Admissions Information

Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing

Students who declare Pre-Nursing are not automatically admitted to the nursing program. Students are admitted to the ABSN nursing program once a year.

Decisions on admission are made by the School of Nursing in the spring for summer admission. The application deadline for summer admission is in December Admission is highly competitive and not all applicants who meet the minimum criteria for admission can be accommodated.

The ABSN program is a four-semester program that starts in the summer semester and then ends in the following summer semester. The majority of prerequisites and outstanding University Studies requirements must be completed prior to the application deadline in December.

If students are completing 1-2 prerequisite courses in the Fall semester and have not received their final grades, they may still apply and will receive provisional acceptance until the final grades from the Fall semester are submitted and approved.
If a student is a current UNCW undergraduate student and is planning on graduating in the Spring, they should contact chhsnursingadmission@uncw.edu to discuss submitting an application for the ABSN program.

Application Deadlines:

Summer 2026 cohort application deadline to apply to UNCW is December 15th, 2025. Students will be notified of their acceptance to UNCW within 3 weeks. Students will then be given an ID number to submit an application to the SON portal.

MINIMUM APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS

BS or BA from an accredited institution
Admission to UNCW
Combined GPA of 3.0 or higher from all institutions attended
Completion of TEAS Assessment
Completion of all prerequisites with a B or higher grade (L=lab)
- CHM/L 101
- BIO/L 201
- BIO/L 240
- BIO/L 241
- BIO 246 (course only; no lab needed)
- STT 210 or 215 or PSY 225 or QMM 280
- PSY 105
All University Studies requirements will be accepted from other schools.
Video interview
Resume/CV
- NOTE: To submit the resume, you will need to upload the PDF directly to the application portal.
- The resume should be well organized and professional and will need to include:
  - Employment, education and volunteer experience, including dates
  - Research and/or health related experiences with dates
  - List transferable skills
  - Includes dates
- Save Resume titled “Name ABSN Resume" (ex: Smith ABSN Resume).
- Save as a PDF file.

ADMISSIONS SCORE CALCULATIONS

Scores are calculated based on four elements*:

GPA in prerequisites - 55%
- CHM/L 101
- BIO/L 201
- BIO/L 240
- BIO/L 241
- BIO 246 (course only; no lab needed)
- STT 210 or 215 or PSY 225 or QMM 280
- PSY 105
- All Math/Science prerequisite courses must be completed within 10 years prior to application.
Score on TEAS Assessment - 20%
- You must complete the TEAS assessment within a testing period, and UNCW Testing Services must receive your TEAS score via ATI Testing prior to the application deadline.
Score on Video Interview - 15%
Score on Resume - 10%

*When reviewing the course list above, a class with '/L' is requiring a lab, totaling four credits, to be considered for admission.

COURSE REPEAT POLICY

GPA will be calculated based on all completed courses. Students may repeat all prerequisite courses, regardless of first grade earned. The highest grade will be used in the evaluation of the application.

For courses with multiple options in a category, students may repeat all courses in that category once and the highest grade will be used in the evaluation of the application.

TAKING HIGHER LEVEL COURSES

Students are not permitted to take a higher-level course and substitute it for one of the prerequisite courses. For example, if a student has taken CHM 102, the course will not be evaluated because it is not one of the required prerequisites.

The only exception is BIO 330 or BIO 425 can be substituted for BIO 246, as they are both Microbiology courses.

AP AND CLEP CREDIT

AP and CLEP Credit are not used in the evaluation of applications. Students will get credit for the course, but their score will not affect their standing. At least one course in each category (Math/Science prerequisites and Non- Math/Science prerequisites) must be completed for a grade in order to be evaluated for admission potential.

Once a student has earned a grade in a course, they cannot later CLEP in order to nullify the grade.

PASS/FAIL COURSES

A Pass will be calculated in application scoring in a similar way as AP and CLEP: students will receive credit for completing the course as a Pass, but the Pass will not be calculated into the total score. At least one course in each category (Math/Science prerequisites and Non-Math/Science prerequisites) must be completed for a grade in order to be evaluated for admission potential. If a student is repeating a prerequisite course and chooses to take a Pass, the previous grade will be used on the application, not the Pass. Courses taken as a Fail, or any grades below a C in pre-requisite coursework, will disqualify the applicant from applying.

10 YEAR RULE FOR MATH/SCIENCE PREREQUISITE COURSES

Math/Science prerequisite courses must have been completed within 10 years of the application deadline. If any course is older than 10 years, students must retake/audit those courses.

Specific Dates:

January 6, 2026 application deadline: Any courses taken before spring 2016 and prior are not valid.

TAKING THE TEAS TEST OUTSIDE OF UNCW

If a student chooses to take the TEAS Test at another testing center, it is the student's responsibility to ensure that they are taking the correct version of the TEAS Test and that UNCW receives their official scores via ATI Testing prior to the end of the test administration period.

The student will need to go to the ATI Store (online store) and request their transcript. UNCW will be in the drop-down menu on the website (online store) when they select TEAS Transcript.

_{Updated: 6/19/2024}

GETTING ADMITTED

Full Admit Status: Students are not considered a fully admitted student until they have completed all prerequisite courses with a grade of "B" (3.0) or better and have maintained a cumulative GPA of at least 3.0.

Alternate List:

A total of 24 students will be conditionally admitted to the ABSN program. An additional six students will be placed on the alternate list and will be notified of their rank on the alternate list.
If any admitted students decline their admission to the program, the next student on the alternate list will be notified as soon as possible of acceptance into the program. The remaining students will then be notified of their rank on the alternate list.
Prior to the beginning of the semester, a total of 24 students will be conditionally admitted.

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

Prior to beginning the ABSN program, students will need to complete or submit the following:

Current immunization record
CPR certification
Drug screen*
Criminal background check*
Seasonal flu vaccine
Agencies for clinical rotations may require proof of Covid vaccine or documented proof of need for exemption

*All students will need to have a negative urine drug screen and a negative criminal background check to be admitted to the program.

The curricula in the School of Nursing are subject to review and change based on the evolving health care delivery system.

ADVISING

For advising questions, contact the Student Success Center at 910.962.3208 or chhs@uncw.edu.