Admission Requirements

Admission Requirements to be considered for admission to the Joint Bachelor of Science in Nursing program at Virginia Wesleyan University, students must:

  1. Have a minimum of a 3.0 high school GPA.
  2. Have earned an A or B in Algebra I. 
  3. Have earned an A in Algebra II. Students who received a B in Algebra II will require additional review. 
  4. If you earned a C or lower or did not take Algebra II, you may be required to complete additional math coursework. Please talk with your enrollment counselor about what coursework will be required and your options for completing it prior to your arrival. 
  5. Please note that there are limited spots available for this program.  Therefore if you are interested you need to enroll at VWU and indicate your interest by the end of June prior to the fall you wish to start (for example, for fall 2022 you need to enroll and indicate interest no later than June 30).

The joint BSN program is demanding, and involves accelerated content (e.g. sophomore level courses in the spring of year one, required summer coursework, and the minimum VWU GPA required to maintain eligibility to continue the program at Sentara is a 3.3).

Formal admission to the BSN program requires 3.30 GPA overall and in prerequisite courses, with no course grade lower than a C- during the first year of the program. Formal acceptance into the BSN program occurs at the end of the first year. Students would need to maintain GPA standards and complete the remaining prerequisite courses during the fall of the sophomore year. Ten (10) admission slots are guaranteed to VWU students who meet all admission standards on a competitive basis.  Additional students who meet all required admission standards (beyond the guaranteed 10) may be accepted by Sentara on a competitive basis through the normal admission process, but they are not automatically guaranteed admission to the joint BSN program.  Formal admission to the nursing program during the sophomore year is a feature typical to most BSN programs.

To be guaranteed formal admission to the nursing program, a VWU student must complete 36 semester hours of credit at VWU at the time of application to SCOHS (June 15th prior to beginning the joint BSN program the following January), including all specified BSN prerequisite courses. The remainder of the prerequisite course requirements (to total 56 semester hours) would be taken during that summer and the following fall semester. Students must earn an overall GPA of 3.30 or higher on a 4.00 scale, with no course grade below a "C-" (1.67) for all prerequisite courses. The top students applying to the program will be identified by VWU, with final program admissions decisions made by SCOHS. Students would take 71 semester hours at SCOHS over the next two and a half years, with one additional WES 300 seminar taken at VWU during a summer session. Upon completion of the program, the graduate is eligible to apply to take the NCLEX-RN licensing exam.

If students do not successfully complete the program prerequisites by the end of the third semester, it is possible to complete the prerequisite courses during semesters four and five, and gain nursing program admission after 2.5 years at VWU. This would cause the student to complete the BSN in five years. It is expected that most students seeking a nursing degree would need to enter VWU knowing that they intend this path and taking the prescribed coursework during their studies.