Looking for Nursing Programs in Minnesota?7 Reasons to Earn Your BSN at Gustavus Adolphus College
A bachelor of science in nursing equips you with the clinical knowledge needed to provide patients with expert medical care. However, being a successful nursing professional requires more than technical expertise. Skilled nurses are emotionally intelligent and compassionate advocates for their patients, as well as excellent communicators, collaborators, and problem-solvers. That’s why a great nursing education should integrate liberal arts studies and diverse co-curricular learning experiences designed to develop the whole person.
At Gustavus Adolphus College in Saint Peter, MN, we select a cohort of 40 nursing students each year to earn a BSN under the mentorship of our expert nursing faculty. Every Gustavus nursing student develops a customized four-year college plan in collaboration with their faculty advisor based on their nursing career objectives and personal interests. This academic plan is unique to each individual and blends nursing major courses with a range of carefully chosen electives, applied learning experiences, clinical internships, and in-depth research and study-away opportunities. The Gustavus Signature Experience is tailored for each nursing student to explore and grow holistically through broad-based education and practical application.
If nursing is the career for you and you’re looking to attend nursing school in Minnesota, keep reading for seven great reasons to apply to the nursing program at Gustavus.
1. Direct entry pathway
Secure your nursing program spot together with your college admission.
A bachelor of nursing is one of the few undergraduate degrees you can’t pursue simply by declaring a major and passing the required courses. Nursing program acceptance is competitive, with each school filling a limited number of nursing cohort spaces each year. At some colleges and universities, students can only apply to the nursing program once they are already attending the school. Your likelihood of acceptance then depends on your college academic performance so far and the number of other students applying to the program.
Rather than put our students through this uncertainty, Gustavus offers a direct entry path to our nursing program for incoming students who demonstrate outstanding academic achievement in high school and commit to full-time nursing school attendance. If you’re a first-time college student with a high school GPA of 3.5+, simply indicate on your Gustavus application that you intend to major in nursing. If you’re accepted to Gustavus, you’ll automatically be considered for a spot in the nursing cohort. You’ll receive a determination with plenty of time for it to inform your choice of which college to attend.
Current Gustavus students can apply to the nursing program their junior year, but if you’re an incoming student who’s already decided on a nursing major then direct entry is your best bet. You won’t have to worry about competing for limited spots later, and you can plan your four-year college schedule from the start to support your priorities and fulfill your requirements as a nursing student.
For general peace of mind, apply to all your prospective nursing schools well ahead of the final deadline, especially if there is a direct entry option for nursing majors. The Gustavus nursing program starts our first round of selections for direct entry spots on December 1 for the following school year. Applications received after that are considered on a rolling basis, and the nursing cohort is capped at 40 students per class year.
2. 100% placement rate
Graduate from a nursing program that gets you right to work.
We invest in each of our nursing students throughout their college journey and beyond, from first semester planning to career development services. Historically, Gustavus nursing students enjoy a 100% placement rate within 6 months of graduation, including entry into advanced nursing degree programs. Our Center for Career Development works with each student to ensure connection to the experiences, resources, and networks that facilitate the transition from college graduation to professional nursing career.
With a BSN from Gustavus, you are ready to take the NCLEX-RN, become a registered nurse, and start practicing. Upon graduation, Gustavus nursing majors meet the certification requirements to become a Minnesota public health nurse. Our nursing program alumni work in 35 states and U.S. territories serving their communities as critical care specialists, health educators, patient advocates, nurse practitioners, and more. Gustavus nursing graduates who stay in-state work for highly respected Minnesota healthcare institutions including Abbott Northwestern, Children’s Minnesota, Mayo Clinic, and the Minnesota Army National Guard.
A bachelor of science in nursing (BSN) leads to significantly higher entry-level pay than most degrees and exceptional job stability. Being an RN is a challenging and fulfilling career, and many nurses choose to advance in their field through additional certifications rather than returning to school for a graduate degree. For nurses who do choose to pursue an MSN or other advanced degree, a Gustavus education is excellent preparation for grad school. Any nursing students interested in a master’s degree receive expert pre-health advising services from the Office of Health Professions, who assist with prerequisites, clinical experience, and the entire graduate school application process.
