Darton College Summer 2011

pewinsto · Oct 27, 2011

Kirstie thanks for all the information! I love that you reference and thank God for seeing your thru bc he is definitely doing the same for me during this application process. I requested your friendship but would love to keep in contact even after my acceptance (bc HE will make a way for Spring 2012)!! Thanks again and keep praying!

HADD7 · Oct 27, 2011

Kristie, do you mean that take the first 110 that apply to the program? I'm kind of confused. I made an 88 on my hesi with an 88 on the a&p section with a 3.1 gpa..I THINK! I'm not sure how they calculate the core since I'm a transfer student :/. I'm so anxious to get my letter!

kirstierobinson · Oct 27, 2011

@HADD7...no lets say you are applying for the Spring and the total amount of applicants is 250. They take the top 110 people out of that 250. So it doesn't necessarily mean that you need to have an extremely high GPA. What I'm saying is, yes you should worry about HESI test scores and GPA because you're competing for a spot, but don't hesitate to apply just to bring your GPA up really high! I would apply anyway because in my class, the average HESI was 75. So we had a REALLY great chance of getting in. Like I didn't have to score a 95 just to get in lol. Cause my HESI was 88 so I was well above that average. I hope I'm not confusing you. I just don't want people to get the impression that you HAVE to have a 3.5 GPA with a 90 on the HESI lol. Yea you were basically around what I was cause I had 3.2. I was a transfer student too from Texas and they only count your credits that are applying toward the nursing degree. Also, I made an 88 on HESI too.

Good luck guys! If you want, you can find me on facebook---Kirstie Robinson. Maybe next semester I can be giving you guys tips and such :)

HADD7 · Oct 27, 2011

Ok, I understand now! Lol My class average was 77 so hopefully I did well enough to "stand out." If you don't mind me asking, did you have any C's in your core that counted towards the program? Also, I live about an hr and a half away and was planning on driving just for the first semester...how many days a wk are you there? I'm just curious as to when we will have to be there 4 or 5 days a wk? If I do get accepted (fingers are crossed) i will definitely be needing some tips! :)

kirstierobinson · Oct 28, 2011

I had A's and B's in my core. And if you are taking the traditional tract (I am), then you have a Monday class from 9-12 and 1-2. So basically you are there from 9-2pm. I believe it is always on Mondays like that for fundamentals. Then your lab is 1 hour and 50 minutes on whatever day you choose (either Tues thru Thurs) when you register. We have people from Atlanta in our class that have class Mon. and go their lab Tues. and carpool. BUT the only problem would be your lab hours. You have to log in 21 hours and the labs are open from 3pm-9:30pm daily. And you can have a max of 1 hour per day. So...if you live far you have to plan in advance for those lab hours too. They always check the lab book to make sure you are going because if you don't have the 21 lab hours by check off week, you will not get to continue in the class! Pretty much in the second week of class, I was there four days a night for 1 hour each up until just last week! (except the days the school was closed) and I have about 27 hours. After check offs, you only have 2 weeks of clinicals (one per week) and no more labs or lab hours after that! I'm excited cause now I don't have anymore lab hours to clock in lol. I can actually eat a real dinner! What they don't tell you is for clinicals, it is a 9 hour day and its in Lee County or Sylvester. You don't get to choose which one. You choose the days you are available and they assign you to one. So to be honest, be prepared to be spending TONS on gas. You pretty much have to go to the school almost everyday to get those practice hours in. They teach you the hard things last (cleansing enema, foley catheter, nasogastric tube insertion) and those are the ones you need to practice the most! Therefore, you will probably go over 21 hours of practice. I live on the Marine Base here in Albany and its about a 20-30 minute drive to school and the commute time already stresses me out. I'm not trying to discourage you, I just want you to be prepared since everyone I talked to never told me all of that! So basically, from the first few weeks of school up until check offs, plan to come at least 4 days a week. I had to put aside the pell money I got back just to use all on gas LOL

keepmovingrn · Oct 28, 2011

Kristin is right. They look at the top numbers for that semester of students getting in. For example I applied to the LPN to RN bridge, my hesi was an 89 over all with a 78 in the A&P part of the test. I was waitlisted (aka not accepted) bc the average a&p score on the group I test with was 80. So the lady told me that they didnt accepted anything under an 80 on the a&p portion of the hesi. With that being said my gpa was 3.81 but I know they reallllllly focus on the a&p score of the hesi.

