School of Nursing

Admissions Information: Prelicensure

Students who declare Pre-Nursing are not automatically admitted to the nursing program. Students are admitted to the nursing program twice a year. Decisions on admission are made by the School of Nursing in the spring for fall admission and in the fall for spring admission. The application deadline for fall admission is December 15th and the application deadline for spring admission is July 1st. Admission is highly competitive and not all applicants who meet the minimum criteria for admission can be accommodated.

IMPORTANT CHANGES: The Prelicensure Nursing Program will be shifting from a five semester program to a four semester program. In addition, requirements for admissions will change as follows.

July 1, 2022 Application (cohort starting Spring 2023): No changes.

December 19, 2022 Application (cohort starting Fall 2023) and July 1, 2023 Application (cohort starting Spring 2024): This will begin the new four semester nursing program.

Minimum requirements to apply will remain the same.
PSY 223 will no longer be required or evaluated for admission. The Non-Math/Science Prerequisites will remain 25% of the admissions decision.
Students must have all Nursing Prerequisites completed prior to the first semester Nursing courses.

December 15, 2023 Application (cohort starting Fall 2024): Admissions will change and will likely result in an increase in the minimum prerequisite courses needed to apply, as well as a more holistic evaluation of applicants.

Minimum Requirements for Application

Admission to UNCW and paid enrollment deposit
Combined GPA of 2.7 or higher from all institutions attended
Completion of TEAS Assessment
Completion of the below five prerequisite courses:
- CHM 101
- PSY 105
- One sociology or economics course (SOC 105, ECN 125, or ECN 221)
- One biology course (BIO 201, BIO 240, or BIO 246)
- One math or statistics course (MAT 111, 112, 115, 151, 152, 161, 162, or STT 210, STT 215, QMM 280 or PSY 225)

Admissions Score Calculations

Scores are calculated based on three elements*:

GPA in Math/Science prerequisites – 50%
- CHM/L 101 (4 credits)
- BIO/L 201 (4 credits)
- BIO/L 240 (4 credits)
- BIO/L 241 (4 credits)
- BIO 246 (3 credits)
- STT 210 or 215 or PSY 225 or QMM 280
- MAT 111, 112, 115, 151, 152, 161 or 162
- All Math/Science prerequisite courses must be completed within 10 years prior to application.
GPA in Non-Math/Science prerequisites – 25%
- PSY 105
- PSY 223 (July 1, 2022 application only)
- PAR 101, 110, 115, 205, 211 or 215
- SOC 105, ECN 125, or ECN 221
Score on TEAS Assessment – 25%
- 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.

*When reviewing the course list above, a class with ‘/L’ is requiring a lab, totaling 4 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. The following categories apply to this rule: MAT Category, SOC/ECN Category, PAR Category, and STT Category. For example, if a student earned a C in PAR 101, and repeated for a grade of B, that student could not take PAR 101 a third time, but could take one of the other PAR options.
The repeated course may be taken at UNCW or transferred into UNCW from another institution.

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. Student’s will get credit for the course, but his/her score will not affect his/her 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:
- July 1, 2022 application deadline: any courses taken Spring 2012 or prior are not valid.
- December 15, 2021 application deadline: any courses taken Fall 2011 or 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 his/her 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 his/her transcript. UNCW will be in the drop down menu on the website (online store) when they select TEAS Transcript. Updated: 2/21/2017

Getting Admitted

Full Admit Status: Students are not considered a full admit until they have successful completion with a grade of “C” (2.77) or better of all prerequisite courses and maintaining a cumulative GPA of at least 2.70.

Alternate List:

When admissions decisions are made, 55 students will be conditionally admitted and 15 students will be placed on the Alternate List. The 15 students will be notified of their rank on the Alternate List.
As admitted students decline their admissions from the program throughout the semester, 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.
At the end of the semester, 60 total students will be conditionally admitted.

BIO 201 Waiver: BIO 201 waiver requests are only submitted for students who are admitted into the program. At UNCW, BIO 201 is a prerequisite for BIO 240 and 246. If a student completes these courses at an institution in which BIO 201 is not a prerequisite, the student will not need BIO 201 at UNCW.

BIO 240 Completion:

BIO 240 may be in progress when applying to the program, but must be successfully completed before the student starts NSG 250 (Health Assessment) and NSG 252 (Foundations in Professional Nursing Practice).