BGSU nursing students may be taking all their classes at the rival Rockets’ school, but they are still Falcons.

In 2006, the former Medical University of Ohio merged with the University of Toledo to create the UT Health Science campus.

Students start out at BGSU or UT in a pre-nursing program for two years and then they apply to the UT nursing program and upon acceptance they take all of their classes at the UT Health Science Campus.

The program is highly competitive; students must have a 2.5 GPA in order to apply to the program, but the past couple years the GPA’s have been so high that the lowest GPA to get in this year was a 3.3, said Jessica Clifford, BGSU academic adviser of pre-nursing.

‘Students with only a 2.5 should not expect to get in,’ Clifford said.

Both BGSU and UT pre-nursing students compete for about 175 available spots in the nursing program, said Clifford.

Susan Batten, assistant dean of undergraduate studies for UT’s College of Nursing, said admission into the UT nursing program is based solely on GPA.

‘If 100 BG students and 100 UT students apply, then the highest GPAs between the both of them determine who gets in,’ Batten said. ‘It varies from year to year, but this year we had around 60 BG students and 116 UT Students.’

Not only is getting into the program difficult, so are the classes, said senior BGSU nursing student Michelle Jacobs.

‘The first semester of nursing school I never watched TV or left my apartment for five weeks,’ Jacobs said. ‘The program is very difficult and intense, but worth it in the end.’

The grading scale for nursing school is not the same as the average class at BGSU; any class grade below a 76 percent is failing.

Jacobs said, the grading scale is what makes nursing school difficult, but it is fair.

‘A lot of people complain that a 75 [percent] is a failing grade, but do you want a nurse that just barely passes nursing school,’ Jacobs said.

Students can fall behind in the program quickly if they fail a single class, Jacobs said.

‘If you don’t pass one class, it is only offered once a year,’ Jacobs said. ‘So, before you can move on [and take more classes] you have to wait to retake the class again because every class is a pre-requisite for the later classes.’

All students in the nursing program have the same facilities, classes and faculty, but the BGSU students will graduate with a degree from BGSU, Clifford said.

‘They are two different universities,’ Clifford said. ‘You have the small college atmosphere here, versus the University of Toledo. Once admitted into the nursing program both students have to commute to the health science campus, so it’s not like the Toledo students are staying on main campus. One benefit of our program is we have a lower enrollment in the pre-nursing program here, so students get more individualized attention.’

Clifford said the merger between MUO and UT, only changed one thing, the name.

Senior BGSU nursing student Erin Bugos said the program was unorganized last year, but the program is getting better this year.

‘It’s a work in progress,’ Bugos said. ‘It definitely has its highs, but there are times when it lacks organization within the administration. I think the past few years have been a transition period and I feel like our class has been the guinea pigs.’

Curt Westrick, senior BGSU nursing student, said in retrospect it would have been easier to enroll in UT’s pre-nursing program because of all the little things BGSU students had to do such as, getting a UT e-mail address.

‘It wasn’t a smooth transition,’ Westrick said. ‘It felt like I was transferring. There were just more additional steps for BG students.’

Westrick said he moved to Toledo this year because the commute to school was too long.

‘I was losing a lot of time in transit,’ Westrick said. ‘I was losing about four or five hours a week and with a tight schedule of classes and two jobs, that was a lot.’

He said he likes living in Toledo now and he would rather drive the distance from Bowling Green to Toledo for his social life than for class.

Bugos lived in Toledo last year and moved back to Bowling Green this year because she said it didn’t feel like a college town.

‘My neighbors were families and there were not many people around me studying or doing school related things,’ Bugos said. ‘I’m more focused in Bowling Green ‘hellip; It was already scary going into nursing school in general, but living in Toledo added to that stress.’