TWU in Denton NP Program OR UTA NP Program

carachel2 · Apr 20, 2011

i graduated from the uta fnp program a few years ago and will try to answer a few of your questions.

1. what do you like and dislike about the program? like = flexible somewhat, a lot of the early classes are online so definitely take advantage of that. dislike = theory, research and then research and theory - ugh ugh and double ugh. hated them all. but you gotta play the game and write the papers in order to get to the core classes.

2. what are their family np exam pass rates? i don't know the stats, but in our class we had two who failed. :eek: they were the cockiest ones in the class and thought they were all that and thought they were the same thing as an md. not. the rest of us took our time, took a review class, studied hard and passed on the first try.

3. did you work full time or part time while attending school? or not work at all? i worked part-time at first and then as clinicals got busier i stopped working. i am married with a child though. if i was single and had no other obligations, i'm pretty sure i could've kept working at least part-time.

4. would you encourage me (single, no kids) to work full time and go to school full-time? i would encourage you to work part-time if you are remotely able to do so. you will have more of a life and you will actually learn the material so you will be ready to apply the knowledge vs. just cramming frantically for a test.

5. which is easier to juggle, working night shift or day shift and attending school? the ones who did the best were those who worked just weekends. uta makes you sign some sort of agreement that you will not work nights and then show up for clinicals the next day.

6. did you have to go for an interview before acceptance into the np program? what did it consist of? no interview at uta back when i applied. have no idea if that has changed or not.

7. do you think my 2 years experience as a staff rn in a hospital is enough experience to go back for my masters fnp? yes, depends on what you want to do with it. if you can possibly do so, i found that working in the er was very helpful.

8. what made you decide on your school? what was the determining factor? location, location and flexibility and good reputation. uta and twu both have good reputations.

9. do you have to find your own perceptors? how did you find them? how does the school assist you find perceptors, if you are not able to find one? for your first three clinical classes, uta will find you preceptors. after that there is somewhat of an expectation that you have established contacts and a good reputation and you will arrange your own. if you have difficulty though, they will step in and arrange.

10. was anyone able to find grants or scholarships to attend grad school? uta has a few grad scholarships you can apply for after you have completed the first semester or two.

11. how many classes were online and on campus? because i will have to commute from lewisville and denton is closer to be than arlington. the program may have changed, but at uta you can do at least the first 4-5 classes online. even when you get into the on campus programs, they try to schedule them so you are only going to uta every other week. advanced assessment was every other saturday i believe.

good luck and feel free to pm me.

missvictoriat · Apr 21, 2011

Wow!

Thank you sooo much, carachel2! I greatly appreciate your very in depth feedback!

carachel2 · Apr 21, 2011

Wow!
Thank you sooo much, carachel2! I greatly appreciate your very in depth feedback!

No problem, I hope it helps ! I live just about 20 minutes from UTA so I chose UTA. I have friends who graduated from TWU and while we ALL hated the core fluff classes that are just time consuming busy work, the other classes were well taught and we felt the program was worth the time and money. Everyone from my class was employed within 6 months of graduating.

At one time, TCU was supposed to be developing an NP program. Unless you like bragging about spending a LOT of extra money, I would advise you to STAY AWAY! Very, very expensive and you get nothing more for all that money. I feel the same way about their undergrad BSN program.

missvictoriat · Apr 21, 2011

No problem, I hope it helps ! I live just about 20 minutes from UTA so I chose UTA. I have friends who graduated from TWU and while we ALL hated the core fluff classes that are just time consuming busy work, the other classes were well taught and we felt the program was worth the time and money. Everyone from my class was employed within 6 months of graduating.
At one time, TCU was supposed to be developing an NP program. Unless you like bragging about spending a LOT of extra money, I would advise you to STAY AWAY! Very, very expensive and you get nothing more for all that money. I feel the same way about their undergrad BSN program.

Employed within 6 months of graduating?! That is EXCELLENT! Where do you work if you don't mind me asking? I've also been looking up job postings for NP and it seems like there are not alot of postings need NPs for clinics (which is the area I want to work in). I'm tired of the hospital. Being a NEW NP with no experience, how did you and your friends find jobs within 6 months of graduating? Do you think it was your RN EXPERIENCE that landed you a job? Did your school help you with finding a job? Where they NP Recruiters coming to your school before you graduated?

