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School of Nursing

Entry Requirements

LVN to BSN Program Entry Requirements

Requirements for entry into the LVN to BSN Program:

  • You must be a current CSUSM student or admitted to the University as a Transfer Student and completed the Intent to Enroll process by no later than May 1, in order to be considered for admission to our Fall LVN to BSN program.
  • Proof of an active California LVN licence must be provided to the School of Nursing by May 1 for fall admission.
  • Proof of IV certification must be submitted to the School of Nursing by May 1 for fall admission.
  • Vocational Nursing coursework completed at a BVNPT-approved (Board of Vocational Nursing and Psychiatric Technicians) Nursing Program.
    • OR program approved by a State Board for VN licensure other than in California.
    • OR equivalent coursework completed through military training; and completion of LVN coursework at a regionally-accredited institution (WASC or other regional affiliate), at which college credit is earned for the LVN coursework and is reflected on a college/university transcript from a regionally-accredited institution, or equivalent coursework through military training. 
  • Completion of the Pre-Nursing Core, or their equivalents, with an overall GPA of 2.75.  For Fall entry, all Pre-Nursing Core courses or equivalents must be completed the previous Spring  semester. We do not have a limit on how many Core courses can be in progress in the Spring semester.
  • Students must complete prerequisite (Pre-Nursing Core) courses with a grade of C or better (grade of C- is not acceptable), and courses with substandard grades can be repeated only once.  Grades will be averaged for repeated Core courses. This includes any science labs which may be listed as separate courses. Students are limited to a maximum of two C's in the Pre-Nursing Core science requirements.
  • Minimum overall college/university GPA of at least 2.0
  • Applicants must successfully pass the LVN Nursing Skills Assessment, covering skills learned from LVN coursework or equivalent military training. This assessment verifies that an applicant retained competency from their LVN coursework/military training. If an applicant does not pass the Assessment, he/she cannot be admitted to this program, and must seek admission to one of our other BSN programs, if desired.  More information is provided regarding the assessment via a separate link from our main LVN to BSN Program Web page.
    • If an applicant's skills are not adequate, Licensed Vocational Nurses may choose/need to pursue our Traditional BSN program instead of our LVN to BSN, or complete an LVN to RN step-up program at another regionally-accredited institution and then enter CSU San Marcos for our RN to BSN or RN to MSN programs.
  • In addition to completion of the required entrance requirements and the actual LVN to BSN Nursing course work, students will also need to complete any outstanding CSU GE and Cal State San Marcos graduation requirements, as outlined under "Additional Graduation Requirements" below, in order to graduate with the BSN degree. Students may have already completed some or all of these entry requirements, below, but if students have completed 70 or more units in a community college, they may want to complete any outstanding Pre-Nursing Core and support courses at CSU San Marcos (CSUSM) to possibly avoid taking unnecessary electives. Your Community College Counselor can assist you in making this decision.