Nursing Candidacy Requirements

1. Students must first be admitted to Cumberland University and declare nursing as their major in order to be considered for candidacy.

Click here to apply

2. In order to be “initially accepted”, the Office of Admissions must have official transcripts from ALL colleges and universities attended.

3. After acceptance to Cumberland University, candidates must take the ATI TEAS entrance test.

4. Prerequisites must have been satisfactorily completed, with the exception of nine hours of selected courses* prior to entering the first upper division nursing course.

5. These classes can be in progress up until two weeks before nursing courses begin.

6. Admissions process: Candidates must fill out the candidacy form here. All candidacy applications will be reviewed by the Rudy School of Nursing Admission-Progression Committee.

  • A weighted admission ranking system will be used to determine admission to the BSN program.
  • The ranking is based on the pool of candidates for a particular semester and the number of clinical sites and lab slots available.
  • Candidates must have earned a minimum of 2.75 cumulative G.P.A (4.00 scale) in coursework to be placed in the pool of candidates for ranking (NO EXCEPTIONS).
  • Additional factors which will be weighed in the ranking scores are: ATI scores and scores in science courses.
  • Grades of D’s, F’s, course repeats, and withdrawals will adversely impact the ranking.
  • Grades of D’s and F’s in science courses with repeats negatively impact ranking.
  • Failure from another nursing program will negatively impact the ranking.
  • All candidates must have successfully completed their science courses with a C or higher: Human Anatomy & Physiology I and II, Microbiology & Chemistry (BIO 213, BIO 214, BIO 203, Chem 103). These must have been satisfactorily completed prior to entering the first upper division nursing course (NO EXCEPTIONS).
  • All other prerequisites must have been satisfactorily completed, with the exception of selected courses (these are listed below and can be taken in the summer between nursing courses.) PLEASE NOTE: there is no financial aid in the summers. *Acceptable lower division coursework, up to nine hours, that can be taken in the summer semesters, include the following: CIS 170 Introduction to Microcomputer Applications OR HIS 201, or HIS 202 US History 1 and 2 Or HIS 191 or 192 World Civilization 1 & 2 OR ENG 215 Introduction to Literature or ENG 216 Topics in Literature OR Fine Arts Elective.