Progression in the Program

A student is making reasonable progress in the program if he or she receives a B- or better in all required courses, the student’s overall GPA is 3.0 or above, and the student successfully completes the relevant required program level examinations in the respective program at the time these examinations occur; i.e., Candidacy Examinations, PhD Final Oral Examination, DNP Professional Examination, and M.S. in Nursing Comprehensive Examination.* A student who fails a program level examination is considered to be making insufficient progress in the program and will be issued an academic progression warning letter from the Graduate School stipulating that the examination must be retaken and passed in order to reestablish satisfactory progression in the program.

Program level examinations may be retaken one time only. Students may not progress to any subsequent required Nursing courses or undertake other subsequent program requirements for which the program level examination is a prerequisite, until the program level examination has been successfully completed.

All course prerequisites must be met in order to progress to next courses in the program. Students in the College of Nursing are expected to meet the Ohio Board of Nursing (OBN) requirements as listed in the Ohio Administrative Code as a condition for satisfactory progression in the program. A student who has not successfully completed a clinical course due to unsafe clinical practice is not eligible to progress to next clinical courses until remediation has been successfully completed. Remediation may not be done concurrently with any subsequent clinical course.

Many of the required courses in the College of Nursing are only offered once per year. Enrollment in courses is on a space-available basis. If it becomes necessary for a student to repeat a course, this may require waiting a full year before the course can be repeated.

* The Ohio State University Graduate School approved a proposal allowing students to opt in to receive a pass/no pass instead of a letter grade in graded, graduate level courses taken during the Spring 2020 semester only. This decision was made to ease the transition to virtual classes and to support students during the COVID-19 pandemic.  The progression policy was expanded for students taking coursework in Spring 2020 only, to allow a student to progress in the program with a mark of Pass in coursework. For Spring 2020 only, either a grade of B- or higher, or the mark of Pass, will allow students to progress in the academic program.