easiest ( I realize that probably NONE are easy so I am asking in a relative sense) to gain entrance into. Living in Indiana where there are NO CRNA institutions we will have to move without regard to where we go to school (with the possible exception of UC in Ohio). Our " stategy" is to apply to about ten schools a year until someone accepts us (when we are eligible of course). If you cannot identify "easier" schools can anyone at least point to AREAS of the country which might be less competitive?

Any input is greatly appreciated!

perhaps you don't mean easiest academically but eaiser to get into. right??

because why would you wish upon yourself an easy school.

I can't answer this question yet. even if I could I wouldn't. What if someone form the admissions board read this were I am applying. And suddenly became bitter because I said they were easy.

heres my philiosphy. "if you throw enough crap aginst the wall, some of it is going to stick".

I am trying to apply to 14 schools and I have become unliveable. I have talked directly on the phone and have had a pre-interview with Kaiser. I am getting the feeling that it may not be as bad as I had orginally thought (if you are truley qualified that it) in hind sight maybe I could have gotten away with applying to 5 or 6 as I was counciled.

matt

p.s. however, still not in anywhere yet.

You might try Truman Medical Center School of Anesthesia in Kansas City, MO.....hopefully I'll be applying here in about 2 years. Since you're considering a move...you might want to know that the cost of living in Kansas City is pretty low.

Good Luck,

Anne

http://www.med.umkc.edu/crna/

i have to agree with matt on this one. i wouldn't want to alienate any prospective school.

my approach would be to find out which schools have larger programs. by this i mean you may not want to spend the time applying to a bunch of schools that only take 6 students a year. focus on the schools that take classes twice a year and ones that have larger programs. there are schools out there that take 30 students a year.

i would call schools that you are interested in and find out how many students they accept. this way you are increasing your chances, i believe, in getting accepted. if you have the grades, the gre scores, and the experience you probably don't have to worry too much.

good luck, i'm in the same boat you are. i hope to begin applying next summer for 2004 start.

If you are looking for an easy application, I am going to counter and say that none are easy. I will say that some are less demanding than others though. As I have mentioned before some schools do not require that you take the GRE, apply to one of these programs and you have a easier application by default. But don't take that to mean the program will be any less rigorous.

I like Al bug's advice, apply to big programs, and apply early. the program I am in will be expanding next year, and will take (don't quote me the number is not final yet) about 30 civillians, and 14 Navy nurses. That is a huge calss compared to soome schools. Look around you will get in if you have your ducks in a row.

Craig

the ease of being accepted into a school probably shouldn't be the primary determinant in everyones criteria for choosing a school. On the other hand once you graduate you are still a certified CRNA (assuming you pass required board tests) no matter WHERE you go to school (we are only considering mainstream accredited schools in this discussion).

I have been to many CRNA schools websites and been a little frustrated at the relative paucity of information with regard to "average" class parameters. With medical, dental, pharmacy, and most other professional schools this information is widely availible and largely standardized. One can usually quickly determine (for those institutions) information such as average standardized test scores, GPA's and even typical majors of their "50th percentile" student.

I have always felt that just because a school has high admisstion standards it doesn't necessarily follow that the QUALITY of education is equally impressive. What does it really prove after all if Harvard or MIT can do a good job of educating people who have average SAT scores over 1400 and IQ's over 160. Even a poor teacher and deficient curriculum might look impressive educating geniuses! I think a much better test would be quantifying how much a school can IMPROVE the abilities of their typical student from matriculation to graduation (making allowances of course for the fact that it is more difficult to improve upon what are already very high levels of performance).

Making this information easily availible benefits both the student and the institution. Students don't waste their time (or the schools) applying to institutions for which they are clearly not qualified. A student with a 1300 SAT (or 1900 combined GRE) might represent a 90th percentile applicant at one school, but only a 25th at another.

Even with what little I DO know about CRNA schools I can make SOME observations:

It seems that those institutions located "on the coasts" have more competition than those which are more "land locked". Furthermore, I would imagine that 27 month programs elicit more interest than longer programs. As Kevin pointed out in a different post time is money and the higher your potential income the greater the opportunity cost of staying in school. The observation about larger class sizes being favorable (for admission) also seems logical. Can we build on these observations further?

Thanks to all for the great input!

if God were to snap his cosmic fingers (not to offend any atheists out there) and give us all AT LEAST 160 point IQ's (but some people considerably more) and 2,000 GRE's it would simply be a matter of time before "slow" was redefined as todays genius! Indeed, it wouldn't surprise me to see (in such a world) Burger King demanding at least a masters degree to be considered for employment!

The point of course is that much of what we see with admissions has more to do with sorting, and the allocation of scarce resources rather than objective truth. Perhaps, thats why in cultures like Korea and Japan where educational resources are proportionately MUCH more scarce than here virtually your ENTIRE post secondary, academic life comes down to ONE test administered after high school.