. However, prospective students still need to be focused on crafting plans that help them to be accepted into any and all programs – even online curricula is competitive.
