Questions regarding SUNY Downstate Accelerated Nursing Program

Penbare, yes, I am really THAT unhappy at Downstate. It's a shame because it's a very competitive program to get into and many of us here turned down other very competitive programs so that we could attend nursing school without incurring a lot of debt. Downstate's price is probably the only thing that's good about this place and even then, I feel like I should be getting a refund since this school is not even worth that cheap tuition.

The students do not get a lot of support from the professors. During the summer sessions, our first semesters, several of the professors who were teaching us were visiting professors, so it is possible they just did not feel obligated to really work with us since they are adjunct faculty. Still, the professors that we have now belong to the college and are not encouraging at all. In fact, we are convinced that some of the professors really don't want to teach and throw videos at us and incorporate many breaks and groupwork into the class so that they don't have to teach.

Additionally, I question whether some professors and clinical instructors are giving us correct information about nursing. There have been countless instances when a professor will say something that is contradictory to the very text we are using. The professors here become very defensive.

Many schools have a class called "Nursing Fundamentals" which is pretty important it seems, but Downstate has no class of the sort or any elective to compensate for it. Makes you wonder...

One thing I despise about the program is that many professors have given us exams, given us our grades, but have NOT given us the right answers to the exam afterwards, nor have they gone over the exam in class. So essentially it is impossible to learn from your mistakes and you can theoretically go straight through the program and to the NCLEX without knowing that you may have learned something incorrectly.

There are many things I am unhappy about, and many things root from a poor and disorganized administration. The classes that have graduated before us had very similar problems, they have tried and we have tried speaking to the administration about many of our concerns but we find the efforts futile as not many things have changed from year to year despite the countless efforts on the students' part to make change.

I hate to throw out all of this information out here in fear that many will just take it as a bitter student who wants to complain. So if anyone has any specific questions, I'd be willing to answer them; I just don't want to go off on a rant and seem like I'm only looking for things to complain about.

To Tanguera:

Thank you so much for your sincere reply. I do appreciate it.
It seems the more and more I look into Downstate the more and more I hear unbelievable negative comments.
To be fair, I do hear (or read I should say) about all of the programs.....that said, I take everything with a grain of salt. However, its the same comment about Downstate that keeps coming up again and again......"admin/prof. are not providing a learning experience."
And quite frankly....thats a HUGE problem. I want to learn and of course all my friends who are already nurses all agree the real learning starts when you get your first job......but I dont want to be unprepared for that first job.

However, the choices are pretty slim......not that many programs out there (accelerated) in this area.....and moving is not really an option.

By chance, what school would you go to if you did it all over again?

Best to you!
penbare

Where would I have gone if I had to do it all over again? I thought about that often, especially during my first semester here since we started in the summer and I actually was making arrangements to transfer out so I could attend another school that started in the Fall. I was told by some schools that I could still send in my deposit (as I had been admitted in the spring) because their classes still had space.

Unlike you, I was looking at schools outside of New York City. So many of my other schools would have been far, expensive, and would have been BSN/MSN programs.

In NYC, I only applied to Columbia, NYU, and Downstate. I got into all of them but I was convinced that they were all the same quality regardless of name. I have heard and read negative comments about all three schools so I figured that since Downstate would be cheaper, I would just attend school here. I wasn't convinced that the education at Columbia or NYU would really be worth the ~$60,000 more in tuition. However, I don't even think Downstate is worth the ~$12,500 worth of tuition.

I am not aware of any solid BSN program in the NYC area. The one accelerated BSN program that I thought was terrific was the one at Georgetown. I really was impressed with their program and it's a small class, 60 students or so a year, and they had a 100% NCLEX pass rate on the first try last year.

If you do have to go to Downstate, I would suggest to anyone who is going in, take a pharmacology class and a pathophysiology class before the summer session. That would help A LOT. The first semester has a 6-week pathophysiology course that you can place out of if you took it before. You will NOT have time to really learn all of the material but you will be expected to know all of the material. You will also take a 5-week pharmacology course and it will be very difficult to memorize all of the drugs and learn about them in such a short time.

Let me know if you have any more questions and i'll try to answer them as soon as I can.

Hello everyone!
I am looking to apply for programs beginning in Fall of 2010 and like many of you, I am concerned with the high tuition costs of some of these programs hence my decision to apply to SUNY dowstate. But reading all these negative posts sure makes me think twice!
Tanguera, you mentioned that you go into Columbia and NYU. Would you mind sharing some of your stats with us? Like GRE scores? Would greatly appreciated.
I also considering College of new rochelle and Pace University since moving is not an option for me and I'm looking into accelerated programs as well.
This has been quite a journey, not easy bu any means.
Thank you Tanguera for all your posts.

Hi eververyone, I too am considering applying to Downstate's accelerated nursing program but am missing two prerequisites as my major didn't require for me to take them. Does anyone know who is either in the program or have applied if they will still accept you into the program without the two prerequisites and allow you to take them while in the program. Should I even bother to apply.

This is easy. Take the classes in the spring, I assume chemistry and psychology are the classes you are missing or don't apply.

I am actually missing statistics and another psychology( I noticed they wanted 6 credits in psy, I only have 3) Did you go through the program with the same issue

They will not consider your application unless you have already completed your pre-reqs or are taking them in the upcoming term (and you have to show proof that you are registered). I was accepted with online credits in Statistics and Psychology. Try Empire State College. It's part of the SUNY system so you'll be paying SUNY tuition if you're in state.

Hi Lola89,

So sorry I didn't respond earlier. Getting into Columbia and NYU is not so much a feat. There were statistics online that Columbia's ETP program accepts about 70% of the applicants. At an info session at Columbia, they said they receive about 500-600 applications. I later found out that they received 50% more applications last year. So they may have received 1000 applications, took 700 of those, and according to a friend in the program, this year's incoming class was 203 people which is about 40 or 50 more ppl than the year before it. It seems like many people apply to Columbia, but do not attend because of various factors (money being one of the more common reasons).

I think a lot of ppl worry about stats (grades, GRE scores, volunterwork, etc.) when applying to NYU and Columbia. The funny thing is, it's a lot more competitive to get into Downstate than it is into NYU. A lot of ppl apply to Downstate because it's cheaper. At an info session, they told us that they take about 10% of the applicants. I am assuming that since Columbia got 50% more applications last year, I will be Downstate got a significantly larger applicant pool as well. So it's possible they acceptance rate is something more like 8%. There are a lot of ppl who got into Columbia and NYU that did NOT get into Downstate (I read in other posts) but if you get into Downstate, if you applied to Columbia or NYU, you most likely got in.

What is a shame is that Downstate takes a lot of very capable and intelligent people with a lot of potential, but since the program isn't very strong, it feels almost like wasted potential.

WOW Tanguera,

I actually dropped my application for Suny off last week an I am so afraid now. If it wasn't for the cost then I wouldnt even consider it. I did also apply to NYU and am waiting to hear. There are not enough choices in ny for second degree students