A Pre-Health Advisor’s Guide to Nursing Prerequisites- What to tell pre-nursing students about prerequisites — and a trustworthy referral resource for the ones who are short a course or two.
| For advisors, in briefPre-nursing students typically need a cluster of science and general-education prerequisites — anatomy and physiology, microbiology, chemistry, English, statistics, and others — completed with a C or higher before applying to a nursing program. The most common advising challenge isn’t explaining the list; it’s helping students who are missing one or two courses, took them too long ago, or can’t fit a fixed campus schedule around work. This guide summarizes what to tell students and offers a regionally accredited, self-paced option you can confidently refer them to. |
As a pre-health advisor, you field the same prerequisite questions constantly — which courses a student needs, whether an old credit still counts, whether an online course will transfer, and how a working adult can finish a missing prerequisite without putting their life on hold. This guide is built for you: a concise reference on the nursing prerequisite landscape, plus the verified facts you need to confidently point students toward a self-paced completion option when that’s the right fit.
It pairs with the Pre-Health Advisor Toolkit, and is written advisor-to-advisor — no student-facing sales pitch, just the information you’d want before recommending any provider. For authoritative background on the profession, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) and the National League for Nursing (NLN) are useful references to share with students.
Nursing prerequisites vary by program, but the core set is consistent enough that you can give students a reliable starting framework while reminding them to confirm specifics with each target program. The common prerequisites fall into two groups:
The two facts students most often miss — and where your guidance matters most — are the grade floor (typically a C or higher, with competitive programs preferring B+) and the recency window on science courses (frequently 5 to 10 years). Those two rules drive most of the advising problems below.
Beyond explaining the list, most of your prerequisite conversations come down to three recurring student situations. Each one has a clean solution when a regionally accredited, self-paced option is available.
| Student situation | What they need |
|---|---|
| Short one or two prerequisites | A way to complete the missing course(s) quickly, without enrolling full-time or waiting for a campus section to open. |
| Prerequisites too old to count | To retake an expired science course to satisfy a program’s recency window — ideally on a flexible timeline. |
| Working adult / scheduling conflict | A self-paced format that fits around a job and family, so completing prerequisites doesn’t require quitting work. |
In all three cases, the student’s question to you is effectively the same: “Is there a legitimate, flexible way to complete this that my nursing program will accept?” Answering that confidently requires knowing what makes a provider’s credit transferable — which is the next section.
Before recommending any prerequisite provider, the question you’re really answering on a student’s behalf is whether the credit will transfer. The deciding factor is accreditation, and here are the facts you can rely on and pass along:
| The one-sentence version for students“Make sure any prerequisite you take comes from a regionally accredited institution, and confirm acceptance with your target nursing program before you enroll.” That single piece of advice protects students from the most common transfer mistake — and PrereqCourses.com’s courses, delivered through HLC-accredited Upper Iowa University, are built to meet that standard. |
Recommending a resource you can stand behind means being clear about its limits, too. Here’s an honest read on where a self-paced, online provider like PrereqCourses.com is the right referral, and where you should point students elsewhere.
Telling a student plainly when a resource isn’t the right fit builds the trust that makes your recommendation credible when it is. That honest framing is exactly how a referral resource earns a place in your advising toolkit.
Practically, here’s how this fits into a typical prerequisite conversation:
For a deeper treatment of the transfer-acceptance question specifically, see Online Prerequisite Acceptance: What Advisors Need to Know Before Recommending a Provider, and for building a repeatable office process, Building a Prerequisite Referral Workflow for Your Pre-Nursing Students.
What prerequisites do pre-nursing students most often need?
Anatomy and physiology I and II, microbiology, chemistry, English composition, statistics, and psychology/sociology are the common set. Specifics vary by program, so students should always confirm against each target program’s list.
What grade do students need in prerequisites?
Typically a C or higher, though competitive programs often prefer B+ or better and weigh prerequisite GPA heavily in ranked admissions. Advise students to aim above the minimum.
How do I know if an online prerequisite will transfer?
The key is regional accreditation. Credit from a regionally accredited institution is what nursing programs expect. PrereqCourses.com delivers credit through HLC-accredited Upper Iowa University. Students should still verify acceptance with their specific program.
When should I NOT recommend a self-paced online provider?
When a target program requires an in-person science lab, won’t accept online science prerequisites, or the student needs an upper-division course outside a foundation catalog. In those cases, direct students to a community college or four-year institution.
Is this a good fit for working adults and career changers?
Yes — the self-paced, online format is designed for students who can’t fit a fixed campus schedule around work and family, which is the most common situation behind a prerequisite gap.
What’s the single most important thing to tell students?
Take prerequisites from a regionally accredited institution and confirm acceptance with the target program before enrolling. That one rule prevents the most common and costly transfer mistake.
Most of your nursing prerequisite conversations come down to a student who’s missing a course, sitting on an expired one, or unable to fit a campus schedule around work. For those students, a regionally accredited, self-paced option is often the cleanest path forward. PrereqCourses.com delivers prerequisite credit through HLC-accredited Upper Iowa University, which makes it a referral you can stand behind — with the standard, honest caveat that students should verify acceptance, including any lab requirement, with their target program. When a program requires an in-person lab or won’t accept online science credit, point students to a local institution instead. That balanced guidance is what makes you a trusted advisor and the referral worth keeping in your toolkit.
Using the Pre-Health Advisor Toolkit? These advisor guides are the click-through destinations for the toolkit’s referral resources. Explore the companion pieces below, and reach out through PrereqCourses.com for advisor materials.
The rest of the advisor series:
Nursing prerequisite requirements, grade minimums, recency windows, online-coursework and online-lab acceptance, and accreditation details vary by institution and change over time. Accreditation facts cited here reflect each institution’s published status and should be re-verified before reliance. This guide is general information for advising purposes only and is not a guarantee of credit transfer or admission. Advise students to confirm requirements directly with the nursing programs they intend to apply to.
