Auburn BSN

[ucfknight]

Hey guys,

I am a out of state student looking to go to Auburn for a 2nd BSN. I understand they no longer have any accelerated program, but I am still interested in attending there.

Anyone who is in the program, or has any knowledge of it beyond the website information, can you share your thoughts? How competitive is it? The site says a 2.5 GPA is the requirement to apply, does that mean someone with a 3.1 would have a chance? It's easy to make a low application requirement to get more applicants (and money). If it means anything, I am a male applicant (though I hope that isn't a huge boost to be honest)...

Thanks for your help everyone.

[inactiveRN]

Augustnurse,

Could you clarify "it sucked?" Are you referring to the quality of your education? What were you comparing it to? I graduated from UABSON in the late 1980s. I transferred from Alabama because of the quality of the program at UAB was better. I have always felt that I received a great education. My friend that attended nursing school at Auburn had difficulty with the board exam. My, how things have changed.

The School of Nursing did not help me secure a job, but I was quickly hired at UAB. I believe that the nursing field is just saturated now, unlike when I entered the job market in the 1980's. Do you feel that if you had a degree from Bama or Auburn you would have better luck with obtaining a job? Did any of your friends secure jobs at UAB? It would seem they would give a slight preference to their own graduates. Any other information on the reputation of UAB's Nursing School would be appreciated.

I would still be interested in any information on Samford's School of Nursing also.

[Calalilynurse]

I didnt think I received a great education at all. Most of our teachers didn't like teaching. There was no in what they taught and what we were tested on. In first semester skills lab their were 5 or 6 instructors who taught 5 or 6 ways. then we were graded by someone who was not our teacher who would fail us for doing what we were taught. there was no consistency between what you had to to pass and what mistakes resulted in failure. for example, when i was in 1st semester you got two attempts to pass a validation ( now its three). if you didnt pass the last attempt no matter what your grade you recieved an F in the course. one of my classmates never passed a single one and graduated with my class while one of my friends failed twice because of inconsistency between teachers and was nearly kicked out of school. they spent more time making us do stupid clinical paperwork than giving us the opportunity to practice skills such as venipuncture and starting IVs. SO when my class entered our last semester of school it was the norm to have started between zero and two IVs. I graduated only having ever started ONE.

I graduated this August. I had about 100 people in my class. Only about 20 had a job. Only about four of those were where they precepted. I got my license two weeks ago I still cant get a job. I have only had two interviews since july and no job offers. I went to UAB and applied there several times and got one interview. the school and the hr department do nothing to help you. even though they hire a lot of students from other nursing schools. I have friend who worked for UAB for four years partime (24 hours a week) as a tech she still couldnt get a job there.

I had several teachers at UAB that flat out didnt care about teaching or their students. then they would tell students that served on committees with them how much they hated our class. some of my teachers had been teaching so long they taught my boss (at the part time job i had in school) when she went to nursing school in the 80s. we had some of the exact same teachers. mostly the ones who had no real joy in teaching.

on paper UAB has a good reputation. i dont know how. one of the nurse practitioners i worked with on work study said it might be for research dollars. but student satisfaction is very low. i had maybe 6 really good faculty and instructors and all my part-time clinical instructors that were not SON professors were really good. my 2 faculty clinical instructors were no where near on the same level as the part-time instructors i had. they were great. they really liked teaching and sought opportunities for us to practice skills. they were also tough when they needed to be. if UAB had more teachers like them it would be a good school.

UAB doesnt give a preference to its own grads at all. My classmates with jobs are about evenly split between UAB and the other five hospitals in the area. but most of dont have jobs.

the nclex pass rate when i graduated was a 90.9. now its going up because most of my class and about 95% of the may class passed. but the review course they gave us was sorry. they have a deal with ATI so we did there review. it was boring. the book was a badly condensed version of the books we had gotten from ATI throughout nursing school. it was a three day waste of time. i did hurst online review it was FABULOUS. it was the only reason i passed. not a single thing the ATI lady guaranteed would be on NCLEX during three days was on there and she made it seem like NCLEX would be easy its so straight forward. ITS NOT. its tricky.

Now the nursing school is the has the highest tuition on campus. uab raised its tuition by about 13% a year like all colleges. because they allegedly are so strapped for cash. nursing school tuition used to be about 20 dollars more per credit hour. this fall they raised the tuition about 21% making it $271 per credit hour in state. i looked it up that was the instate graduate tuition my last year of school. try to get scholarships through the university the nursing school scholarships suck. i have heard there need based. i got one with a A average before nursing school but my mother was a single parent who made about 40,000 a year. the president of the student nurses association couldnt get a scholarship from the nursing school and she an A average in nursing school.

