University of Cincinnati

Nursing Students SRNA

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I am new to the site, but just got the acceptance e-mail to University of Cincinnati for Sept '07. Wondering if anyone else out there is planning to enter this class? It would be nice to know someone before I ge there...

I have found the information here to be invaluable in my quest to get accepted to a program. Thanks to all who have posted and shared information.

I just recently applied to UC CRNA program, and am hoping that I get an interview. Can anyone offer me any suggestions regarding the pretest, and/or verbal interview.

:eek:

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The best advice is be yourself. If you don't know the answer simple state you don't know or can't think of it right now but you would look it up. They expect you to a little nervous. If you try and B.S. your way through they will know. As far as questions go they have various ones so I couldn't tell which ones to know. It could be from what lab values you want to watch when infusing a lot of blood to telling them about cardiogenic shock and what values would you expect on a swan. As far as pretest just know your common ICU drugs and calculations and if you don't know again don't B.S. the answers..they will know. Again just relax be yourself and enjoy the interview. It is a great school and a great program. It is very hard but very rewarding also and well worth it in the long run. Anyways I hoped this helped so good luck.

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Specializes in OR, ICU, CRNA.

Brittcon,

Glad to hear you want to come to UC! UC is consistently ranked among the best schools--ranked 10-11th by U.S. News and World Report for a long time. The director of the program was last year's AANA president. I am a first year student there. Most of this reply is a tweaked copied and pasted reply I gave someone last year--SRNA's have no time :banghead:

Ok here goes:

Application:

1)"Frustrating" is the word the comes to mind--you need to fill out an app. for the graduate school of nursing and the CRNA program--make sure you do both. There is a convenient checklist on the website under "nursing forms".

2) The guy who coordinates the graduate admissions is curt to say the least when you call with questions (I cut the guy a break since I am sure he is inundated in Sept./Oct...) and he tends to answer specific questions you email him with the same form-letter info page--without answering the questions. ??? GRRRR!

3)Once all of the material is in (send it with signature delivery confirmation for sure), you will get invites for interviews in 2-3 weeks (mine came via email on 10-19-07) (look a calendar and apply some leap-year math to figure out when it may be in '08)--that was the easy part. To my knowledge, my transcripts were not dissected to the point where I had to present evidence that my chemistry class was this or that etc.--they seemed fair like that. But the frustrating part of dealing with UC is that you never get any feedback on whether they have everything--other schools send out email reminders every so often or have online "accounts" that you sign onto to check your status--not UC. They ask for 3 references: Rule of thumb: better be to line up 4--someone will forget, trust me. The website has some conflicting info with regard to the references and some other stuff too--just use the electronic version of the reference letter that does not require an actual signature (your raters will appreciate the ease of the electronic version)--I filled in the demographic info for them too--make it as easy as possible without actually evaluating yourself.

4)My interview was on 11-12-07--Monday--they run all that week (the week before Thanksgiving) with first choice given to out-of-towners for the time slots as a courtesy for travel arrangements etc. After the interview, I got an email saying I made the cut in the p.m. the day before Thanksgiving--sometimes it is after (again look at calendar and apply leap-year math) Thanksgiving. The official hard-copy letter comes in mid-Dec. Scared me to death-- my buddy got his acceptance email and called me to tell me his good news that day...I waited and waited...mine went to my spam folder on AOL--YIKES! At least I figured it all out before my 7P-7A shift in the ICU that night and went to work pretty happy. Whew.

