Mount Saint Mary s University TRADITONAL BACHELOR OF SCIENCE FAQ s PREREQUISITES 1. Q: Can I apply with prerequisites in progress? A: If applying directly to the nursing program students must have all pre-requisites completed prior to submitting their application. 2. Q: What is the start date for the 2015 term? A: August 25, 2016. 3. Q: Can I take prerequisites in the summer semester? A: All pre-requisites courses should be completed prior to applying. Students who are interested in pre-nursing may have courses in progress, complete courses during the summer and may complete a portion of their pre-re-requisites at MSMU. 4. Q: Are there any prerequisites that can be taken concurrently with the program? A: No, all prerequisites must be completed prior to applying for Fall term. 5. Q: What if I took the science courses more than 5 years ago? A: If your sciences are older than 5 years, you will need to repeat them. There is one alternative option that we will accept if you previously have taken Anatomy with lab and Physiology with lab or Microbiology outside the 5-year timeframe. Excelsior College offers college credit exams for Anatomy/Physiology and Microbiology. We will only accept Excelsior College science tests if you have previously taken the respective course. Excelsior does not offer a Chemistry or Physics exam, so there is no option to challenge out of these two courses. For more information about that test, please go to www.excelsior.edu. 6. Q: Can I take the prerequisites at your school? A: Yes, students are welcomed to complete pre-requisites courses at Mount Saint Mary s University. Students must fill out the Traditional BSN Nursing application in order to apply for pre-nursing. *This does not apply to high school students 7. Q: Can I apply for this program even if I have a Bachelors Degree in another discipline? A: Yes, you may participate in this program even if you already have a Bachelors Degree. Please note: the program will still take you three years to complete, even if you have completed all the general education classes, because the nursing classes are arranged in a threeyear sequence. Students cannot take the junior-level nursing courses until after you complete the sophomore-level nursing courses, etc. 8. Q: Can I take courses through my Master s program or University Continuing Education Program to meet the prerequisites? A: No, we will not accept courses that are considered continuing education courses. 1
GRADE POINT AVERAGE 1. Q: How do you calculate the GPA? Do you look at just the grades received in the prerequisite courses? A: We look at all the transferable, undergraduate courses that you have taken before. We add together the total number of undergraduate grade points that you have earned and divide that by the total number of units you have completed to get the cumulative GPA. If you repeat a class that you previously failed, we will only count the second attempt. However, there is a repeat rule for this program that states that if you fail more than one prerequisite, you are no longer admissible to this program. 2. Q: Are you strict about the 3.0 overall GPA and 2.7 science GPA requirement? A: Yes, we are strict about the fact that we only consider candidates that have at least a 3.0 overall and 2.7 science GPA to be considered for admission. 3. Q: My GPA is below a 3.0. What can I do to raise it? What are my options? A: You can take additional undergraduate courses in order to try to raise your GPA. We only include courses that you complete before the application deadline in our GPA calculation, so the last term that you can take courses that will affect your admission GPA is Fall 2013. If you won t be able to raise your GPA by the end of that term, you will need to give yourself another year to take courses, and then apply for the Fall 2015 term. If your GPA is below a 3.0, you may want to consider applying for the A.D.N program because our GPA requirements for that program are 2.7 overall with a 2.5 in the sciences. The A.D.N program is an evening and weekend program. APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS 1. Q: Do I need to send you a transcript for a college where I only took one class, a class that doesn t pertain to nursing? A: Yes, we require applicants to submit transcripts from each college they have attended regardless of the number of courses they took there. We do not consider your application complete until we receive transcripts from each college. 2. Q: Do I need to send you transcript for a college that I attended over 5 years ago? A: Yes, we require applicants to submit transcripts from each college they have attended regardless of how long ago you took courses there. We do not consider your application complete until we receive transcripts from each college. 3. Q: Do I need to send you transcripts from my massage/c.n.a course? A: Yes, we require applicants to submit transcripts from each college they have attended, vocational programs included. We do not consider your application complete until we receive transcripts from each college. 4. Q: Should I have the people that are writing the recommendations, write a letter on letterhead instead of having them fill out the nursing reference form? 2
A: The traditional BSN program will accept letters of recommendation in either format: using the letter of reference form in the application, or a letter on official letterhead of the recommender. Reference forms can be downloaded from our website at www.msmu.edu 5. Q: Will you accept admission documents that are postmarked by February 1? Or do the documents have to be received in your office by February 1? A: We will accept a postmark of February 1. However, it is to your advantage to submit all of your application documents at least one month prior to the February 1 deadline because this gives you adequate time to check your application status online to see what documents we have received and what documents are still needed in order for your application to be complete. 