How much can you 'fix' a poor academic history?

[carolina1234]

Let me start by saying that I take full responsibility for my poor grades in the past. I had a rough family life growing up but I was also lazy and unmotivated (also depressed). I graduated high school with a 1.9 GPA and started at the local community college taking classes on and off for 2 years. My GPA for those years is probably less than than a 1.0...(I'm still waiting on those transcripts in the mail).

I left home (and that toxic environment) in 2012 and enrolled in a technical LPN school, graduated in 2014. I did well but these grades do not count as college courses. My life has turned around remarkably since then.

I moved out of state in 2014 after graduation and never looked back. I enrolled in a community college in 2015 took Microbiology, A&P 1, A&P 2, Statistics, Pathophysiology and Pharmacology, Psychology, Sociology, Algebra (required by my school), English and Medical Terminology. I have a 3.8 GPA now....but I'm sure it will drop to below a 3.0 when my old grades are averaged in.

I will graduate with my RN next year in May and I plan on starting my BSN right away.

My dream is to become an NP or PA but I'm afraid my poor academic past will prevent me from this.

Has anyone been rejected for a bad academic past even though they turned their grades around and have a 3.7+ GPA now? I refuse to hide anything from Caspa. Any advice is appreciated!!

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[762513]

I'm a DNP/NP student. The NP route is more forgiving than PA, since you are already about to become an RN I would go that route. Remember your BSN completion is not at all challenging and you should be able to get a 4.0 on 30 more credits after your ADN with no problem. If you can get your GPA above 3.2 and apply everywhere I think you have a shot. Don't give up, admissions do look at your most recent grades as part of their criteria. Let me know if you have any more questions.

 

[pamac]

Without a doubt, NP is the route for you. That's true about the bachelors completion being something that can finish with a 4.0 for those courses. A lot of programs I talked to were mostly interested in my BSN grades to the exclusion of all others. You won't have much of a problem, and you will likely get into a program that is a lot cheaper than PA school would be. If you are already an RN, NP school almost always makes more sense. I guess the exception might be if you wanted to do something like surgery, or are really interested in having a lot of latitude among different specialties. Even with that, things are changing to the point where it will but the brakes on folks jumping around very much.