ADMISSION REQUIREMENTS

Educational opportunities are offered by the Dallas County Community College District without regard to race, color, age, national origin, religion, sex, or disability.

Applicants to the Vocational Nursing Program must meet college admission requirements as outlined in the El Centro College Catalog. Applicants who have not finished high school must have earned a General Education Development (GED) certificate before applying for admission to the Vocational Nursing Program.

If you are not currently enrolled in El Centro College, please contact the college Admissions Office (214.860.2311) to complete an application for college admission, or using your Internet browser, download and print a DCCCD college application for admission form. Adobe Acrobat must be installed on your computer to download this form.

• Attendance at a program information session
• Achievement of minimum scores on reading comprehension and mathematics assessment testing, including TASP.
• Completion of the program prerequisite courses with a minimum cumulative grade point average of 2.5 or higher on those specific courses
• Transfer credits from colleges and universities outside the United States
• Meet academic "Fresh Start" requirements if appropriate
• Submission of a complete application packet to the Health Occupations Admissions Office during a designated filing period.
• Admission to the Vocational Nursing Program is made without regard to race, color, age, ethnic origin, religion/creed, gender/sex, marital status, veteran status or disability. There is a specific selection process.

All prospective students must achieve minimum assessment scores in reading comprehension and math skills. Students who are TASP exempt through previous coursework (including English and Math courses), previous degrees, or the "B or Better" provision ARE NOT EXEMPT from reading comprehension and math assessment testing for application to the Vocational Nursing program.

A testing referral slip from the El Centro College Health Occupations Admissions Office (Room A140) is required. An appointment to test is not necessary, but please contact the Assessment Center at 214.860.2178 for hours of operation. For further assistance regarding assessment testing, please consult the Health Occupations Admissions Office (214.860.2242).

Students may present any combination of the following reading and math tests with the designated minimum scores to fulfill the assessment testing requirement.

Various assessment tests and the minimum acceptable scores for each:

If the applicant does not achieve minimum required scores on the retest, the applicant must complete one of the following options to be granted a third and final testing opportunity during that application filing period. The three options are:

• enrolling in developmental coursework
• submit documented proof of obtaining tutoring
• enrolling in the Continuing Education course "College Fresh Start" which grants access to the College Learning Center for self-remediation utilizing computer programs, video/audio tapes, etc.

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TASP

Effective fall 1989, the Texas Legislature mandated that all new students entering Texas public colleges and universities be tested for basic skills proficiency (reading, writing, and math). In most cases, a degree or certificate cannot be awarded until a student has passed the Texas Academic Skills Program (TASP).

Students who have not earned at least three (3) credit hours of college-level coursework prior to Fall 1989, and who have not passed all sections of TASP, are considered "TASP vulnerable". It is in the student's best interests to resolve TASP issues prior to applying to the program. A student cannot be awarded a degree or certificate of completion for a Health Occupations program until TASP requirements are satisfied.

Assessment testing requirements does not reflect complete TASP policies or procedures instituted by the College or the State of Texas. Passing TASP is not required to apply to the program. However, if developmental coursework is required and the student is accepted into the program, the developmental coursework is added to the student's courseload. Developmental course requirements fall under the jurisdiction of the College Counseling Office. To determine your TASP status, please see a counselor in the College Counseling Center (214.860.2084).

The student must have satisfied TASP requirements to be awarded a certificate of completion from the program and be allowed to take the NCLEX-PN licensing exam.
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Applicants must achieve a minimum of a 2.5 GPA on the prerequisite courses to be eligible to make application. Applicants must also achieve an overall GPA of 2.0 or higher on a 4.0 system to be eligible for program acceptance. Developmental course grades are not included in the overall GPA calculation.
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Transfer credit from colleges and universities outside the United States will be considered only for science and math coursework (I.E. anatomy/physiology) if completed less than five years prior to program admission.

Before foreign credentials will be considered for transfer credit, the student must arrange the evaluation of transcripts and related documentation by a professional evaluation agency. The student is responsible for all costs of the evaluation and translation of foreign credentials. Students are advised that this process is sometimes quite lengthy and expensive.

After the professional evaluation is complete, the student must then submit the original documentation and a certified English translation to the Health Occupations Admissions Office. Evaluations of foreign credentials completed by individuals or professional evaluation agencies are subject to review and approval by the Health/Legal and Continuing/ Workforce Education Division and the Director of Admissions and Registrar.

The Health Occupations Admissions Office reserves the right to deny transfer credit of courses completed outside the US regardless of whether the coursework was accepted by other US colleges and universities
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Applicants with coursework over ten years old who wish to have that transcripted work ignored under the "Academic Fresh Start" provision should petition the Registrar in writing for that consideration. If approved, the transcript need not be submitted, however, a copy of the Registrar's letter granting the "Academic Fresh Start" consideration should be submitted with the vocational nursing application.

Academic Fresh Start is not recommended for all students. Please discuss this option thoroughly with a college counselor before petitioning for this consideration
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An applicant to the Vocational Nursing Program must compile all of the materials listed below and submit the materials in a 9x12 envelope to the Health Occupations Admissions Office at El Centro College on or before the application filing deadline. Incomplete packets will be returned to the applicant.

Note that this process is separate from applying for general admission to the college. If you are not currently enrolled at El Centro College, please contact the college Admissions Office to complete an application for college admission.

The application packet must include:

1. A completed Vocational Nursing Program application form (available at the information session).
   
   
2. The signed "Statement of Student's Responsibility" form (included with the application form).
   
   
3. Assessment test scores indicating successful achievement of minimum reading and math scores with the date of testing on the score sheet.
   
