BSN How to Apply

Ways to Study

  • On-Campus

Apply Now | BSN

Applications are now open!

December 17 – Application Deadline

All application materials must be submitted by the deadline!

Current UNC Students Only:
To apply to the BSN program, you must submit a major change in ConnectCarolina. Within 48 hours, a link to the Nursing application will be emailed to you.

Apply Now

Steps to Apply +

1. Apply online.

2. Upload Unofficial Transcripts
One unofficial transcript from each university attended must be uploaded within the application. All unofficial transcripts must be uploaded to your application by the application deadline in order for your application to be reviewed. Please do not mail transcripts as part of your admission application; we only accept unofficial uploads for application evaluation. If you are offered admission, one official transcript for each university attended will be required.

3.Check the status of your application
Log-in to the application portal to check the status of your application. In addition, please check your email regularly for any important information.

Transcripts +

One unofficial transcript from each university attended must be uploaded within the application. All unofficial transcripts must be uploaded to your application by the application deadline in order for your application to be reviewed. Please do not mail transcripts as part of your admission application; we only accept unofficial uploads for application evaluation. If you are offered admission, one official transcript for each university attended will be required.

UNC-CH requires official high school transcripts from students who are admitted to the BSN program. If you are selected for admission, additional details will be provided in your offer letter regarding submission of your high school transcript.

Essays +

Essays are to be uploaded as your Personal Statement in the Documents section of the application. Because we don’t have the opportunity to meet or interview all of our applicants personally, we ask that you help us get to know you better through the required essays. Please read the questions carefully, and limit your responses to the lengths indicated.

For your essays, please create a single, double-spaced document, with a font size of 11 or higher, with a page break between each essay response. Please include your full legal name at the top of each page and number each essay or identify it with the corresponding question. Please limit your responses to a maximum of two pages per essay, or six pages total. Once you have uploaded your document, you will have the option to view or remove it. Please select PREVIEW to make sure you have uploaded the correct document. If you attempt to upload more than one document (i.e. save a separate document for each essay) only the last document uploaded will be saved.

Each essay question may contain multiple parts so be sure to address all components. Carefully check your essays for spelling and grammar. Your ability to communicate will be evident in your essays. By signing the statement at the end of application, you verify that the essays are your own and were written by you.

  • Failure to adhere to the formatting guidelines may result in your application being considered incomplete.
  • Failure to submit two to three distinct essays may result in your application being considered incomplete.

Essay Questions +

In our nursing school application process, we wholeheartedly embrace the essays as an invaluable opportunity to learn more about who you are as an individual. We believe in authenticity, valuing your unique experiences, perspectives, and aspirations. Therefore, we strongly encourage you to utilize specific examples to answer the prompts, allowing us to gain a genuine understanding of your journey, passions, and potential contributions to our school and the nursing profession.
  1. Why have you chosen to pursue a career in nursing and what are your professional goals? What are the skills and talents you possess that will contribute to your future work as a nurse? If you are a second degree student, also discuss why nursing is a better career choice at this time in your life.
  2. Describe a very difficult and/or rewarding experience you have had, and discuss how you dealt with it. Discuss in detail the way in which this particular experience impacted your life, and how it might influence your future practice as a nurse.
  3. In 2-3 sentences, please elaborate on what specifically attracts you to UNC Chapel Hill School of Nursing, the nation’s pioneering public university, and connect your personal values with our commitment to serving the public good and advancing health equity for all.

Foreign Language Fluency Definitions +

We often receive questions about how we define foreign language fluency for the purposes of the application. Please see the guidelines below. Definitions are adapted from American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages Proficiency Guidelines.

LOW FLUENCY
Speakers at the Low level can communicate short messages on highly predictable, everyday topics that affect them directly. They do so primarily through the use of isolated words and phrases that have been encountered, memorized, and recalled. Low-level speakers may be difficult to understand even by the most sympathetic interlocutors accustomed to non-native speech.

MODERATE FLUENCY
Speakers at the Moderate level are distinguished primarily by their ability to create with the language when talking about familiar topics related to their daily life. They are able to recombine learned material in order to express personal meaning. Moderate-level speakers can ask simple questions and can handle a straightforward survival situation. They produce sentence-level language, ranging from discrete sentences to strings of sentences, typically in present time. Moderate-level speakers are understood by interlocutors who are accustomed to dealing with non-native learners of the language.

HIGH FLUENCY
Speakers at the High level engage in conversation in a clearly participatory manner in order to communicate information on autobiographical topics, as well as topics of community, national, or international interest. The topics are handled concretely by means of narration and description in the major times frames of past, present, and future. These speakers can also deal with a social situation with an unexpected complication. The language of High-level speakers is abundant, the oral paragraph being the measure of High-level length and discourse. High- level speakers have sufficient control of basic structures and generic vocabulary to be understood by native speakers of the language, including those unaccustomed to non-native speech.

Fall Coursework +

If you are enrolled in fall semester courses, you have until January 15th to submit transcripts showing your final grades. We do not need two transcripts from the institution where you are taking fall courses, so please wait and submit your final transcript once all grades and/or degrees are posted.

International Applicants +

English Language Proficiency
If your country of origin is other than the United States and English is not the official language, you must submit test scores to demonstrate their English proficiency. The official report must be submitted to the Office of Student Affairs at UNC School of Nursing by the application deadline or you may upload it under “Test Score Report.” Contact the Office of Student Affairs for information regarding waiver eligibility. Minimum acceptable scores are as follows:
TOEFL or TOEFL iBT Home Edition – 100 or higher
TOEFL ITP Plus for China – 627 or higher
IELTS or IELTS Indicator – 7.0 or higher

Foreign Coursework
Applicants who have attended college outside of the United States must submit an official copy of an independently conducted verification of your academic credentials by an education evaluation service. The assessment must include a course-by-course evaluation showing credit hours and letter grade equivalency as well as US equivalency of all degrees earned.

Orientation and Matriculation +

Mandatory all-day orientation sessions for incoming BSN students will be held on the two business days prior to the start of classes in mid-August.

Contact Admissions

nursing@unc.edu
919.966.4260

Information Sessions & Tours

Institutional and Professional Licensure Disclosures for Enrolled and Prospective Students

Institutional and Professional Licensure Disclosures for Enrolled and Prospective Students in one of UNC Chapel Hill’s nursing programs satisfy the professional and/or certification requirements in North Carolina and prepare students to sit for these exams. However, requirements in other states may be different. If you are considering a bachelor of science (BSN) in nursing program that may, would, or could potentially lead to a BSN professional license and/or certification, please note that at this time UNC may or may not be able to advise whether a program meets requirements outside of North Carolina.

This Disclosure is strictly limited to the University’s determination of whether its educational programs, if successfully completed, would be sufficient to meet the educational licensure or certification requirements. The University cannot provide verification of any individual’s ability to meet licensure or certification requirements unrelated to its educational programming, as individual states may change their requirements for licensure and certification.

Prior to enrolling in a BSN program, please make a pre-professional advising appointment at the UNC Career Services Office to discuss this important topic with your program of interest.