Applying to Sacramento State's ASBSN Summer 2008

U.S.A. California

Published

Hey!

I just wanted to know if there is anyone else applying to Sacramento State's ASBSN program. I'm just waiting on my Fall 2007 grades before I get my application in. I'm pretty nervous! I just want to get that application packet to them already!

Anyway, I just wanted to open this thread, to get in touch with other people who have applied or are applying.

-Jake

I am currently in the ASBSN program at Sac State. I just wanted to address a few things. Someone mentioned that they wanted to work a few hours on Saturdays... BAD idea. You have no idea when your clinicals will be. June was all class room work, about 40 hours a week of sitting in a desk... then going home to sit at the computer for a few more hours. July is when you start clinicals. One thing about this program is you have to remain flexible. You may not know your clinical schedule until 2 weeks before are expected to be there. It could be any day of the week, so don't commit to anything during your 15 months in school.

Also, I wanted to comment on financial aid. It is true that they do not give out aid to 2nd degree students. The appeal process is kind of lengthy and a pain in the butt, but I encourage you to at least try. Some people were denied aid even after the appeal process and I wasn't. I basically explained why my 1st degree is useless in the Sacramento area and I was granted a few loans.

Good luck to you all!! You will do fine, but BE FLEXIBLE from the beginning and it will be much less stressful.:yeah:

Thanks for your advice RNTrixie. I hope you're doing well in your program. I agree with you regarding giving the fin aid appeal a shot. I've been working on my appeal letter since last night and will be submitting it very soon. I'm gonna cross my fingers and legs in hope that they will grant my appeal.

By the way, how do you like the ABSN program thus far? I see that you are approaching your 1 year mark. How many hours did you start off with for clinicals? What kind of advice would you offer to us on how to prepare for this program? Also, I know you mentioned that we shouldn't commit to anything during this program, but were you able to find time to rest or visit family and friends during any part of the program? Thanks! :D

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I am definitely coming up to the one year mark and it was a LONG journey! There is a ton of work and studying to do while you are in school, so PLEASE do not do anything to prepare before you start. You will learn everything you need to know once you start school. Clean your house really well... hang out with your friends and family... do whatever it is that you will not have time to do when school starts. With that said, you will only find time to see your friends and family if you make time. It was really hard for me at first because I was a stay at home mom for the first 15 months of my son's life. Then all of a sudden I was thrown into a full time schedule. By full time schedule, I mean about 50 hours a week for class time, clinicals, studying, assignments, driving, etc. It took me almost the entire summer to realize that cutting out time with my family or exercise or whatever just isn't worth it. You will be burnt out faster than you think if you don't maintain somewhat of a normal life.

For summer clinicals, I was working Monday and Tuesday PM shifts (2:45-11:15pm). So that means I had to drive to the hospital on Sundays and do an 8 hour prep for the patient I picked. In the fall, it was pretty much the same schedule, except I picked 2 patients on Saturday and worked on Sunday and Monday. That is why I say be very flexible. Don't commit to anything, but you have no idea what kind of schedule you will have. You may have weekend or weekday clinicals. The problem is that CSUS is competing with Sac City, ARC, Sierra, Samuel Merritt, and some outlying community colleges for clinical time in the hospital. If you have to be there on Saturdays, then just assume that the school did the best they could to get you clinical time.

I hope some of this helps!! I had a busy week, so I apologize for not responding for a few days.:bugeyes:

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I am definitely coming up to the one year mark and it was a LONG journey! There is a ton of work and studying to do while you are in school, so PLEASE do not do anything to prepare before you start. You will learn everything you need to know once you start school. Clean your house really well... hang out with your friends and family... do whatever it is that you will not have time to do when school starts. With that said, you will only find time to see your friends and family if you make time. It was really hard for me at first because I was a stay at home mom for the first 15 months of my son's life. Then all of a sudden I was thrown into a full time schedule. By full time schedule, I mean about 50 hours a week for class time, clinicals, studying, assignments, driving, etc. It took me almost the entire summer to realize that cutting out time with my family or exercise or whatever just isn't worth it. You will be burnt out faster than you think if you don't maintain somewhat of a normal life.

For summer clinicals, I was working Monday and Tuesday PM shifts (2:45-11:15pm). So that means I had to drive to the hospital on Sundays and do an 8 hour prep for the patient I picked. In the fall, it was pretty much the same schedule, except I picked 2 patients on Saturday and worked on Sunday and Monday. That is why I say be very flexible. Don't commit to anything, but you have no idea what kind of schedule you will have. You may have weekend or weekday clinicals. The problem is that CSUS is competing with Sac City, ARC, Sierra, Samuel Merritt, and some outlying community colleges for clinical time in the hospital. If you have to be there on Saturdays, then just assume that the school did the best they could to get you clinical time.

