Does your child want to become a nurse? Be ready for the SATs

 

As I have written elsewhere, I have no interest in debating the merits of using the SAT or ACT for admission but I do have a significant interest in helping our students gain admission to colleges of their choice.

Parents are deluged by an overwhelming amount of information during the college process. Some of the information is true – there are test-optional colleges – but some of that information might be irrelevant to your child’s goals.

Here’s one piece of information that should be told to be parents really early in the process.  SAT scores matter enormously for admission to many nursing programs

My wife received her Phd from the University of Connecticut’s Nursing School.  During her graduate studies, she was an adjunct professor. For students interested in nursing, UCONN is fantastic because it is not only a great nursing school but it might be the best value for students who hope to work in one of Connecticut’s many hospitals after college. Recently, she spoke with several nursing applicants who had the grades, the interest in nursing, and the activities to gain admission to UCONN. They were not admitted for one single reason: their SAT/ACT test scores were not high enough.

In relation to one of the aforementioned would-be UCONN nursing students, the mother called me up in tears: “I didn’t get her [daughter] prepared for the SAT because I was told her grades would be enough to gain admission to UCONN. Now, we are looking at private nursing schools that are not as good and cost twice as much.”

My wife is now a professor at another nursing school.  I cannot divulge details related to the admissions process but let’s just say that all the subjective factors (activities/essays/recommendations/work experience) combined are not as important as the SATs.

We can help.