Anonymous A. answered • 01/20/23
Angele L Smith MSN, RN- Educator
Being waitlisted means that the college admission’s team/teams have essentially put you in a holding status. Students on a waitlist have met the minimum criteria for the program. Some nursing schools, however, receive more qualified applications than they have seats available in the program. Because Nursing is a highly in demand profession today, and there is an inadequate number of qualified instructors to teach basic and advanced nursing courses, the competitiveness for applying students is fierce.
Waitlists can take up to three years, depending on the type of nursing program: Associate, Bachelor, Master’s, or Doctorate. Bachelor programs can have long, waiting times but not as long as Associate of Science in Nursing programs. I believe, in the United Kingdom, Registered Nurses are required to obtain a minimum of a BSc in Nursing, equivalent to a BSN (4-year undergraduate degree) in the United States. The demand for nurses is higher than there are nursing programs available today. Nursing schools cannot keep up with the capacity needed to satisfy this high demand and there are not enough teachers available for nursing programs. The location where you live may, also, be problematic in that an area with a lot of nursing programs might not need waitlists because they can handle the numbers of applications that they receive. However, a city that doesn’t have any nursing programs needs to implement a scheme to manage high numbers of applicants. The more students that are on a waitlist, the more competitive it will be to be accepted into nursing programs.
Being waitlisted means a college has finished going over your file and made a decision to put you on a waiting list for admission. New information does not usually change a waitlist decision. A college’s list is ranked either by GPA (grade point average) or other criteria that the program uses to measure students against each other. Some programs start their waitlist over each year. If that is the case, you may be required to submit a new application each year. Suggested advice, if you are placed on a waitlist, are find out if the school has gone to their waitlist in the past. In some colleges, your chances of eventually getting in are very good; at others, waitlisted applicants are almost never admitted. It is prudent to apply to other institutions. Make plans with a backup school. Take all your pre-nursing courses before you enter the program; have these courses out of the way so you can focus on nursing courses during the program. Some prerequisite courses expire after a certain number of years. Many nursing programs do not want you to send them updated records because they only consider your first grades. Re-take the entrance exam to increase your score, if your particular program accepts updated scores. Take a job in the healthcare field and become exposed to this environment before starting nursing school. It will be easier to transition into a position as a nurse if you work at a hospital as a patient care technician (PCA) or working as a certified or licensed nurse’s aide. This will help you with your first semester in nursing, as that beginning semester acquaints you with the basics of patient care.
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