I hope some of this helps!! I had a busy week, so I apologize for not responding for a few days.:bugeyes:

Thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to respond to me RNTrixie! It's great to hear that you have things under control. I've always admired FT moms who are able to juggle school and family life. Congrats to you for nearing your 1 year mark! Wish you the best of luck with the rest of the program! :)

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Wow, I'm glad my friend told me about this thread!! I'm in the ABSN Summer 2008 program also. I'm waiting to hear from USD's MSN program also but I think that I will end up attending Sac State nonetheless. I have lots of questions... I hope you are all still hanging on this thread..

To those of you already in the program - what type of hand-held electronic devices are you using in clinicals - i.e. PDA's, Treos, iPhones, smart phones, etc. Are you using your own or do the hospitals provide PDA's for the drugs?

Also, what is the situation with books? My friends in the nursing program at CSU East Bay Concord said that the nursing program there worked with the publisher and all the professors to coordinate the books that are used in the program so that there is no redundancy in ordering books. All the students order all their books as a package at the beginning of the program and all the professors use all the books in all the classes. There are no unused or unnecessary books. Also, because they are bundled, the publisher puts them all on CD for you and you can download ALL the books onto your laptop and therefore don't have to tote all your books around. Does CSUS nursing program do anything like that?

How dependent are you guys on your laptops for studying? I've got a pretty good HP but it's somewhat heavy. I'm thinking of investing in one of the new MAC Air. Do you think it's worth the investment?

Where do you do most of your studying? Home? School? ...on the run? are you on campus much? I know that you are involved in studying 24/7 but do you have any days set aside for just study - i.e. no scheduled classes, labs or clinicals? do you ever get two days in a row off? Also, my brother is getting married down in the Bay Area the 3rd weekend of the program. Do you think I am going to be able to get away for it or do you think I have to tell my family that they are going to have to get a cardboard cutout of me for the family photo?

I'm getting the same answer as you guys regarding financial aid. I'm very confused though. I also applied to CSUEB and was accepted into Samuel Merrit's ABSN program and both of them gave me a financial aid package that included both subsidized and unsubsidized Stafford loans. I brought that up to the FA counselor at Sac State and they gave me some bogus answer. I feel like I still have not gotten down to the bottom of this. I don't understand why a private school and another CSU is able to give me financial aid but CSUS isn't.

How is parking at CSUS? I'm thinking of trying to find a place to live somewhere along the path of the free shuttle. How is that system? Is it worth planning to live along it or is it a mess?

For those of you in the 2008 program - would you be interested in starting a Yahoo group? I started one for the Samuel Merritt ABSN program once I got accepted and pretty much the whole class joined up. it worked well and lots of people started to form carpools, roommates, started asking questions, taking polls etc.... If you are interested, I can set one up.... just send me your email addy.... [email protected]

That's all for now. Congrats to all of you on getting accepted. Can't wait to meet you all!!!

Kurt

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Wow, I'm glad my friend told me about this thread!! I'm in the ABSN Summer 2008 program also. I'm waiting to hear from USD's MSN program also but I think that I will end up attending Sac State nonetheless. I have lots of questions... I hope you are all still hanging on this thread..

To those of you already in the program - what type of hand-held electronic devices are you using in clinicals - i.e. PDA's, Treos, iPhones, smart phones, etc. Are you using your own or do the hospitals provide PDA's for the drugs?

Also, what is the situation with books? My friends in the nursing program at CSU East Bay Concord said that the nursing program there worked with the publisher and all the professors to coordinate the books that are used in the program so that there is no redundancy in ordering books. All the students order all their books as a package at the beginning of the program and all the professors use all the books in all the classes. There are no unused or unnecessary books. Also, because they are bundled, the publisher puts them all on CD for you and you can download ALL the books onto your laptop and therefore don't have to tote all your books around. Does CSUS nursing program do anything like that?

How dependent are you guys on your laptops for studying? I've got a pretty good HP but it's somewhat heavy. I'm thinking of investing in one of the new MAC Air. Do you think it's worth the investment?

