Grades: Division of Health Sciences

Tuesday, December 1, 2009 - 12:45 AM

The Division of Health Sciences offers the following undergraduate degrees: speech pathology and audiology, community health sciences, nursing and social work.

Click here to read the entire special report on grades.

In the spring 2009 semester, the Division of Health Sciences gave 58 percent of undergraduate A’s, the University of Nevada, Reno’s second-highest percentage.

“I’m more concerned about success and retention of undergraduate students in college than I am about the grades,” John McDonald, vice president for the Division of Health Sciences, said.
The division has a heterogeneous student population, McDonald said. “There are some students who declare for a major in what used to be health ecology, now community health sciences, as freshmen. Others are pre-majors. So we have pre-social work and pre-nursing.”

The Division of Health Sciences is comprised of four programs of study: The School of Community Health Sciences (formerly Health Ecology), School of Medicine, Orvis School of Nursing and the School of Social Work. McDonald said each has rigorous admission standards.

“This most recent class that was accepted required almost a 3.7 grade point average to get into nursing school,” McDonald said. “That’s in the basic science core of courses. So you’re starting with a group of students who have already demonstrated their ability to perform at a very high level.”

As is relatively common throughout the university, grading rigor in any school is subjective and depends on the professor.

“(The grading rigor) depends on the courses you’re taking,” Priscilla Acosta, a 22-year-old community health sciences major, said. “There are courses that are more analytical. Those are the courses that students will complain about the most. Then you have integrated health in which the grading on that is more subjective. It’s not an easy A.”

Chris Gabriel can be reached at news@nevadasagebrush.com.