I'm glad things worked out the way they did bc even if I had been accepted I would have declined bc of the distance and I wouldnt want to have a spot that someone else could get.

I wish you all luck!

HADD7 · Oct 28, 2011

wow! Ya'll are honestly so much help on here! It's hard to find good information out these days..sooo glad I joined this site!

@ Keepmovinglpn, How do you find out the a&p section class average? I scored an 88 in the a&p section on the HESI, but I can't see the class average of each section...just the overall class average.

@Kirsiterobinson, THANK YOU for taking the time to answer my questions! I have so many! Lol! They said our letter should be here by Nov. 12th...but waiting is killing me! Did you get yours early by any chance? :) I'm probably going to end up moving down to Albany (if I get accepted)...I didn't realize that we had lab hours to meet for the 1st semester :/

kirstierobinson · Oct 28, 2011

yea I think my A&P section was an 85 and my class was in the 60s...So there was a REALLY good chance of getting in on that one. My lowest was vocabulary LOL and I got an 80 on that part! Everything else was extremely easy.

kirstierobinson · Oct 28, 2011

Its no problem at all! I am more than happy to answer any questions. It should tell you when you log back into that elsevier site. You just have to search around on the test score part. I forgot how I did it since I haven't really touched that section since the summertime. But yea they told us July 11. I think I got mine June 15. So pretty early! But don't worry if you haven't gotten one yet because they send denial letters too. So just because you didn't get one, doesn't mean you didn't get in! But it does look like you have a great chance of getting in! And yup they don't tell you all that...not even during orientation lol. We were told the second week of school. And I was like...ummm where does it say this in our orientation paperwork? LOL yea we were all confused but it does take a lot of hours. And I guarantee you will need to go over that 21 hours just to get it right.

HADD7 · Oct 28, 2011

My lowest was vocabulary also Lol I'm looking around on the evolve site and can't find it? I'll try some more though! I HOPE i get my letter SOON...I wait on the mail to come everyday! :lol2: So are you liking the program so far? The part I'm worried about is passing the NCLEX at the end! I guess I should just be thinking about getting accepted at this point though! Haha

HADD7 · Oct 28, 2011

I also applied at ABAC in Tifton for spring 2012. They required pharm. to even apply, so I am in the process of that class right now...does Darton accept another schools pharm. class?

kirstierobinson · Oct 28, 2011

I like it, but its just really tough. I'm not gonna say like the work is hard. But the time you have to put into it to get a decent grade is tough. We have a lot of repeaters in our class and they're the ones making the best grade LOL. My average is an 80 right now and it sure feels like it should be an A as much as I study. It's just A LOT of critical thinking questions. As in...all the answers could be right but you must choose THE BEST one. So yea...and don't worry about the NCLEX, because the reason why it is so tough is because they are making sure you can pass it! But every semester at Darton you will take a HESI for what you learned that semester. They offer NCLEX review and HESI review sessions for free from time to time. I would encourage you plan on going to those too. Cause like the HESI this semester counts as a test grade and its everything we learned PLUS MORE. I was like whattt???? So now I'm gonna have to go back thru all I learned and read a little extra. My HESI for this is in 2 weeks and that is the only thing I'm nervous about. That and finals! I believe they do a review on the class and may accept it. I know they accept Nursing courses from another school but I'm not sure how that works. The pharm here is SUPER easy though! As long as you read what she tells you to, you can get an A all the time. Her tests are only 25 questions. The fundamentals one is the one you have to read all the extra stuff!