I agree, I would NEVER go to a private school. TOO MUCH MONEY for NOTHING! At first I thought TWU was a private school. But then again, I'm from Oklahoma so I don't know too much about Texas universities and colleges. I moved here just to attend grad school. Oklahoma's only NP program is OU, I believe. And I did NOT want to go there. I think I"m leaning towards TWU because Denton is literally 10 min from Lewisville, where I live.

eglide87 · Apr 21, 2011

I,too, would suggest whatever is closer but please don't rule out private schools. I practice in Ft Worth and went to a distance program through University of Pennsylvania. It was worth every penny! They cut out the theory, and all of the other fluff classes that NP schools like to pad their curriculum with these days. No capstone or professional paper! Just advanced patient care management. Good Luck in your studies!!

carachel2 · Apr 22, 2011

Employed within 6 months of graduating?! That is EXCELLENT! Where do you work if you don't mind me asking? I've also been looking up job postings for NP and it seems like there are not alot of postings need NPs for clinics (which is the area I want to work in). I'm tired of the hospital. Being a NEW NP with no experience, how did you and your friends find jobs within 6 months of graduating? Do you think it was your RN EXPERIENCE that landed you a job? Did your school help you with finding a job? Where they NP Recruiters coming to your school before you graduated?
I agree, I would NEVER go to a private school. TOO MUCH MONEY for NOTHING! At first I thought TWU was a private school. But then again, I'm from Oklahoma so I don't know too much about Texas universities and colleges. I moved here just to attend grad school. Oklahoma's only NP program is OU, I believe. And I did NOT want to go there. I think I"m leaning towards TWU because Denton is literally 10 min from Lewisville, where I live.

I would say most of the jobs are via word of mouth gleaned from your clinical sites or professors. One of my school buddies remembered two residents that she worked with when she was in ICU. She knew they had set up their own practices so she walked right in with a resume. One of them had just happened to be thinking of adding an NP and BINGO she had a job. My job was through word of mouth via one of my instructors. I have not heard of FNPs having a hard time finding a job in this area. Average hourly pay varies between 40.00-48.00 an hour.

hunnybaby24, BSN, APRN, NP · Apr 26, 2011

Hi carachel! Your post was very informative. I would like to go back to school to get my NP in a year. What have you heard about the Houston area as far as how hard it is to find a job as a FNP? Did you shadow an FNP before you started NP school? I think I should before I make the leap. I know that I don't want to be in the hospital setting anymore after this. Nursing in the clinic area seems to be more fitting for me. Is there opportunity for you to go into a specialty like cardiology for instance?

Thanks for the info!

carachel2 · Apr 27, 2011

Hi carachel! Your post was very informative. I would like to go back to school to get my NP in a year. What have you heard about the Houston area as far as how hard it is to find a job as a FNP? Did you shadow an FNP before you started NP school? I think I should before I make the leap. I know that I don't want to be in the hospital setting anymore after this. Nursing in the clinic area seems to be more fitting for me. Is there opportunity for you to go into a specialty like cardiology for instance?
Thanks for the info!

Yes, there is opportunity to go into specialty areas but you really need to do your homework. I was actually offered a job in a cardiology office. I turned it down for two reasons: I found I REALLY liked primary prevention and cardiology outpatient was in/out and not doing much teaching, etc. HATED IT. Secondly, it involved a lot of inpatient rounding and I happen to be one of "those NPs" who thinks FNP programs do not prepare you for acute care.

missvictoriat · May 28, 2011

Hey, i got accepted into texas womans' university family np program today!!!

Wavewave · May 31, 2011

Congrats, missvictoriat!

Would you share some info of your credential (e.g. GPA/GRE, years of experience) please if you don't mind?

Thanks!

missvictoriat · May 31, 2011

Congrats, missvictoriat!
Would you share some info of your credential (e.g. GPA/GRE, years of experience) please if you don't mind?
Thanks!

THANK YOU, WAVEWAVE!

I have two years experience in Med-Surg/Telemetry/Oncology and a cumulative GPA of 3.8. My GRE scores sucked sooo bad. I'm embarassed to say. Have you applied to FNP school, if so, where?