3. Customized degree path
Design a college education that supports you holistically as a future nurse.
Nursing is a diverse field, and our graduates work in a broad array of professional settings and nursing concentrations. A BSN from Gustavus opens the doors to exciting careers in pediatrics, oncology, radiology, and dozens of other nursing specialties. Some nurses work primarily in direct patient care while others take on roles in administration, management, research, education, public health, or informatics.
With this many career options, college becomes a key time to explore academic avenues that spark your interest and guide you to pursue the nursing path that fits you best. Your foundational nurse training at Gustavus includes rigorous science courses, simulation labs, and clinical experience. For the rest of your schedule, we offer you lots of flexibility to craft a liberal arts education that exposes you to exciting new challenges while cultivating the cross-disciplinary competencies nursing requires.
A successful nursing career combines far-reaching skill sets that allow you to serve your patients on multiple intersecting levels. Being an RN requires critical thinking, creative problem-solving, teamwork, emotional intelligence, community-mindedness, and cultural awareness. Open exploration of the humanities, arts, and social sciences exposes students to diverse perspectives, challenging ideas, and opportunities to make important cognitive connections across multiple fields of study.
With these objectives in mind, we’ve designed our curriculum requirements to help you take the electives that excite you most and complete a minor or even a second major along with your nursing major. Depending on your nursing career objectives, choose a concentration in public health, foreign language, psychology, or statistics. Or, select any minor/major that engages your curiosity, sparks your creativity, and ultimately contributes to your development as a well-rounded person and nurse.
4. Signature experience
Prepare for your RN career through rich experiential learning.
Customized co-curriculars are at the heart of a Gustavus education. Throughout your time here, your faculty advisors work to understand your goals and connect you with immersive experiences that accompany and complement your evolving academic path. Through this coordinated program, nursing students put theory into practice to sharpen critical reasoning, innovation, interpersonal communication, and a host of essential professional nursing skills. The Gustavus Signature Experience integrates classroom-based studies with four key types of experiential learning:
- Internships. In the Gustavus nursing program, you’ll gain a range of clinical experience in urban and rural health care settings, from hospital internships in nearby Minneapolis, MN, to a public health clinical immersion in Utqiagvik, AK.
- Community projects. Take classes based in community settings to gain practical application skills and new perspectives that enrich your college experience and inform your postgraduate objectives.
- Study-away programs. As a nursing major, your sophomore year is an excellent time to study abroad, earning college credit and exploring new horizons in exciting programs located across the globe.
- Student-faculty research. Nursing program majors are encouraged and facilitated to join nursing faculty or faculty in other departments doing original research, or to propose their own research projects.
Your signature experiences are designed around your interests and goals, within the healthcare field and without. With decades-long community partnerships and 30,000 alumni in all walks of life, we draw on a massive network to help you craft a college path that energizes you and cultivates your unique talents.
5. On-time graduation
Get your BSN degree in four years, guaranteed.
It can be a challenge to plan four years of classes and extracurriculars that result in both an enriching college experience and a nursing degree. College and university students who aren’t supported closely in this planning process encounter frustrating roadblocks: unclear prerequisite requirements, confusing degree-credit math, and required classes that filled up too fast. This leads to an extra semester or two spent tying up loose ends, resulting in higher total college costs and delays starting your nursing career or graduate school education.
We believe that you should be able to get a four-year nursing degree in four years, so we make sure you have a clear path to do that. If we fail to set you up with a viable eight-semester plan to complete your nursing major requirements and earn a BSN, we pay for your ninth semester. We created this guarantee because that’s how confident we are in our advising services. We take college planning so seriously that we set aside a full day of each semester with no classes for every student to meet with their faculty or pre-professional adviser, examine their plan, and strategize their next steps.