   
4. A photocopy of the catalog course descriptions of courses taken outside of DCCCD colleges which apply to the Vocational Nursing curriculum and which the student seeks to transfer to this program. Course descriptions must be copied from the college catalog which was in effect the semester the course was completed. Course numbers must match the transcript and must be clearly marked on the photocopy. Do not mark or highlight courses on transcripts. No course descriptions are required for courses completed at DCCCD campuses.
   
   
5. A copy of a high school transcript, high school diploma or GED certificate.
   
   
6. One (1) official transcript all colleges previously attended, including Dallas County Community College District (DCCCD) colleges.
   
   Official transcripts must be submitted with the application packet regardless of whether or not the applicant has previously submitted official transcripts to other campuses within the DCCCD.
   
   Official transcripts are required although those documented courses may not directly apply to the Vocational Nursing curriculum. Failure to present all official transcripts will invalidate the application packet.
   

   NOTE: Grade reports, official or unofficial degree plans, memos from instructors, and other such documents will not be accepted as substitutes for official transcripts. Only courses reflected on official transcripts with a minimum grade of "C" or higher will be considered as completed.

   Students enrolled in courses during an application filing period who will be able to complete those courses before the designated filing deadline should hold their application packet until all courses they wish considered for program credit are completed and an official transcript is obtained, verifying the grade(s) earned. Application packets submitted during a filing period are considered complete for that filing period and additional coursework will not be added to a previously submitted valid packet.
   

• Allow 6-8 weeks to receive official transcripts from colleges outside the DCCCD.
  
  
• If you have taken courses at more than one college in the DCCCD, only one DCCCD transcript is needed. Allow at least one week to receive an official DCCCD transcript.
  
  
• All science courses submitted for transfer credit must be completed no more than five years prior to program admission to the Vocational Nursing Program. Vocational Nursing courses submitted for transfer credit are evaluated on an individual basis.

  SPECIAL NOTATION REGARDING OFFICIAL TRANSCRIPTS

  If a college or university outside the DCCCD will not release an official transcript directly to the student, the transcript must be mailed directly to Linda Anderson at the address in this packet.

  If the transcripts have previously been mailed to the El Centro College Registrar's Office, the student should request a stamped photocopy of their transcript from the Registrar's Office to include with their nursing application materials.

  Please note that the student is solely responsible for ensuring that his/her transcripts are received in the Health Occupations Admissions Office by the filing deadline. Therefore, it is to the student's advantage to obtain transcripts personally if at all possible for submission with the rest of the application materials.

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All of the assessment testing and application requirements must be met before an applicant may submit an application packet for admission to the program.

The complete application packet should be submitted to the El Centro College Health Occupations Admissions Office (Room A-140) on or before the application filing period deadline. Early submission of an application during a specific filing period does not influence ranking for admission.

Please note that this process is separate from applying for general admission to the college. If you are not currently enrolled, please contact the college Admissions Office to complete an application for college admission.

The application filing period for Vocational Nursing is: January 1 - May 31
Students will be notified of acceptance by June 15.

A student who receives an acceptance letter must return a confirmation form to the designated Health Occupations Admissions personnel within a specified time frame to accept their space in the class. Failure to return the confirmation by the specified date or failure to attend the scheduled preregistration/orientation seminar for the accepted class will result in forfeiture of the student's space in that class.

Late Application Filing:
Should any space remain in the class after the initial selection procedure outlined above, late applications received June 1 - July 15 will be rank ordered to fill the remaining spaces. Students selected from the late application pool will be notified of acceptance status usually via telephone after July 15. Spaces remaining in the fall class after this second selection procedure will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis up until the first class day of the Fall semester.

NOTE: Applications are not "held over", therefore, students who are not selected for admission the semester for which they apply must resubmit their application during the next filing period for the next admission opportunity. There is no "waiting list" for the Vocational Nursing Program.
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Acceptance to the Vocational Nursing program is via a competitive selection process based on grade point average of prerequisite courses. By submitting complete application materials, potential applicants are expected to be familiar with the application requirements and process.

Applicants will be selected for admission to the Vocational Nursing Program according to the following competitive ranking process:

1. Applicants are listed by grade point average (GPA) on the three prerequisite courses from highest (i.e. 4.0) to lowest (2.5). A minimum of a 2.5 GPA is required on the three prerequisite courses.
   
   
2. When two or more applicants have the same GPA on the prerequisite courses, the total number of required general education support courses are listed from highest number of credit hours completed (i.e. 9 hours) to lowest (i.e. 0 hours).
   
   
3. When two or more applicants have the same GPA on the prerequisite courses and the same number of required general education support course credit hours completed, the overall GPA on the required support courses is used to rank order applicants.
   
   
4. When two or more applicants have the same GPA on the prerequisite courses, the same number of required general education support courses completed, and the same GPA on the general education support courses, the date of orientation will be used to rank order applicants.
   
   Admission to the Vocational Nursing Program is made without regard to race, color, age, ethnic origin, religion/creed, gender/sex, marital status, veteran status or disability.

EXAMPLE OF ADMISSION PRIORITY

	GPA on Prerequisites	Number of Hours of General Education	GPA on General Education	Orientation Date
Applicant #1	4.0
Applicant #2	3.4	7
Applicant #3	3.4	6
Applicant #4	2.9	9	3.22
Applicant #5	2.9	9	2.78	03/13/02
Applicant #6	2.9	6	2.78	04/21/02

If there were only five spaces available for admission, Applicants #1 through #5 would be accepted.

5. Applicants may improve their ranking by:

• Repeating one or more of the four prerequisite courses to earn a higher grade point average
• Completing additional support course hours
• Earning a high grade point average on the support courses.

Note: The decision to repeat a successfully completed course (i.e., a prerequisite course or required general education support course completed with a grade of "C" or higher) in order to improve an applicant's ranking rests solely with the applicant. The last grade earned is considered the grade of record.
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