MCPHS Fall 2013

starfish89 · Feb 26, 2013

Hi everybody!! I just got accepted into the MCPHS Fall 2013 accelerated nursing program today! Just thought I'd drop by and meet some of you all who have also been accepted. I am from Chicago and this will be my first taste of the East Coast and am so excited. I'm a little worried about housing, though. Has anyone started looking/researching? Ahh I'm so excited and slightly freaking out :)

Mchroby · Mar 14, 2013

Hello All - have any of you been able to get details on 2013-2014 MCPHS BSN tuition at Worcester? Thanks in advance!

pequenopatoRN · Mar 26, 2013

Hi everyone,

I actually graduated from this school. I did the ABSN at MCPHS - Manchester. I happened to have moved from the west coast to the east coast to go to this school because schools on the west coast have long waitlists, sometimes years, just for ADNs and the BSN programs are ridiculously competitive and have long waitlists too. I didn't want to wait any longer so I went to school out of state instead. I know when I applied, one week later I was accepted, no interview. However, I knew people in my class that had interviews.

Starfish89 - the school has dorms at the Worcester campus unlike the Manchester one, you should look into that, from what I heard from others is that there are areas you want to avoid. Call the school. They usually are willing to work with you and have time for you because the school is so small.

Mchroby - i believe total cost of the school from start to finish is somewhere around 55k.

If you guys have any other questions feel free to ask.

Bcdawber · Mar 26, 2013

Hi pequenopatoRN,

Thank you for all of the info you have already provided! I just had a couple of questions.

1. How did you find the program? Was it ridiculously difficult? or was it manageable if you planned your time correctly?

2. How were the clinical placements?

3. When did you graduate? How easily was it to find a job after graduation?

Thank you!

pequenopatoRN · Mar 26, 2013

Bcdawber,

1. The program was difficult at points. The first semester is definitely the most difficult considering it's 4 courses. I'd say worry more about pathophys/pharm and skills than the other two courses (essentials and history). As for the history course don't be alarmed if you fail the exams, every one does. I averaged 70's on the exams and ended up with an A in the class. The essentials course has a lot of overlap with the skills course, so you'll find that the stuff can be pretty repetitive. Pathophys/Pharm is difficult. Don't fall behind! You'll have lots of material to cover and not enough time to cover it all. If i'm correct they may still be using two books for that course and sometime 2-300 pages of reading per week! DONT get caught up in the reading! Use the slides they give you, even thought per lecture they can be about 100-200 slides. And yes they will cover that much sometimes more in a 4 hour class. First semester is really class 4-5 days a week, from about 8-4 or something like that. If you plan your time nicely you'll be fine. There will be weeks that you have three exams and two papers etc. So it can be overwhelming.

After first semester you can relax a little. You only take two classes at a time, however everything is front loaded, meaning that prior to entering clinical for two weeks you get the majority of the book learning out of the way. But in those two weeks you can have 4 exams covering hundreds of pages of reading, again dont get caught up in the reading, use the slides.

Summer session is pretty easy. Maternity and pediatrics is a relatively easy course. Psych is also not too difficult. I wouldn't worry too much about those classes.

Final semester can be hectic. You have community health which for me was ok, more difficult than I anticipated. Capstone, which can be very time consuming, if you don't plan well. Advanced med-surg is like the first med-surg but they expect a little more of you.

2. Clinical placements are different for everyone. You don't actually get to a hospital until 2nd semester, but you may do a blood pressure clinic or two in first semester.

Placements are different for the Worcester campus than the Manchester campus. I don't know where they go for Worcester, I can only speak of the placements for Manchester.

For your first med-surg, maternity, pediatric and psych placement you do group clinicals. So you'll be with about 5-8 of your classmates and a clinical instructor in a hospital.

Community placement is interesting. Some people were at community clinics, some were with Home Health agencies and others worked with the city developing disaster plans. Again, this was for Manchester, I believe Worcester had something similar.

Preceptor placement (final clinical placement) again, it was different for Worcester and Manchester. I know at Manchester we all had preceptor placements, meaning we all had an individual nurse we worked with and had no group, however there were some people at the same hospital just different units. I know for Worcester it was not like that. Not everyone had a preceptor, I think about half did and the other half were in the traditional clinical with groups. I also don't know what hospitals they did their final placements at. At Manchester we had preceptor placements at Dartmouth, Elliot Hospital, Concord Hospital, Southern New Hampshire Hospital, Portsmouth Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital.

3. I just graduated this past December. Over half my class have jobs some of them part time. As any new grad will tell you, it is incredibly difficult to find a job in today's market. It's not impossible just very difficult. If you want a job in a big city like Boston, NYC, LA, SF, Baltimore, DC it is very difficult. Those cities are flooded. You'll hear, "there's a nursing shortage", there really isn't. Not for new grads at least. Since the economy tanked nurses that were supposed to retire didn't and so those jobs that would have become available are not. They're looking for nurses with experience. So, it's not unusual for new grads to be unemployed for 6 months or more. I hope this doesn't scare you. I just don't want you to expect to have a job right after you graduate, that's rare now but possible.

starfish89 · Mar 27, 2013

pequenopatoRN, THANK YOU for all the info! I do have a few other questions for you, if you don't mind!

I am going to MCPHS but I'm not sure if I'll be able to really find a job in the MA area. So, I want to look into other states... Is it hard to get your RN license in one state and find a job in another? Where did you take the NCLEX and where are you working now?

Also, were you able to manage doing the program without a car? I guess it may be different for Manchester than Worcester.. but have you heard of any people who actually do this? I am still working out car details for the program as we speak.

