No. There is no quota or priority given to Ontario applicants for Compressed Nursing; however, applicants must provide proof of registration and good standing with the College of Nurses of Ontario (CNO).

No. Applicants can have completed their university education at any accredited university.

No. The Undergraduate Admissions Office can only provide information about admission requirements. We suggest that students reach out to academic advising at their home institution/faculty, particularly regarding course registration questions.

No. The Undergraduate Admissions Office does not pre-evaluate educational backgrounds prior to receiving a formal online application submitted through the Ontario Universities Application Centre (OUAC).

Yes. To be eligible to apply to the RPN Stream B, you must have completed an accredited Canadian two-year Practical Nursing diploma program with a minimum average of 75% and a competitive overall average as calculated by the Undergraduate Admissions Office.

Yes. Applicants to the RPN Stream B must not only meet the minimum academic requirements, but you must also have completed the equivalent of two years of full-time RPN experience (3,640 hours) in Canada. This work experience must be verified by your employer(s) as part of the application evaluation process.

Once the Undergraduate Admissions Office has received your formal application from the OUAC, you will gain access to a personalized To Do List of required items you will need to submit as part of your application. This To Do List will be posted to your Student Center, and on it, there will be a link to the Verification of Employment Hours form. Completed forms are submitted to the School of Nursing for collection and verification, not to the Undergraduate Admissions Office.

Applicants must meet both the Practical Nursing GPA academic minimums and the minimum hours of RPN work to be eligible for consideration. If you will not have completed 3,640 hours of work as an RPN/LPN in Canada by January 15th in the year seeking May entry to this stream, we recommend that you take the next year to continue to gain work experience and then apply in the following admissions cycle.

You can apply through the Ontario Universities Application Centre (OUAC). Applications typically open by early October for admission in May of the following year. The OUAC program code for the RPN Stream B is ENB.

No. We do not issue alternate offers to other streams of the CTF BScN program or to the Direct Entry BScN program if you are ineligible for the stream/program to which you have applied. Admission requirements differ for each stream of Compressed Nursing and for the Direct Entry BScN program, so you are responsible for reviewing the admission requirements for each stream and program and ensuring that you have applied to a stream for which you are eligible. If you have applied to the wrong stream, you can return to your OUAC account and change your program choices as long as the application deadline has not passed. Program choices cannot be changed once the application has closed.

The deadline to submit an application through the OUAC is December 1 for May entry in the next calendar year.

No. As of the 2024/25 application cycle, the Casper test offered through Acuity Insights is not required for applicants to any of the three streams of the Compressed Time Frame BScN program.

No. To be eligible to apply to this stream, you must have completed an accredited Practical Nursing diploma program in Canada. If you completed prior Nursing studies outside of Canada, you may be eligible to apply for first-year entry to our 3.5-year Direct Entry BScN program, which you can learn more about here. If your prior Nursing studies were a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BScN) program, you may be eligible to apply to the Regular Stream of Compressed Nursing, which you can learn about here.

Applicants must meet the minimum published requirements for the program in order to be considered for admission. To receive an offer of admission, applicants not only need to meet the minimum requirements but will also need to have a competitive average as calculated by Western’s Undergraduate Admissions Office. If you do not meet the 75% minimum average requirement, the best opportunity to improve your chances for the RPN Stream B would be to look at taking upgrade courses that are part of the RPN diploma program. With these courses completed, you can improve your chances. Please connect with the institution where you completed your Practical Nursing diploma in order to assess the possibility of taking these courses.

RPN Stream B Compressed Nursing is a competitive program with limited enrollment; possession of the minimum requirements should not be viewed as a guarantee of admission. We can't confirm from cycle to cycle what the competitive requirement will be, but we recommend students aim for their RPN program grades to be in the 80s to be competitive for admission to this program. What constitutes a competitive average varies from year to year, depending on the number of seats available in the program, along with the size and academic strength of the applicant pool in the year you apply.

Maybe. Nursing requires a higher degree of English proficiency due to the clinical placements in the program and the importance of these interactions. Applicants whose first language is not English and/or who have completed post-secondary education outside of North America should be prepared to provide proof of English language proficiency. We do not determine if this will be required prior to receiving a formal application to our program. When the Undergraduate Admissions Office has received your application, it will be determined at that time if proof of English proficiency is required. If it is, it will be included on the personalized To Do List of required items that will be created for you and posted to your Western Student Center.

The following are acceptable tests for Western’s Nursing programs and the minimum scores you need to achieve:

• TOEFL: 580 paper-based; 237 computer-based and TSE (Test of Spoken English) 50 or greater; Internet-based-total score of 92-93, with 22-24 in Writing, 26 in Speaking, 20 in Reading, and 20 in Listening.
• IELTS Academic: 7 Overall, with at least 6.5 in Reading and Listening, and at least 7 in Writing and Speaking.
• Duolingo: 135 Overall, with at least 130 in Literacy and no other sub-scores below 125.

Applicants are encouraged to write an acceptable test at the earliest possible date and at the latest by January in the year seeking admission. Scores for any test written more than two years prior to applying will not be accepted.