All undergraduates at Case Western Reserve must complete the SAGES Program and the physical education requirement, in addition to school-specific general education requirements based on the school of his or her major.
Course credit earned by Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, proficiency examinations, and transfer credit may be used to satisfy School of Nursing general education requirements.
NOTE: Any student who wishes to declare nursing and hasn’t already done so must do so by Aug. 1.
General Education Requirements
(minimum of 10 three- or four-credit-hour courses, totaling at least 30 credit-hours)
Natural and Mathematical Sciences (18 credit-hours)
1. Mathematical Reasoning and Analysis (three credit-hours)
- ANTH 319, PSCL 282, or STAT 201, with a grade of C or better1
2. Natural Sciences (15 credit-hours)
- BIOL 114
- BIOL 116
- BIOL 117
- CHEM 119
- CHEM 121
Breadth (12 credit-hours)
1. SOCI 203 or approved course in human growth and development, with a grade of C or better
2. Nine credit-hours comprised of three- or four-credit-hour courses outside of the areas of nursing, natural science, and mathematics offered by the College of Arts and Sciences; the Case School of Engineering; the Weatherhead School of Management; the Jack, Joseph, and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences; the School of Medicine Department of Bioethics; the Cleveland Institute of Music; or the Cleveland Institute of Art. Other courses approved by the School of Nursing BSN faculty are also acceptable. The selection of courses to satisfy this requirement should be done in consultation with the student's academic advisor(s) and the assigned university navigator.
1A student who successfully completes one of these courses is not eligible to enroll in any of the other three.
One of the unique characteristics of the CWRU nursing program is that students gain clinical experience in their first year. In light of this, nursing students have very specific knowledge sets and experiences that they must include in each semester schedule. You will see that your first-year schedule is very structured. You will be involved in clinicals, nursing courses, biology and chemistry courses, SAGES seminars, physical education (including the required CPR/first-aid course), and breadth requirement courses. The following schedule development recommendations are based on the assumption that students have not earned any college credit as a result of AP or IB test scores or transfer credit. Students with AP or IB credit should consult the AP and IB Course Equivalences sections to determine appropriate course placement. For example, students with an AP Biology score of 4 or 5 should not enroll in BIOL 114; those with an AP score of 4 will earn credit for BIOL 114, while those with an AP score of 5 will get credit for BIOL 200-TR and will be able to count this in place of BIOL 114 and use it as a prerequisite for subsequent courses.
For more information about the Bachelor of Science in Nursing program in the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing, please visit bulletin.case.edu/schoolofnursing/bsn.
Schedule development instructions:
- Nursing students will be pre-registered for their first-semester nursing and biology courses (noted with an asterisk [*] below) prior to course registration. Do not drop or replace these courses. Only students with AP, IB or transfer credit for the first-semester biology courses may select replacement courses.
- Students should make course selections in the following areas for the fall semester, keeping in mind that pre-registered biology and nursing courses will occupy certain time blocks during which other classes cannot be scheduled:
- Arts and Humanities or Social Sciences breadth requirements
- Physical Education activity course(s) or varsity sport (Nursing students who participate in varsity sports will be assigned the nursing academic advisor who specifically attends to nursing athletes.)
- During the fall semester, students will work with their advisor to register for the required nursing, biology, and chemistry courses for the spring semester and to make course selections in the following areas:
- University Seminar selection
- Physical Education activity course(s) or varsity sport
- Any student who wishes to declare nursing and hasn’t already done so must do so by Aug. 1.
| Fall Semester | Credit Hours | Spring Semester | Credit Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| SAGES First Seminar | 4 | SAGES University Seminar | 3 |
| NURS 115 – Fundamentals of Nursing* | 4 | NURS 120 – Nursing Informatics I: Intro | 2 |
| BIOL 114 – Principles of Biology* | 3 | NURS 122 – Nursing Assessment | 3 |
| BIOL 116 – Introduction to Human Anatomy and Physiology I* | 3 | NURS 160 – Community Engagement Seminar I | 1 |
| Arts & Humanities or Social Sciences course | 3-4 | NURS 201 – Applied Nutrition in Health & Disease | 2 |
| NURS 277 – BCLS and First Aid for Health Care Providers* (as one half-semester of PHED credit) | 0 | BIOL 117 – Introduction to Human Anatomy and Physiology II | 3 |
| CHEM 119 – Concepts for a Molecular View of Biology | 3 | ||
| PHED activity course(s) or varsity sport | 0 | ||
| Total Hours | 17-18 | Total Hours | 17 |
NOTE: Students with credit for a course have the option of using that credit as a prerequisite and registering for a higher-level course or forfeiting their credit and repeating the course for a grade at CWRU. Students who choose either option may make changes to their enrollment during the first two weeks of the semester (drop/add period) should they discover that the course in which they originally enrolled is not at the appropriate level. Students may find it more manageable to change to lower-level course after beginning at the higher level.