How competitive is it to enter nursing school?
Because of the nursing shortage, many people have decided to try to enter the nursing field. While there is a shortage of nurses in the workforce, there is also a shortage of nursing faculty to teach in nursing schools and of clinical placements for nursing students to develop their skills. These factors have combined to create an understaffed career field that is challenging and competitive to enter. In 2008, OHSU and its partner universities received approximately 750 applications and accepted 165 students; the average prerequisite GPA of these students was 3.78. Many private nursing schools, such as Linfield College and the University of Portland, receive similar numbers of applications. The importance of exceptional grades and well-rounded work, volunteer, or extracurricular experiences cannot be overemphasized.