Before your first semester of nursing school, you’ll sit down with your academic advisor to discuss your goals and priorities as a nursing student. You’ll talk about your possible nursing career focus, electives you’d like to pursue, minors that appeal to you, and experiential learning opportunities or study-away programs that spark your interest. Maybe you feel confident about your nursing school path, or perhaps you feel completely lost and in need of ideas and guidance. Our expert academic advisors meet you where you are at and work together with you to make sure you can get it all done in four years.
6. Strong support network
Join a Minnesota college community that supports every student.
One key difference between nursing school at Gustavus and a program at a large university is our tight-knit school community. As a small, private liberal arts school, we are able to prioritize faculty mentorship. All our classes are taught by faculty, and our average class size is 15 students. Far from being an anonymous face in a lecture hall, you know your instructors, and they know you. Your nursing faculty is invested in your development as a person and a future nurse, and they’re excited to share their professional experiences, answer your questions, discuss nursing career options, and connect you with extracurricular opportunities aligned with your interests.
Your nursing cohort at Gustavus is capped at 40 students, facilitating camaraderie and a sense of a shared journey and purpose. It’s easy to get to know your classmates, form study groups, and share resources as you each explore clinical internships, research options, and community projects. If you need help with your studies or you’d like to share your expertise with other students, department-based peer tutoring programs pair up students to learn from each other and build supportive relationships. Additional peer support for study skills, time management, and academic planning is available through the Peer Academic & Accessibility Coaches Program.
Gustavus students also have myriad support options in the form of campus programs. The Academic Support Center connects you with necessary accommodations and offers post-graduate planning services, among other practical help. The Center for Inclusive Excellence brings together students from similar and different backgrounds through programs and events designed to build a mutually supportive and engaged campus community.
Take advantage of one-on-one counseling services or group sessions through the Counseling Center. Chat confidentially with one of our school chaplains, who are eager to support your spiritual growth, aid your personal or professional discernment, or just lend a listening ear during challenging times. Connect with a Gustavus alumni mentor through the Gustavus Mentoring Program for another unique source of one-on-one professional guidance and personal encouragement.
With comprehensive student services and an environment of mentorship and collaboration, Gustavus nursing students get the support they need to face each challenge and excel.
7. Affordable private school in Minnesota
Go to the Minnesota nursing college with top financial aid ratings.
One of your biggest concerns as a future college student is likely how to pay for nursing school. At Gustavus, we’re committed to expanding access to a world-class education to include students facing financial barriers to attending a private college. As a result, the New York Times called Gustavus Minnesota’s top college for economic diversity, and U.S. News and World Report ranked us the top Minnesota college for social mobility.
We understand that the full price of providing a Gustavus education is out of reach for most prospective students. Combining government grants with our institutional scholarship fund, we bring the cost to our students down far below the sticker price. All Gustavus nursing students qualify for a minimum of $25,000/year towards tuition under the Gustie Guarantee, with additional aid available depending on your financial situation.
Eligible Minnesota students with household incomes under $80,000 receive a scholarship that covers nearly all their tuition for all four years of nursing school. Alternatively, incoming students from Minnesota or elsewhere who demonstrate impressive academic and extracurricular achievements in high school are automatically considered for a Dean’s Scholarship or President’s Scholarship. These merit-based scholarships range from $32,000-$36,500 and are renewable each year. Earn outside nursing scholarships or additional scholarships from Gustavus and add these to your base scholarship to save even more.
Join one of the best nursing programs in Minnesota.
Becoming a registered nurse is an excellent career choice that opens doors to dozens of exciting specialty fields. Every one of us benefits from the care of highly skilled nurses at some point in our lives, and nurses are needed in every community across the country and world. Throughout the U.S., the demand for nurses with a four-year degree continues to grow, making nursing not only a highly paid occupation but one with excellent job security.
If you’re ready to pursue this path, join one of the top nursing programs in Minnesota and cultivate holistic nursing skills inside a vibrant and supportive academic community. Design your unique Gustavus Signature Experience in line with your passions and goals, supported by our expert faculty advisors, healthcare partners, and alumni network. We’re excited to answer your questions about earning your BSN at Gustavus. Reach out to us today to learn more about the nursing program!
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