6. Q: Is there an entrance exam required for admission into the program? A: An entrance exam is not required to apply to the college. However, for those candidates selected as a potential direct to program candidates you will be sent an invite to take the Kaplan exam. The Kaplan Exam is only administered to potential direct to program candidates along with a writing sample. ADMISSION STATISTICS 1. Q: How many applicants did you have last year for how many spaces? A: For Fall 2014, we had 189 applicants for the Bachelors Degree in nursing program. This applicant pool consist of students who applied directly to the nursing program and students who applied for pre-nursing. Out of those applicants, 150 completed the application process by the deadline and met the admission criteria for the BSN program. We expect to offer admission to 10 transfer students directly into the nursing program. We expect to have a wait list in case more spaces became available; however, that wait list will close at the beginning of the fall term. Applicants who wish to be considered for the following application period must reactivate their application. A Reactivation Form can be found on our website: www.msmu.edu 2. Q: How many spaces do you have for this year? A: The number of pre-nursing students that maintain their eligibility to advance into the nursing program influences the number of spaces we have for students that want to transfer directly into the BSN program. So we initially we start off with 10 spaces for transfer BSN students, but during the summer, we may have additional spaces become available. These additional spaces will go to transfer students. 3. Q: Was there a waitlist last year? How many students from the waitlist were offered admission? A: The waitlist for Fall 2014 consisted of 7 students and we have not removed any students from the waitlist. 4. Q: If I am put on the waitlist, does that give me priority for a space in the program next year? A: Students that are not offered admission from the waitlist will need to reactivate their application in order to be considered for the following start term. There is no guarantee that a student that was previously waitlisted will be granted admission for the following term because they will be competing against a new pool of applicants for a space in the program. 3
5. Q: What times are the classes and clinicals for this program? A: The classes are two weekdays from around 7:00am 3:30pm. The clinicals are two weekdays from around 6:30am- 2:00pm. The classes take place at the Chalon campus and the clinicals are conducted at hospitals and healthcare facilities in the Los Angeles area. 6. Q: Will I get to choose where I do my clinicals? A: BSN students are assigned to clinical groups. Geographic location is taken into consideration when the clinical group assignments are being made. You are also able to request a carpool group, and the clinical instructors to their best to accommodate. 7. Q: If I start as a pre-nursing student, do I have a guaranteed space in the nursing program for my second year? A: There is not a guaranteed nursing space for students that start with us as pre-nursing students. However, priority is given to those students who complete at least one year of prerequisites at Mount Saint Mary s University. If you start with us this year as a pre-nursing student, you will be considered in this priority population for a space in the nursing program next fall. During your second semester, you will need to apply for a nursing space through the nursing department. 8. Q: Do I have to take religion classes? A: Since we are a Catholic institution, we require our students to take Religion and Philosophy classes as part of our general studies requirements, but not as a prerequisite course. 9. Q: Do I still need to take Religion classes if I went to a Catholic high school? A: Yes, you will need to take college-level religion classes to meet that part of the general studies requirements INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS 1. Q: What do I need to submit if I took courses at a university in another country? A: Applicants that have attended institutions outside the US are required to have an international evaluation done of their transcripts. You will need to submit an official detailed report of the international evaluation as well as transcripts from the university you attended. 2. Q: Where can I have an international evaluation done? A: You must contact a transcript evaluation service. The company that we recommend is Academic Credentials Evaluation Institute. Their contact information is www.acei1.com or (310) 275-3530. You must have a comprehensive (or detailed) report done of your transcripts. Please submit an original international evaluation to us. We will also need you to submit original transcripts to us as part of your application. 3. Q: It is difficult to get an original transcript from my foreign institution; can I just submit a copy of it to you? A: We require official transcripts in order to consider an application complete. If it takes a long time to obtain a transcript, you should begin the process of obtaining the transcript well before the application deadline, in order to give it a chance to arrive on time. 4
STUDY ABROAD PROGRAM PARTICIPANTS 1. Q: Why do I need to submit a transcript from the institution that I attended when I participated in a study abroad program? Can I just have my study abroad coordinator write a letter on my behalf to waive the international transcript? A: We require that you submit transcripts from each institution that you have attended; the transcript states the courses that you took at that institution. Though your degree granting institution will list the courses that you took while studying abroad, you were physically attending classes at another institution. We still need the international transcript from the college that you took classes through, while outside the country. We will not accept a letter from the study abroad coordinator in lieu of the foreign transcript 2. Q: Do I need to have an international transcript evaluation done of my foreign transcripts from my study abroad program? A: No, we will waive the international evaluation if your degree granting institution sanctioned the study abroad program. RECENT CHANGES needs to be in all capital letters) Attention potential BSN candidates Effective Fall 2013, students enrolled in the Traditional BSN Program must take the required nutrition course sophomore year at MSMU. Nutrition courses taken at other institutions will not be accepted as meeting our degree requirement. 5