CSULB Fall 2014

U.S.A. California

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Hey everyone!

Did anyone else apply to CSULB for Fall 2014? The school app was due last Saturday, and then we have the month of January to submit for the School of Nursing.

Based on previous threads, it looks like we are invited to an interview about a month after the deadline, and the cutoff was ~9.1 points.

Here are my stats so we can see how we stand this year!

Science GPA: 3.58

GE GPA: 3.77

TEAS: 97.3

TEAS Math: 100

I think that works out to about 9.4 points... the average keeps rising each year, so it would be nice to see where we all fall!

Good luck everyone :)

I've heard it from the previous trimester students , they said the professors are tough and make the course seems hard and also they told me that basic students have better professors . I hope that's not true .

Overall trimester program is harder from what I've heard ,

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Specializes in SRNA, ICU and Emergency Mursing.

SO, Trimester and Semester students are split up, even in the first Semester?

AND the same professors instruct ONLY Tri-Students, every Semester, and never touch a Semester cohort course?

It's hard to believe that certain professors ONLY instruct trimester cohorts throughout years and years of the program. From what I have experienced in the past (at other colleges/universities), particular professor's schedules change from session to session. One semester they will be teaching subject "A";however the next semester, they teach subject "B", and someone else is teaching "A".

Can anyone shed some light on this?

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I have no idea , that's hard to believe , if someone has information please clear it up

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I am currently in the program and a Trimester student - hopefully I can clear somethings up for you ....

1. Trimester teachers are not harder-nor easier- than basic teachers...in fact they are usually the same. Since you are entering in the fall your whole cohort will pretty much be together for your first two semester (fall and spring), however when the basic students get summer off, trimester will continue and this is when you essentially get "split up"

So come Fall 2015 trimester students will be entering their 4th semester and the basic students from your cohort will be entering their 3rd. Trimester basic students will now be intermingled with the basic students from the cohort that started before them since you essentially caught up to them even though they entered the program before you.

Basically it all overlaps because some students get summer of while others don't.

2. there are no instructors that specifically teach trimester, and others that teach basic. It all just depends on what semester it is and what season if its Fall, Summer, or Spring. For example, some teachers take summers off, while others don't, or some teach certain courses only in the winter while others teach in the spring. It just depends on their schedule. You may have a great teacher for one class, and a not so great teacher for another - its like any other program.

The only difference with professors is for clinicals. For trimester students, you will have all your clinicals (except for Pysch) at long beach memorial hospital therefore your instructors will be employees of the school through Long beach memorial hospital. Basic students get placed at different locations for each semester with different clinical teachers.

3. When someone tells you that trimester students are "smarter" or have it "harder" they either just trying to show off or brag. I am a trimester student and I suffered just as much as basic students did for the most part. However, what I will say is that there is a difference when it comes to summer sessions. Essentially, you are fitting a 15/16 week course into 8 weeks. So yes, every week you will have stuff due, you feel like you have a tests on tests, and the load is a lot NOT because the content is different but because its just faster. However, if you stay organized, and don't complain and just do the work, your fine.

Its all personal preference, if you want your summers off - go basic program.

If you don't really care and want to get done quicker - go trimester - just know that during summers it is fast pace, and it is a lot but it goes by quickly, and yes its 100% all the same content.

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Books vary from each semester - the first semester is the most expensive bc of ATI. However some semesters are as little as $100 for books. Just be smart, ask students in the higher semesters if they are selling books, rent them, and make sure the class actually uses the book.

it gets better.

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Thanks for the useful information ,

everything is clear now , but I have a question , how many classes do u have in the summer ? And is it really impossible to get an A and keep our 4.0 GPA ?

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Specializes in SRNA, ICU and Emergency Mursing.
How many classes do u have in the summer ?

It depends on which semesters are your Summer semester.

Look at the program outline. It tells you which classes you take in each of the 5 semesters. Then just see which semesters will fall in summer for you.

For Spring starters, we will have Semesters 2 & 5 during Summer.

Fall starters only have their 3rd Semester in the summer.

The course outline tells us exactly which nursing courses are taken during each of the 5 semesters.

But remember to add your Capstone and Upper Level GE classes. We will not only have nursing courses to deal with.

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Specializes in SRNA, ICU and Emergency Mursing.

Like CF17 said, the instructors are not what make the Trimester program more difficult, it is the condensed workload that makes the program more difficult.

Then the fact that the Spring cohort will have almost half of our program during summer semesters means that it will be the most difficult. And there is no B+ grade. An 89% will drop your gpa with a fat 3.0 instead of a 3.5 (which is a HUGE hit in a 6 unit nursing course)

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I couldn't find the program outline, where is it ?

What classes would go under Capstone category ?

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No matter what your cohort is you will have 2 semesters each in the fall - if you start in the spring you will have your 2nd (med surg) and 5th (community) semester in the summer.... if you start in the fall you will have 3rd (critical care) and 6th (preceptorship) in the summer.

You can not compare who or what cohort has it worse because there are pluses and minus with each situation. With that said - just focus on your own situation, and don't compare what other classes have going on or the differences because it really doesn't matter or affect what you have going on.

As far as getting A's - no it is not impossible. If you are organized, stay ontop of your work, and work hard - getting an A is very achievable. With that being said - one of the biggest mistakes incoming students to the program make is that they are very grade driven rather than being knowledge driven.

Nursing and NCLEX questions are a completely different style of questioning. You will no longer think in a way of regurgitating information... you have to take the information that you have obtained from reading and from lecture and apply it. Nursing is all about critical thinking and application. Half of the battle is understanding what the question is asking and how to answer it - this is something you will learn with your Fundamentals class (N200) first semester and continue to work on all the way through the program.

Everyone in this program are straight A students - you wouldn't be in the program if you weren't. Yes we all want the A - but you have to understand and accept that getting the A is no longer the main prioirty. You are in this program to be a good nurse and even if you get a B in the class - doesn't mean that you don't know the material and won't be an excellent nurse on the floor.

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Specializes in SRNA, ICU and Emergency Mursing.
but you have to understand and accept that getting the A is no longer the main prioirty. You are in this program to be a good nurse and even if you get a B in the class - doesn't mean that you don't know the material and won't be an excellent nurse on the floor.

I really appreciate and value your input here. You have cleared some things up for me.

However… A's are always my main priority. And I don't believe an A, especially in a higher level course, is achievable without being able to fully conceptualize the information. I also believe that higher grades are indicative of higher critical thinking skills, and better job performance with the providing of critical health care (assuming you have interpersonal skills as well).

I am only sharing my opinion in having spent a couple years in the field as a critical care EMT. Maybe you have had other experiences.

And I do understand how the NCLEX questions work. I have been taking practice NCLEX tests for some time, and My EMT tests were in the same fashion. They are all about critical thinking and deducing acute situations--having to choose the best answer among multiple correct answers…. Not in any way easy, or straight forward.

In my book, B stands for BAD…lol. At this point, I am not willing to accept lower grades, but we'll see what happens…lol

Seriously though--now again, purely speaking from my own perspective and future goals--B's would only ensure that I will not get into the graduate programs I am planning to attend. I need, basically, straight A's…. (I could afford a B or 2… maybe….probably not… actually no…lol)

The struggle is real, y'all…

:blink:

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Thanks for the information , and yes , I'm just like You Joe Friday . my first and only priority is always an A , mostly because i want to go for higher education and I need to have a high GPA in order to be able to transfer to Grad School. I'm really scared with what you guys said and I think the tests would be super hard in the nursing program ,

is there any website that we can see sample question or could you at least put one sample question ? :cautious:

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