Where do you do most of your studying? Home? School? ...on the run? are you on campus much? I know that you are involved in studying 24/7 but do you have any days set aside for just study - i.e. no scheduled classes, labs or clinicals? do you ever get two days in a row off? Also, my brother is getting married down in the Bay Area the 3rd weekend of the program. Do you think I am going to be able to get away for it or do you think I have to tell my family that they are going to have to get a cardboard cutout of me for the family photo?

I'm getting the same answer as you guys regarding financial aid. I'm very confused though. I also applied to CSUEB and was accepted into Samuel Merrit's ABSN program and both of them gave me a financial aid package that included both subsidized and unsubsidized Stafford loans. I brought that up to the FA counselor at Sac State and they gave me some bogus answer. I feel like I still have not gotten down to the bottom of this. I don't understand why a private school and another CSU is able to give me financial aid but CSUS isn't.

How is parking at CSUS? I'm thinking of trying to find a place to live somewhere along the path of the free shuttle. How is that system? Is it worth planning to live along it or is it a mess?

For those of you in the 2008 program - would you be interested in starting a Yahoo group? I started one for the Samuel Merritt ABSN program once I got accepted and pretty much the whole class joined up. it worked well and lots of people started to form carpools, roommates, started asking questions, taking polls etc.... If you are interested, I can set one up.... just send me your email addy.... [email protected]

That's all for now. Congrats to all of you on getting accepted. Can't wait to meet you all!!!

Kurt

Hey Kurt,

Congrats on being accepted to both CSUS & Sam Merritt! I think your idea of starting a Yahoo Group is great. Here's my e-mail: [email protected]

I'm also looking for a place to stay that's close to campus--10 min or less commute hopefully. :p

In regards to fin aid, I think you should just go through the process of filing an appeal since I don't think there's any other way around it :zzzzz. I agree that it really doesn't make much sense why we are automatically ineligible for financial aid. When I was a post-bac (2nd bac) at SFSU, another public univ, I received a grant+loans! Anyways, I already filed my appeal and hopefully I'll get those fed loans!

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Hey everyone,

If you are in the ABSN Summer 2008 program, I've created a Yahoo group at

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CSUSabsn2008/

to further the discussions....

Kurt

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Hey everyone,

I just created a Yahoo group so that we can continue the discussions. I've asked the program administration to forward the link to everyone in the program so hopefully everyone will be joining.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CSUSabsn2008/subs_invite

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I applied to OHSU in Portland and UCDHS in Denver. Both are accelerated programs, although UCDHS says they may offer some people who asked for the accelerated program spots in the regular 2 year program instead.

I live on the peninsula, but I had to go to the info session because I needed to get some questions about prereqs answered right away so I could sign up for classes that started the next week.

I walked in the middle of the discussion of cost, and I can't find where I wrote down the numbers. I just remember that it's grad school tuition, like they said in the admit letter, which is about 4K a year I think. I don't remember what the other expenses were.

It was just an information session in some kind of student academic center, no tour or anything. If I have time (probably won't) I was thinking of asking if I could come and see the nursing school facilities and sit in on a class or something.

Aye, but just be happy you get to do it in 14 months rather than 2 1/2 gruling long years like me.

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Kitsune -

I never really looked into any out of state absn programs, so I'm not familiar with those two programs. Its good that Portland has no sales tax though. :p I'm also planning on asking the coordinator if I can tour the campus.

JakeyWakey - Congrats! Now you can finally relax. Is Sac your first choice?

Wendy - Thanks for offering to answer our questions. :specs: I have a bunch of questions for you! How did you like Sac's BSN program and how long ago did you go through the program? Can you tell us the structure of your program including where and when you completed clinical rotations? Did you like the faculty and preceptors? What was the estimated cost of the other expenses? Thanks again for offering your help. :D I wish they provided more information to us, but I guess we'll just have to wait til the new student orientation.

Feel free to ask me as well, I will graduate a few months before you guys will next spring. I'm not sure how long ago wendy graduated, things change quickly at Sac State.

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Yeah, I wouldn't expect to know any schedule details or anything, I just with they'd sent some more basic information with the admit letter. I downloaded the student handbook, which has some helpful information. It's just that they seem to give a bit less info than some other schools I looked at. It does seem to be a good program though.

One more question - how did you feel about sac state's pharmacology class? I've heard that some schools teach it better than others. I'm definitely going to start studying pharm ahead of time but I'm wondering how much I need to worry.

I also noticed they don't have a separate pathophysiology class like some programs do. Did you feel like that was an issue? I have a bio degree and feel good about anatomy and micro, but not as confident about some systems in physiology.

Thanks again for all your help :)

Pharms tests are internet and pda, open notes= A+

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