Hi! I’m a current junior looking at schools right now. For some background, I am a Massachusetts resident with about a 4.2 gpa weighted and 1490 SAT score. I am primarily looking at Lowell as a back up to Amherst (which I have heard has the better nursing program and a better reputation). I visited the school (only the south campus) and was pleasantly surprised with the facilities, especially the newer health sciences building. However, neither the tour guide nor the person who gave the info session (some sort of admission officer) could answer my specific questions about the nursing program:
What is the acceptance rate (around) and what are the average stats of nursing admits?
Where do clinicals take place (this is the most important question for me)?
How many clinical hours are part of the program?
What is the NCLEX passrate?
Does anyone know the answers to these questions?
Additionally, I didn’t get the chance to meet with a nursing student so I didn’t get to hear any personal accounts of the program or get a true “feel for” for the program and the type of students who attend. Does anyone have any experience with this program or know of anyone who attends/attended?
Hi @massstudent1224 We found that the tour guides at most schools did not know nursing specific info so you need to call the nursing school directly to get needed information. The NCLEX pass rate for Lowell was 96 percent in 2018. Good luck
Last year we were told that they do clinicals in three locations and a student requests their preference: Larger Lowell area, Boston area and Worcester area.
You can reach out directly to the nursing school and ask your questions.
@massstudent1224 My daughter is from MA and committed to UMass Lowell (UML) nursing, and also looked at UMass Amherst and other regional, direct-entry nursing programs. She has a few friends from high school who are currently in the UML nursing program and has received very positive feedback from them as well. UML was not on her list originally, but the more she learned and visited, the more she though it was the right fit for her. She/we learned a lot on visits during accepted student days when we got to chat with both students and profs. The accepted student class had an average GPA of 4.1 and SAT ~1250-1300 (I can’t remember the exact SAT number).
Based on those visits, she thought South campus is pretty, has nice views of the river, and a liberal arts feel with quads. On the South campus, they recently renovated a dedicated student center and cafeteria, the library (plus added a Starbucks), built the new Health Sciences Bldg (includes school of nursing), and created new suite-style dorms/apartments with dedicated fitness center, study rooms, and separate living learning communities for each year of nursing (with nursing faculty doing study sessions at the dorms, mentoring and year-specific activities), and a parking garage+lot that students can use right next to the dorm). The other positives for her included flexibility in curriculum for nursing-centric study abroad and a minor (she could apply up to 6 elective/common core classes to a minor).
The NCLEX scores were great (with no exit exam requirement), and many clinicals are nearby: many across the river at Lowell General, 20-25 min down Rt 3 at Lahey Clinic in Burlington, some chose Winchester Hospital or Emerson (in Concord), and of course several do Boston clinicals (via the commuter rail/driving). The clinical experiences start in sophomore year, but they also have dedicated sim labs for different disciplines and clinicals so you practice key procedures even if they don’t happen to occur during your clinical time - many students we talked to especially liked those labs since they build confidence and also count for clinical time. Other student feedback included good support for studying and tutoring in the student services center at Weed Hall (many spend a lot of time there for A&P, etc.), profs that enjoy working with student outside of class, and also the UML honors college events and support (which also happens to be on South campus). All of those are geared toward not only helping on the academic side but managing stress and anxiety. They also have many “therapy animals” around campus - Ben the therapy dog seemed to be everywhere on South campus. She also heard good feedback about the UML nursing program/students from physicians and NP’s at Lahey Clinic and MGH. Although it sounds like school reputation alone doesn’t count for as much as we previously thought - passing NCLEX and having connections via clinicals seem to be the main drivers to landing that first job.
It sounds like you have stellar credentials, so you should have a nice selection of nursing school options at this time next year. Best of luck and don’t forget to have some fun during the process!
