Saturday, April 26, 2014

SUNY Downstate Information Session

Earlier this week I attended an information session of the accelerated bachelors of nursing program at SUNY Downstate and despite a lot of the information I have obtained prior to the session via the school's website and email correspondence with Admissions, I found it very informative. I realize through the information session though that I really have to put my game face on. First of all, Downstate only admits 60 students to the program every year but receive as many as 500 applications yearly to the accelerated BSN program alone. Also cumulative GPA from student's first degree may carry more weight than I had hoped (although the science GPA carries a significant amount of weight as well) so I am a little nervous of how competitive my GPA from my first degree of 3.2 would be. I just started taking my science prerequisites this semester and I must say that Anatomy and Physiology 1 is kicking my butt! It doesn't help that I am taking the course online either. I am doing OK up to this point though (my overall grade to date is in the B+ to A- range) but for the first time since taking prerequisites I do not know if I will be getting an A for this course and I still have 3 more sciences to go (Anatomy and Physiology 2, Microbiology, and General Chemistry). In the past a B+ would have been fine but now, especially since my previous GPA may not be that competitive, I need all A's. It was also recommended that those without healthcare experience do some volunteer work. Now honestly I had no intentions of volunteering because I felt that with all of my other responsibilities (full time job, 3 kids, school, etc.), I didn't want to be bothered but if I want to show how serious I am about a potential nursing career I may have to reconsider, even if its just a couple of hours a week for a few months. I am already planning on doing a CNA (certified nurse assistant) course so it may not be as hard as I think but I will have to do the volunteer thing prior to initiating CNA training. I also found out that getting letters of recommendation from my employers would be acceptable which is great since I do not know how letters of recommendations would work for online courses (my previous degree was completed well over a decade ago so that is not an option for me). My only concern with requesting letters of recommendations from my managers is that I would have to reveal, at least partially, my intentions of resigning my job if accepted which may be awkward but I do have a good reputation at work and I am generally well liked by managers so it may not be as bad as I anticipate.