Sunday, July 10, 2016

Recommendation from Online Instructors

Is it possible to get letters of recommendation from an online instructor? Yes! I recently requested letters of recommendation from three professors, two of them being from online course instructors and at least one agreed to submit a letter of recommendation on my behalf! Honestly the interactions (at least for me) in an online course is almost identical to that of a brick-and-mortar course. The main difference obviously is the mode of communication but it goes to show that the quality of the interaction is more important than the type. As long as you "stand out" in some way the instructor can remember you. It also doesn't hurt that I received an A in the course either. I am kind of relieved because I have been very hesitant about requesting a letter of recommendation from my place of employment. It's not that I think a recommendation from my job would be bad or anything (in fact it would probably be very good I think) it just seems so awkward requesting recommendation from my employer when acceptance into the program could mean my potential resignation as well as me "spilling the beans" before I am ready to.

I was accepted...

but I was accepted into Lehman's generic nursing program, not the accelerated. I wasn't exactly surprised especially since everything I have heard and read up to now indicated that I needed roughly a 4.0 GPA in my prerequisite in order to gain admission into the accelerated program. In any event I decided to postpone/defer my application for Fall 2017. This will give me enough time to get some things in order (like finances and childcare), as well as put in my application for SUNY Downstate accelerated program for summer 2017. I really would rather do an accelerated program anyway but if the generic is all that is available to me, I would have to accept. At least I was accepted somewhere and the generic program may allow me to work part time and/or during the summer.

SUNY Downstate Accelerated Nursing Program

The SUNY Downstate application is massive! In addition to letters of recommendations, I need to take the  TEAS V exam, complete a personal statement and upload a whole bunch of stuff like transcripts, resume, etc. Volunteer experience seems like a big deal as well but I simple don't have any (at least not recent experience) so I am hoping that my long term work experience, even though its non-healthcare related, would suffice. I am also planning to get BLS certification (which I would need anyway as a nursing student) so at least I have something "medical" to include in my application. My plans to do EKG/phlebotomy training may be on hold because honestly its costly and I already have to pay for HIN 269 which I am taking in the Fall at Lehman as well as register for TEAS V exam, which is $115! That's over $1000 for both course and exam (not including books for the course) and all of this I am paying for out of pocket! EKG/phlebotomy is certainly not necessary for entrance into nursing school but I don't think these skills are stressed upon in nursing school. I do NOT want to be the nurse who continually pokes my patients with a needle because I don't know what I am doing (I had a nurse like that before and let's just say it wasn't pretty).