Pre-licensure Admission Criteria

Students seeking Admission to the Nursing have three pathways:

First-time Freshman Candidacy (Direct Admit)
Transfer Admission with 33 hours or less of nursing focus core and able to enter appropriate milestone without condition
Academic Candidacy (transfer students completing 34 or more credit hours and students that do not qualify for first-time freshmen pathway)

First-time Freshman Declaration of Nursing Major

Effective Fall of 2019

First-time Freshman Candidacy

First-time freshmen who declare nursing and meet all three milestones in three continuous (full-time) semesters will be admitted into the nursing program in their fourth semester (this may occur sooner depending upon AP and dual enrollment courses). See milestones cited above. (If student does not meet milestones then will move to academic candidacy.)

Must meet these requirements to declare a nursing major when entering freshman year

High School GPA of 3.5 or higher (per the TN Uniform Grading Policy and GPA calculation), or GED of 660 or higher, or HiSET of 75 or higher.
ACT score of 25 or SAT 1200; if no ACT or SAT, Office of Admissions will review Placement Assessment Test. Note: Students unable to submit valid ACT/SAT scores must take a placement assessment.
A “B” or better in all high school science courses.
College level placement.

NURSING MAJOR MILESTONES

Pre-Nursing Plan of Study

(FIRST TIME FRESHMEN)

Must meet all of the milestones

At the end of Semester 1

17 or more hours

Milestone 1

Complete at least 17 hours of college credit (full time).
Calculated Nursing GPA 3.35 or above (calculated using all attempts on the nursing focus core )—USE NURSING GPA CALCULATOR
Complete Biology courses (including lab) with “B” or better.

At the end of Semester 2

16 hours

Combined semester credits of 33 hours

Milestone 2

Complete at least 16 hours of college credit (full time).
Calculated Nursing focus GPA 3.35 or above (calculated using all attempts on the nursing focus core )—USE NURSING GPA CALCULATOR
Complete Biology courses (including lab) with “B” or better.

At the end of Semester 3

16 hours

Remaining core and prerequisites

Milestone 3

Calculated Nursing focus GPA 3.35 or above (calculated using all attempts on the nursing focus core )—USE NURSING GPA CALCULATOR
Complete Biology courses (including lab) with a C or better
Complete remaining nursing focus core with a C
. Minimum of 68 on each of the following components of the TEAS standardized exam:

a) Overall Score

b) Reading Comprehension

c) Scientific Reasoning

The student must have completed the required 49 credit hours of the General Education CORE and Nursing Prerequisites.

Transfer Students with 33 hours or less not qualifying for First-time Freshmen Candidacy Declaration of Nursing Major: (must meet all standards)

Transfer Admission with 33 hours or less

Transfer students who first entered the university with 33 hours or less of nursing focus core and who are able to meet all five of the standards listed, enter the appropriate milestone, and successfully complete remaining milestones will be admitted into the nursing program in their fourth semester (this may occur sooner depending upon AP, dual enrollment, and transferred courses). See milestones cited above. (If student does not meet milestones then will move to academic candidacy.)

Completed 33 hours of nursing focus core or less and able to enter appropriate milestone above without condition.
Nursing focus GPA of 3.35 or higher.
One or less repeat of biology courses (BIOL 2010/2011, BIOL 2020/2021,). Must be completed with “B” or better.
No more than one grade of “C” in the nursing core and pre-requisite courses, and biology courses must be completed (lecture and lab considered 1 course) with “B” or better.
College level placement.

Academic Candidacy

First-time freshmen and transfer students that do not meet the criteria for direct admission to the nursing program will have a General Studies - Health major assigned to them, per the APSU admission letter. These students will still have the ability to apply to the nursing program once they meet the in order to apply criteria, found below.

Transfer students entering with 34 or more credit hours of nursing focus core and students that do not qualify for First-Time Freshmen candidacy may also apply for admission to the nursing program. Deadlines will be May (for Fall admission) and September (for Spring admission) for the upcoming fall and spring semesters. Please visit application for date applications due. In order to apply, the student must:

have completed at least 34 or more hours of the required 49 credit hours of the General Education CORE and Nursing Prerequisites. Any remaining courses must be completed prior to starting nursing courses.
have a minimum calculated GPA of 3.0 or above from the APSU General Education Core and Nursing Core Pre-requisites courses.
have a “C” or better in all Nursing prerequisite and university core courses. Nursing core and pre-requisite courses are the only courses used to calculate GPA for admissions to the APSU SON. Note: If courses have been repeated, ALL attempts from the required APSU Core history (2310, 2320, 2010, 2020, and/or 2030) and APSU core humanity courses (Art 1035, MUS 1030, MUS 2030, THEA 1030, Dance 1035, PHIL 1040, PHIL 1030, and/or PHIL 2200) must be included. If an applicant is repeating a course at the time of the application deadline, the previous grade will be used in calculating the GPA.
have earned 8 hours of the required 12 hours of sciences: Biol 2010/2011,2020/2021-, and/or 2300/2301 plus appropriate labs · 6 hours of the required 12 hours of PSY 1010, 3100, SOC 1010, and/or Math 1530 · 16 hours of the required 24 hours of ENG 1010, 1020, 2330, HIST (6 hours from the following) HIST 2010, 2020, 2310, 2320 or 2030, Humanities 6 hours, and/or COMM 2045 · APSU 1000 (not required for transfer applicants with more than 12 hours, (not including Advance Placement, military credit hours, or dual enrollment hours)

Minimum of 68 on each of the following components of the TEAS standardized exam:

Overall Score
Reading Comprehension
Scientific Reasoning