5) The interview was very laid-back and lasted about 30 Min. It was me, the director, one faculty, and one student in a small room. The faculty, student, and I did most of the talking--the director mostly observed and commented on a few things here and there. I had one clinical question--be prepared for anything--I compared notes with a buddy of mine after and some other girl who interviewed that day too--NONE were the same--it is CCRN kinda stuff. The rest was stuff like "Name 3 qualities about you that..blah blah" "Do you have a support plan/system in place" "Why do you want to be a CRNA?" "What does a CRNA do?" "Why do you want to go to UC?" "Why should we pick you over everyone else?" "Tell us about your ICU (you should prepare a good sales pitch for your ICU)?" They conclude with questions you have for them--think out and write down 4-5 questions--take them with you and read from your notes! You will feel SMOKED by that point--written questions will help you remember what you want to ask. Then, there was a written test of about 30-ish questions--like a mini CCRN test--get a CCRN book and study it a bit--not like you're taking the CCRN--just check it out. There may be questions you will not be able to answer--by design I am sure--admit what you don't know and don't bother BS'ing some lame answer. You will then get a time period for Q&A with current senior students. BTW my stats were 1.5yrs combined adult CV/Med/Surg ICU, meager GRE 1034, 3.87 GPA. Write a good resume and maybe take it with you to refer to during the interview as they may ask you about things it contains--it looks professional in my opinion. Oh yeah, guys wear a suit and tie to be sure. Just be yourself--I am sure they can smell fake like a shark can smell a drop of blood from miles away in the ocean.

Use the advanced search on this website and Google info about UC and other schools interviews--there is a ton on allnurses about UC from like 2004-2005. Where do you currently live? Demographics--my class is about 2/3 ladies and 1/3 guys, most are from, KY, Cincinnati, and other places in Ohio...about 3-5 from out of state further west. 29 Accepted for my class--expect about 2 x's as many interview slots as seats (58-60 or so). Hope that helps...GTG I have my first clinical in the a.m.

Bryan

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Bryan,

Thank you very much for your reply!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am very hopeful that I will be admitted to UC for 2009, for a multitude of reasons. I am married and live in Lexington, and unfortunately my husband does not have the option of moving. Therefore he will be staying here, in our house, and I will be moving back in with my parents who live in Northern Kentucky. I am also ready for a change of pace. I work in the Trauma/Surgical ICU at UK and, although I continue to learn everyday I go to work, I need a new challenge. UK is a level one Trauma Center so as you can imagine we get extremly critical patients, that have well prepared me for CRNA school.

I have also choosen UC because of its stats. I know that the program is one of the oldest in the nation, and is consistantly ranked in the top 10%.

I am trying to shadow as many CRNA's that I can right now. I have shadowed our head CRNA here at UK and I am scheduled to shadow someone else this Thursday at UC. I have also emailed and left messages for another asking to be able to sit in on a lecture class in the program. I unfortunately have not gotten any responses. Do you know of how I could make this happen? I know it is short notice but I am off all week and would be more than willing to come to any class at anytime. (Except for Thursday, because I will be in the OR.)

Great luck at Clinicals, hopefully I will be in your shoes next year

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Specializes in OR, ICU, CRNA.

2008 U. of Cincinnati applicants,

Even though my interview invite came 10-19-2007 I overheard that invites may not come out until the first week of November...DON"T FREAK OUT! Good luck!

B

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Beedog -- do you know if this is also pushing back the actual interview dates and acceptance notification????

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Specializes in OR, ICU, CRNA.

All I can say is that in the past they usually try to let everyone know if they are in before Thanksgiving, I also know that it can be after Thanksgiving too. I know it is a really anxious time for you guys...I don't want to admit how often I was checking my email after like the 15th of October last year. I had to make travel arrangements etc. and was watching the airfare go up literally every day--nerve-wracking. Our director was the 2007-2008 AANA president and she just finished her term...I would imagine some leisure time would be in order! Just hang in there and keep watching your email and look on here for when people post about those notifications go out. Good luck.

Beedog

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Specializes in PICU.

I got an email today from UC for an interview!!! FINALLY! :yeah:

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I have an interview too!!!!! I am so excited!!!!!:heartbeat

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Specializes in OR, ICU, CRNA.

Congrats,

Let me know if I can be of any help of you. Who is traveling from out of state?

B

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i'll be coming from the suburbs of detroit, MI to interview at univ of cinci!!! anyone know about the interview process there??

JC

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Specializes in PICU.

i will be traveling in from Denver, CO for the interview... i welcome any words of wisdom about their interviewing process!!

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