Nursing (Bachelor of Science)
School of Nursing
WWU School of Nursing offers one bachelor's degree
The freshmen and sophomore years of the nursing curriculum are typically completed on the College Place campus and include a combination of general studies, pre-requisite courses, nursing cognate courses, and sophomore-level nursing courses. The junior and senior years are completed on the Portland, Oregon campus. Transfer students completing prerequisite courses at another institution may apply to enter the nursing program on either the College Place or the Portland campus. The final two years of the program are completed on the Portland, Oregon campus.
Additionally we offer individualized options for applicants pursuing a RN-to-BS degree or LPN-to-RN/BS degree:
Nursing students are required to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19 as exemptions are not allowed by clinical agencies.
College Place Start (Fall entry only)
Beginning the BS in Nursing program in Fall quarter on the College Place campus includes:
- One year of study on the College Place campus to complete required prerequisite courses, required cognate courses, and sophomore-level nursing courses. Priority admission is given to qualified students completing prerequisites on the College Place campus.
- Transfer student status for applicants completing nursing prerequisites at another institution.
- Two additional years of study on the Portland campus. All nursing majors complete junior- and senior-level nursing courses on the Portland campus.
View a sample CP class schedule
Campus: College Place
GPA: 2.9+ (cumulative, college-level, non-vocational)
Application deadline: April 15
- Anatomy & Physiology: full sequence of 10-12 credits with labs
- Nutrition: 3-4 credits
- General Psychology: 3-4 credits
- General Sociology: 3-4 credits
- Writing/English Composition: 5-6 credits of College Writing/English Composition.
- History or Philosophy: 4 credits
- Humanities: 4-8 credits in various categories. (Fine Arts, Literature, Philosophy, etc.). Working with a WWU nursing advisor recommended.
- MDEV 003 or satisfactory math placement test to enter MATH 106: Intro to Statistics
- Cognate courses (not prerequisites; may be completed prior to application or at WWU Portland as a nursing major):
- Speech (public speaking): 3-4 credits
- Electives: 9 credits
Note:
- A minimum of 42 transferrable credits is required. Applicants with 45-48 completed credits prior to program start date are given preference.
- Credits in Anatomy & Physiology, Chemistry and Microbiology more than 5 years old are not accepted.
- No grade lower than a C is accepted in all nursing prerequisites and cognate courses.
- All transfer courses must be 100-level or above.
- Advance Placement (AP) credit must be documented.
College Place Start Questions?
Becky Connell
Admissions Advisor
nursing@wallawalla.edu
(509) 527-2461
Portland Start (Summer entry only)
Beginning the BS in Nursing program on the Portland campus includes:
- One 10-week summer term to complete all sophomore-level nursing courses (on the Portland campus).
- Two additional years of study on the Portland campus. All students complete junior- and senior-level nursing courses on the Portland campus.
- Portland campus tuition and fees
- Portland campus summer program tuition
View a sample Portland class schedule
Campus: Portland
GPA: 3.25+ (cumulative, college-level, non-vocational)
Application deadline: March 1, 2023 (Summer term begins late June)
- Anatomy & Physiology: a full sequence of 10-12 credits with labs
- Microbiology: 4-5 credits with lab
- Chemistry: 5-8 credits with labs (must be inorganic, organic & biochemistry concepts)
- Nutrition: 3-4 credits
- General Psychology: 3-4 credits
- General Sociology: 3-4 credits
- Human Growth & Development: must be through the lifespan
- Statistics: must be descriptive & inferential. An additional math class is not required for the nursing major. Community college statistics courses require a pre-requisite math class of 100-level or above. Statistics courses with prefixes other than MATH or STATS may not be adequate.
- Writing/English Composition: 8-9 credits of College Writing/English Composition including significant content in research writing.
- P.E.: 1 credit – activity courses only. 2 total credits required for graduation.
- History: 4 credits in U.S. History, World History, or Western Civilization. 8 total credits required for graduation.
- Humanities: 6 credits in literature, general philosophy, art or music appreciation/history, but no more than 8 credits in one category. These are the only courses that transfer to WWU as Humanities. 12 total credits required for graduation.
- Cognate courses (not pre-requisites; may be completed prior to application or at WWU Portland as a nursing major):
- Speech (public speaking): 3-4 credits
- Privilege & Oppression (or Social Inequities/Social Problems): 3-4 credits
- Electives: 9 credits (see WWU nursing transfer guide for courses)
Note:
- Credits in Anatomy & Physiology, Chemistry and Microbiology more than 5 years old are not accepted.
