Tips for next year's HS seniors

College Majors Nursing Major
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<p>Let’s start a thread to give tips to next year’s batch of nursing applicants….things we’ve learned from the process, things we wish we knew before, etc.</p>

<p>My #1 piece of advice is: make sure you apply early to any school with rolling admissions. By early, I mean as soon as the school starts accepting applications. Nursing programs fill up quickly!</p>

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<h1>2: Read the other posts in this forum and apply to direct entry nursing programs wherever possible.</h1>

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<h1>3: Look at NCLEX-RN pass rates of all the schools that you’re interested in.</h1>

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<p>Apply early, and also MAKE SURE your transcripts, recs, and test scores are sent early. If your file isn’t complete, they won’t look at it.</p>

<p>And for schools that are test optional, well they never are for their nursing applicants!</p>

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<h1>5: If you haven’t already, begin volunteering in a health care setting. Many schools look for this on your application and it will also give you a feel whether or not nursing is for you.</h1>

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<p>^ While this is a good tip, for many people, this isn’t possible. I know that for me it wasn’t an option even though I really wanted it to be.</p>

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<p>Really? That sucks, one of my colleges I applied to basically said that an applicant most likely won’t get in unless they’ve volunteered in a health care setting. I guess it all depends on where you live though.</p>

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<p>^ Yup. I know some schools like that too, but most don’t expect it.</p>

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<p>I wanted my daughter to do this, but all the volunteer opportunities had been taken at our local hospital last summer. Still, I thought she NEEDED to see what it was like to be in a hospital for hours at a time, under florescent lights, with no windows, and a lot of sick people coming sometimes from very pitiable conditions. It turned out that even though she couldn’t volunteer there, she could get a job there! It was through an outside contractor, not the hospital, and it was in the ER. Perfect. And she loved it.</p>

<p>So keep looking, there are many ways to get in at a hospital. Hopefully, not on an ambulance! Though that reminds me… you could also volunteer with the EMTs at your local fire station. Sometimes they have minimum age requirements, or minimum commitments, but it should be doable.</p>

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<p>You can often compensate for lack of healthcare experience with other community service participation. Many projects have some healthcare connection - volunteering in nursing homes, helping at blood drives, etc.</p>

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<h1>6 When you visit a college campus don’t just take the general tour, make an appointment with the nursing dept to tour the facilities and ask questions</h1>

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<p>my top ten

  1. know the admissions requirements. nursing criteria is generally higher than<br>
    the schools advertised info.
  2. apply early. major fills quick. know general size of each admitted class
  3. get a tour of the nursing department.
  4. do some kind of work related to the nursing field
  5. direct entry into a program
  6. know how many clinical hours a program has and proximity to them
  7. check the NCLEX historical pass rate. use as general guideline only.
  8. make sure you’ve had strong bio,anatomy,physiology,english and math
  9. talk to every nurse you see and ask them questions
  10. be prepared to have a structured more difficult workload in college with fewer free
    electives than most majors with clinical hours in the evening</p>
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<p>^ Or clinical hours early in the morning…that’s how my school is.</p>

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<p>ASK how many CLINICAL HOURS nursing students complete prior to graduation, and ASK if there is a LEVEL I TRAUMA CENTER where students can get clinical experience. It’s important that a program offer a large number of clinical experience hours and the option of completing nursing hours for the sake of getting good training, and a Level I trauma environment is a definite bonus.</p>

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<p>How many hours is considered adequate or beyond? My daughter is visiting several schools before the May 1 decision deadline and this is a good thing for her to know. Thanks.</p>

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<p>I would say that anything under 700 is too low. But over 800 is much better, and over 1000 is best. I am currently deciding between Pittsburgh (1300 clinical hours) and Villanova (840 clinical hours) and, if both financial offers are the same, I will likely end up selecting Pittsburgh due to the increased number of clinical hours offered.</p>

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<p>While number of clinical hours should not be the only consideration, more is definitely better. Case Western Reserve University has the most that I am aware of at 1600.
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/nursing-major/848769-information-case-westerns-nursing-program.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/nursing-major/848769-information-case-westerns-nursing-program.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Thanks for the replies. This info. is really helpful. I emailed one program and they never responded with an answer. Another school was vague and said it varies. Is it the norm that they should be able to give at least an approximation of clinical hours?</p>

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<p>If you insist on an answer they should be able to come up with a number. If not, I’d be very suspicious and enroll elsewhere. I have been told that it is one of the most expensive parts of a nursing education because the ratio of student-to-instructor is very low during the clinical portion.</p>

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<p>Hello. I am a high school junior looking to becoming a nurse. Does anybody know when the rolling admissions begin for California State University colleges?</p>

<p>I am mostly interested in these, and being too late would be my worst nightmare; all nursing programs are impacted in the state of California.</p>

<p>Thank you so much!</p>