The Bethel College nursing program has a competitive yet holistic admissions process for students who wish to enter the nursing program in the final two years of study.
Early Acceptance to the Bethel College Department of Nursing is designed for high-achieving high school students who want guaranteed admission into the nursing program at the completion of all prerequisite coursework. The Department of Nursing admits 46 students every fall semester.
Early Acceptance
- Students wishing to seek early acceptance should apply and be accepted to Bethel College within the fall of their final year of high school.
- Students should then complete an application to the nursing program, indicating Early Acceptance, by March 1 of their final year of high school.
Criteria for Early Acceptance
- Minimum 24 ACT Composite score, or 1110 SAT Total score
- Minimum 3.5 high school GPA (can be weighted or unweighted)
- Completion of the Nursing Pre-Admission Test (given by Bethel Department of Nursing staff)
- Two letters of reference
- Oral and written interview
Students selected for the Early Acceptance Guarantee will be notified of their acceptance by May 1 of their final year of high school.
Once approved for Early Acceptance, a student must:
- Provide official high school transcripts with a GPA of 3.5
- Maintain a minimum 2.75 college cumulative GPA
- Earn a C or better (not C-) in all prerequisite courses
- Complete all prerequisite courses prior to starting nursing coursework
Failure to meet the above criteria will result in removal of Early Acceptance status, and will require reapplication to the nursing program.
Students not selected for Early Acceptance can enroll in prerequisite courses at Bethel College and apply for admission in the fall semester of their second year of college enrollment.
Once you have submitted your transcripts and test scores to admissions and your letters of reference to Tammy Shirley, you can sign up to interview and complete your pre-admission test.
To apply to the Department of Nursing, please read and complete the following:
- Nursing checklist
- Nursing application — required
- Reference form — 2 required
Internships/research
Among others, the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and health-care facilities locally in the Wichita area have been settings for student internships.
In keeping with Bethel’s emphasis on undergraduate research, nursing students complete an individual or group research project and present their work at Bethel’s Undergraduate Research, Internships and Creative Activity (URICA) Symposium in April or at the Sigma Theta Tau Epsilon Gamma Chapter-at-Large Research Day symposium. Content of these projects center on quality and safety in nursing competencies, such as patient-centered care, teamwork and collaboration, evidence-based practice, quality improvement, or safety informatics, or on a nursing practice issue relevant to the student's Capstone placement.
The nursing program is fantastic. I was very well prepared for my NCLEX exam and for the nursing field in the hospital.
—Katrina Horner ’14, Nursing
Registered Nurse: Psych Department at Roger Williams Hospital Providence, RI
Post-graduate careers include:
- Staff nurse
- Specialty nurse (OB / ER / ICU / Pediatrics / Oncology)
- Nurse manager / leader
- School nurse
- Flight nurse
- Corrections nurse
- Forensic nurse
- Camp nurse
- Missionary nurse
- Ship nurse
- Home health/hospice
- Wound care nurse
Nursing scholarship information
By posting these links, Bethel College makes no claim to the validity/reliability or currency of the potential scholarships, but simply makes them available as a service to students and potential students. You should carefully and critically evaluate the requirements of a desired scholarship to determine fit and eligibility.
- Kansas State Board of Nursing:
- http://www.discovernursing.com/
- Kansas Nurses Foundation:
- www.ksnurses.com
- Scholarships for junior nursing students who are residents of six specific Kansas counties or are enrolled in nursing programs in any of those six counties:
- www.marshasangels.org
- Scholarships for junior nursing students who are graduates of high schools in six specific Kansas counties and enrolled in no less than 6 credit hours:
- www.machhealthfound.info
- Federally funded nursing scholarships:
- http://www.hrsa.gov/loanscholarships/scholarships/nursing/
- American Association of Colleges of Nursing:
- http://www.aacn.nche.edu/Education/financialaid.htm
- National League for Nursing:
- https://www.nln.org/education/training/professional-development-programs/grants-and-scholarships
Additional links for individual scholarships:
- http://www.topekacommunityfoundation.org/field-of-study
- http://www.tylenol.com/scholarship
- http://www.kha-net.org/aboutkha/kherffoundation/scholarshipskherf/
- http://www.bestnursingdegree.com/scholarship
- http://nurse.org/resources/nurse-practitioner/#scholarship
- http://machealthfound.info/fundscholarship.html
Also check out Bethel College's "Career Pathways" scholarships.
An articulation agreement with Eastern Mennonite University is available to two Bethel graduates annually to continue their education. The EMU Master of Science in Nursing program is an online platform designed for working nurses who need to maintain commitments and remain on the job while developing leadership for health care systems, multicultural settings, school nurse settings, and the nonprofit sector. Full time students can earn their degree in as little as 24 months. If you are interested in learning more about this program, please contact the Bethel College Director of Nursing or visit https://emu.edu/msn/.