- No grade lower than a C is accepted in all nursing pre-requisites and cognate courses
- All transfer courses must be a 100 level or above
- Advance Placement (AP) credit must be documented
Portland Start Questions?
Read our FAQs
Tori Wilson, RN, MPH
Portland nursing admissions advisor
portland.advising@wallawalla.edu
(509) 527-2172
Application and admissions
If you are not currently a WWU student, you must apply to both Walla Walla University and the School of Nursing (two different application forms). All admission files are compiled and kept on the main campus in College Place, Washington. A complete application includes all the items below, not just the application forms.
- Apply to WWU. Complete the online application. Once you apply, you will have access to Your Enrollment Portal.
- If applying as a transfer student:
- Send official copies of all transcripts (including high school unless you have 90+ college credits) to:
- Office of Enrollment, Walla Walla University, 204 S. College Ave., College Place, WA 99362
- For electronic transcripts, send to: transcripts@wallawalla.edu.
- From the Enrollment Portal, you can see when these documents are received.
- Nursing applicants require three (3) letters of reference sent to the Office of Enrollment at the above address or via the online reference form. References must not be provided by family members. To check on your file, contact the Office of Enrollment at (800) 541-8900.
- From the Enrollment Portal, you can see when these documents are received.
- Send official copies of all transcripts (including high school unless you have 90+ college credits) to:
- Complete the Nursing Admission Essay. Click on the link in the Enrollment Portal to access the online form.
- Take the preadmissions tests. You must apply to WWU and receive an ID number prior to testing. Read about preadmission testing below, and work with your admissions advisor to schedule your testing session.
- To apply for financial aid, the school FAFSA code is #003799.
Pre-admissions testing
Students applying to enter nursing classes at WWU School of Nursing must take and pass pre-admission tests during the admission process. There are three (3) required tests:
- Accuplacer Reading Comprehension (Next Generation)
- Accuplacer Arithmetic Test (Next Generation)
- Health Science Reasoning Test
Testing info
- It takes about 3 hours to complete all three (3) tests, sometimes longer. Please plan accordingly.
- You are allowed two (2) attempts to achieve the minimum required score for each test per year.
- There is a $10 fee for each test.
Accuplacer Next Generation Arithmetic Test
Passing score on Accuplacer Next Generation Arithmetic Test | 263 or above
View sample test questions.
The Accuplacer Next Generation Arithmetic placement test is a computer adaptive assessment of test-takers' ability for selected mathematics content. This 20-question test will focus on computation, order of operations, estimation and rounding, comparing and ordering values in different formats, and recognizing equivalent values across formats. In addition, questions may assess a student’s math ability via computational or fluency skills, conceptual understanding, or the capacity to apply mathematics presented in a context. All questions are multiple choice in format. The following knowledge and skill categories are assessed:
- Whole number operations
- Fraction operations
- Decimal operations
- Percent
- Number comparisons and equivalents
Do not bring a calculator to this exam. A calculator is provided via the testing program. For questions allowing a calculator, the calculator icon appears on screen. Some questions will not have a calculator.
Accuplacer Next Generation Reading
Passing score on Accuplacer Next Generation Reading Test | 250 or above
View sample test questions.
This 20-question test measures a student's ability to understand what they have read. The Accuplacer Next Generation Reading placement test is a broad-spectrum computer-adaptive assessment of test takers’ developed ability to determine meaning from a range of readings and to determine the meaning of words and phrases in short and extended contexts. Passages on the test cover a range of content areas (including literature and literary nonfiction, careers/history/social studies, humanities, and science), writing modes (informative/explanatory, argument, and narrative), and complexities (relatively easy to very challenging). Questions are multiple choice in format and are either discrete (stand-alone) or part of sets built around a common passage. Four broad knowledge and skill categories are assessed:
- Information and Ideas questions focus on the informational content of passages. Subcategories include reading closely, determining central ideas and themes, summarizing, and understanding relationships.
- Rhetoric questions focus on craft and structure and on authors’ techniques. Subcategories include analyzing word choice, text structure, point of view, purpose, and arguments.
- Synthesis questions focus on the integration of information and ideas between related texts.
- Vocabulary questions focus on the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in particular contexts.
Health Sciences Reasoning Test
Passing score on the Health Sciences Reasoning Test | 17 or above
Learn more about the HSRT.
This 50-minute timed test has 33 multiple-choice questions that measures critical thinking skills of health science students.
Test-takers apply their skills in a variety of different scenarios in the areas of:
- Analysis
- Interpretation
- Inference
- Evaluation
- Explanation
- Induction
- Deduction
- Numeracy