Overall, did you enjoy MCPHS? I am excited but a bit worried about it. It seems like online, the reviews are mixed and I can't tell whether it is just people complaining to complain or what. If you had a do-over, would you attend MCPHS again?

THanks so much again!!

pequenopatoRN · Mar 27, 2013

Starfish89

I actually have my license in two states, NY and CA, if any of my former classmates read this they will know exactly who I am. I took the NCLEX in CA but was licensed first for the New York board of Registered Nursing. CA takes too long to give you your results about 3 weeks whereas NY only took 2 days. So once I got my NY license I applied for my CA one. As for jobs, in CA they won't even look at you if you don't have your CA RN. It's really competitive out here too. I actually just had an interview today. So we'll see how that goes. As for applying to different states, I'm applying all over the east coast but I don't have a license in every state just NY. Many places are willing to work with you especially if you already passed your NCLEX.

As for doing the program with out a car...it could be done for the first semester as there are no clinical rotations. You may even be able to get away with it once rotations start, if you make good friends with your classmates and can carpool with them. I don't think your last semester would be possible without a car. For my final semester there were 4 of us at the same hospital. Three of the four of us lived close to each other but we all had different schedule, so commuting with each other would have been nice but it wasn't possible. Your final semester you work what your nurse works. I would have a night shift and my friend would have a day shift or vice versa. Since everyone had a preceptor it meant we all had individual schedules. Also, you could get placed at a hospital far away. We had a few people commuting from manchester to boston for their senior practicum.

Would I do MCPHS all over again, i'm a little mixed about it. I see getting an education as being the same everywhere. It's really more about the experience you get out of it. I came cross country to go to this school. I lived near the school and was thankful that several other people lived near by. I got involved because I knew that would make for a better experience for me, especially because I was not from the area. I made some great friends. I still talk with them on a pretty regular basis. I made it a point to really get to know my professors, which in a program this small, and a school that small made it really easy to do. I'll definitely say there were parts of the program that I did not like. For example, if you don't know because they probably haven't told you, the first semester is distance education. My class was the first class to experience it. Most of the teaching is done in Worcester, so us students in Manchester had a much different experience, in that we watched the teacher on the TV all day, and in some ways felt neglected. We voiced that and every semester after that they made it a little more 50/50 for teaching on each campus. The cost of the program is the other issue I had. Yes, it's expensive. But for me it was either wait a few years to get into a school on the west coast then take another 1-2 years to get my BSN or go to MCPHS and get it over with and start earning. Either way I would have to take out loans, just a bigger one for MCPHS. I enjoyed my experience and really think it's what you make of it.

starfish89 · Mar 28, 2013

pequenopatoRN,

Thanks for your input and quick response--

I also hope your interview went well! Are you applying to hospitals or other facilities? You said previously that half of your class had jobs. Was this before taking the NCLEX? Are there people who have things lined up during the final semester, even before taking the test? And how prepared did you feel to take the NCLEX with the MCPHS program?

Sorry about all the questions but I really appreciate your answers! This is all such an exciting yet nerve wracking journey!

pequenopatoRN · Mar 28, 2013

Thank you! I really hope my interview went well. It helped that I had a connection. I have been applying to mostly hospitals but have started considering applying to home health agencies and skilled nursing facilities. It's really hard out there as a new graduate, there can be hundreds of applicants for one position.

A few people had jobs lined up prior to passing the NCLEX. I only knew of one person that had something lined up in the final semester, and a few (2-3) right after we graduated but prior to passing the NCLEX.

As for NCLEX preparation. I felt prepared. Of course I studied for about 3 weeks straight prior to taking it and passed my first time with 75 questions. I believe there is only one person in my class that still has not taken the NCLEX but everyone else passed on their first try. So that means we have a 100% pass rate for my class, not including the one that hasn't taken the exam yet.

rylin86 · Mar 28, 2013

Hello! I just happened on to this thread and thought I'd say hello! I got accepted to Manchester's ABSN for this coming fall (2013), Yay! I'm super excited, but also very nervous. I'm from Oregon and have never been to New England, it'll be a big move! I just started checking out possibilities for apartments to rent. My boyfriend and dog are coming with me, which is awesome, but is going to make it a little more difficult to find housing. We shall see!

I love all the advise from past students. Especially knowing there was a 100% pass rate :-) I think I'm pretty good at studying but the first term seems like its going to be daunting! Anyone have any input on places to look for housing? Did anyone get to do clinical at the Boston children's hospital?

pequenopatoRN · Mar 28, 2013

Here are a few apartment complexes you may want to look into:

The residencies at manchester place - i'm almost positive they take pets

Wall street - may or may not take pets

Manchester Gardens - may or may not take pets

Washington Park - may take pets

The residencies are really nice apartments and about 1 block from school, Wall street is probably a 5 min walk, manchester gardens and washington park are about 5 min drives. The latter two apartment complexes aren't that nice but cheaper than the other two.

As for clinical rotations, no one did a rotation at boston children's. I'm sure that's reserved for the boston schools. We did our rotations at Elliot Hospital and Crotched Mountain for pediatrics. Also, requesting a preceptorship in pediatrics is very unlikely to happen. Pediatric clinical and preceptorship is one of the most difficult clinicals to set up nationwide, at least that's what our instructors told us, and the pediatric rotation we do is extremely short.

rylin86 · Mar 29, 2013

I kind of figured about the Boston's children hospital, just thought I'd ask, it's not my first choice. That's interesting to hear about peds though. Im actually interested in ED trauma most, then OB... Eventually maybe a flight nurse program :-)

Thanks for the tips about housing. I'm going to start calling about pricing. It'd be awesome if I could be only a short walk from campus!