Samford's website is Samford University, Birmingham, Alabama. i went to church with a nurse that went there and works for UAB. she liked. i know they have small class sizes and are supposed to really be supportive of and work with students. but i did not go there and my friend has been a nurse for a few years so it might have changed. you should ask someone that went there. it is more expensive because its private.

[Calalilynurse]

i think what nursing school you went to wont matter with getting a job. UAB is better ranked than bama and auburn and i and most of my class still dont have one. I think passing nclex has more to do with how and what you study than what school you went to. one of the new nurses where i precepted went to jeff state and passed studying hurst review.

i definitely dont think going to uab increases you chance of passing. their score is only going up because our class and the may class did well. which hasnt been averaged in yet. without those scores there pass rate is 90.9. i know from the nurses i work with for a long time it was in the 80s.

however it is just as hard to get into bama as auburn's nursing school. uab is much easier to get into.most of my classmates were transfer students from those two schools.

[symphie]

inactiveRN: I heard back from UAB and was accepted for Spring 2011, so I'll be attending there. As much as I love Auburn, I'm going to sacrifice 2 years and move back to Birmingham for nursing school (and then hopefully end up in Orlando eventually somehow! haha). But just so you know, UAB is must be much less competitive because I only had a 3.4 GPA and all of my hours were transfer hours and I still got accepted.

[hcox1975, BSN, RN]

Congrats Symphie on getting accepted to UAB school of nursing. I did not attend Auburn or UAB but lived in Auburn for ten years. I loved it there! I went to a community college and got an ADN. I got a job before graduation. Just remember to make a good impression in clinicals and practice interviewing. A great interview makes a huge difference.

[symphie]

hcox1975: Auburn is honestly one of my favorite towns and I hate leaving it. I still go down to visit almost every weekend just because I miss the atmosphere. I've heard only good things about Southern Union and the other community colleges around there. But that's so awesome that you got a job so fast!!! My biggest fear about getting a job after graduation is that I want to get one near Orlando (my boyfriend wants to work for Disney) so I won't be doing clinicals anywhere near the hospitals I hope to be interviewing at. Hopefully doing clinicals in Birmingham will be fine, even if I want a job in another state after graduation.

[inactiveRN]

Symphie,

Congratulations on your acceptance at UAB! I admire you for following your dream. I hope that you receive the education you are looking for at UAB. I would hope you will continue to post on this board for those of us still seeking information.

In regards to the posts regarding UAB by augustnurse, I would specifically like to hear what Symphie's experience is at UAB. Reading these posts about UAB are disturbing. I would be interested to hear from other recent graduates.

Additionally, I would be interested on how your fellow classmates fare at AUM, if you have any information from them.

Good Luck and please continue to keep us updated. If you need information on the Birmingham area, please let me know.

[inactiveRN]

Augustnurse,

I am sorry to hear of your experience at UAB. I honestly don't know what to say, but wish you luck in finding a job. I would like to hear from other recent grads or students at UAB also. Augustnurse, please continue to post and update us on your situation.

One other topic in your post interested me. Do nursing schools actually provide prep for the Nursing Boards these days? We were totally on our own when I graduated. They supposedly prepared us but not prepped us. It just struck me as odd that the school would actually provide a prep class.

[hcox1975, BSN, RN]

I think if you pay all that money to go to school, they should prepare you for the NCLEX. The prep classes cost extra.

[Calalilynurse]

dear inactive rn,

uab school of nursing provided a prep course we paid for from tutition and fees. it wasnt good at all. so one of my parents had to pay out of pocket for hurst review. i wasnt prepared for nclex at all by the nursing school. at least not adequately.

[Dazglue, ADN, BSN, MSN, RN]

AUM has an accelerated program I think. It's Auburn's other campus in Montgomery.

[link51411]

Samford is pretty easy to get into, staying in the program is the problem. I cant even get close to telling how many hours I worked to just make Bs. when I had a 3.9 science and 3.75 Gpa from samford pre reqs. If you want to get a college experiance do not go here. those that did not give their live to the BSN failed. But they have almost a 100% NCLEX passing rate.

as far as cost. when I started going to samford in 06 it was the same cost for me as it would have been at AU being out of state. it has gone up in cost alot since then but so has everything else so I do not know what the comp. is now. Samford is not as expensive as people think though. I looked at alot of private schools out of highschool and Samford was actually the least expensive.