Progression and Retention
Progression: Students are required to pass previous courses in a topic sequence prior to moving on to the next in the sequence (e.g., Community Health I & Community Health I Clinical must be completed prior to Community Health II & Community Health II Clinical; Adult Health I, II, III, and IV must be taken and successfully passed in sequence).
Students must earn a minimum grade of 75% to pass all required nursing core courses. There is no rounding of grades. When there is a decimal attached to an earned grade, the final grade will be recorded as the whole number. For example, a student who earns a 73.8% will earn a final grade of 73%. Please refer to the Grading Policy for the Nursing Grade Scale.
Students who are unsuccessful in a nursing core course must submit an appeal to be added to a ranking list or a subsequent cohort. Please refer to the Ranking Appeals section of the Appeal Policy, for more information.
Students who fail or withdraw from nursing core courses are not guaranteed a spot in another cohort. Every effort should be made to pass a course successfully the first time. For more information about nursing core course withdrawals and failures, see the Nursing Core Course Withdrawals and Failures section of the Grading Policy.
Retention: Completion of the BSN Pre-Licensure Program requires that all elements (courses, course work, assignments, clinical experiences, etc.) of the Program of Study be met following the required sequence of courses and within the required time frames established by the SONHS and Aspen University.
Students in the BSN Pre-Licensure program who withdraw from the program, are administratively dropped from the program, or who are dismissed from the program may be considered for re-entry. Students out of the program for any period of time will have their general education courses reevaluated; students may have to retake general education requirements as a refresher if they do not meet the standards in place at the time of readmission. Students who are out of the program for a period of up to 16 weeks will be required to pass an assessment checkoff for each nursing core course completed; if a student does not pass the assessment checkoff on the first attempt, they will have to retake the course before they can continue to progress in the program. Students who are out of the program for a period longer than 16 weeks will be required to start the nursing core portion of the program over; no previously completed nursing core courses will be counted toward program progression and completion.