ABSN Duke Fall 2010

U.S.A. North Carolina

Published

Hi All!

I have decided to take the plunge and leave my career as a mental health therapist to gain a BSN in Nursing and hopefully move straight into MSN program. Is anyone else applying to Duke in the Fall??:yeah:

This made me laugh (only cause I thought the same thing). Stringer Bell forever!

As far as Baltimore vs. Durham, I know little about either. But I do know the cost of living is higher in Baltimore, and considering JHU is already more than Durham, I would prefer Duke. You might have to tag on a few G's more to your loan to live in Baltimore. Do you know anything about financial aid yet?

The difference in reputation is negligible (both are good).

What is the student:teacher ratio? How many clinical hours does the program include? Does JHU do tuition reimbursement to work in the hospital?

Thanks a lot! I'm actually asking about the job market in general--I'm married so it's important my husband can get hired. He's an environmental engineer. Do you know anything about that?

I haven't found a cost of living difference between the two cities. But I'm coming from Portland, so both are a big step down in price.

My husband is actually working in Georgia right now so he's going to drive up to NC this weekend and visit Duke & the Triangle area. Is the Duke nursing school attached with the rest of the campus? What's the best way to go about parking somewhere central and taking a walking tour to see the school and campus? Thanks for mentioning those neighborhoods--I will tell him to visit those. Would you say Durham is pretty easy to navigate?

Thanks a lot for sharing all the info :-)

Well, the job market in general isn't great here, as with most places, but being an environmental engineer might not be so bad. I would imagine that government jobs are a possibility (including local and state, since the capital is Raleigh), and there might be environmental firms at Research Triangle Park (RTP), so I would check RTP's website to see what kinds of companies are there. Another good resource might be the Duke Nicholas School of the Environment website, because it might have some resources for job seekers.

Durham can be a little tricky to navigate. The nursing school is on the edge campus, not far from the hospital. I would park near the chapel and walk around from there. He can probably find a campus map on Duke's website. The visitor's center in downtown Durham has a good free city map if he wants to explore further.

As far as neighborhoods, East Durham is generally not where you want to be. I would check out the website www.city-data.com and look through the forums for Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill. There is some good information. It is not all good, but it is mostly helpful. There is one user called North Raleigh Guy who posts a lot of pictures of neighborhoods that he likes, which are generally the good ones.

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To the locals-

Have you heard anything about Bob Schmitz Properties?

I'm looking to be walking/biking distance from the West campus. Do you guys have any suggestions of apt complexes? How did you all find places to live?

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To the locals-

Have you heard anything about Bob Schmitz Properties?

I'm looking to be walking/biking distance from the West campus. Do you guys have any suggestions of apt complexes? How did you all find places to live?

Bob Schmitz is your basic landlord in a college town of 275,000: IT DEPENDS. I've heard of him (and really, not him, but his company, because let's face it the guy is loaded and has people to do his work) being ok to quite good, with a few naysayers. Pick the property well; if you see yourself wanting to get that screen door fixed at some point during your stay, maybe its not the place for you. But if you can live with a little of the usual landlord neglect, I think you'd find most of his properties quite pleasant.

-j

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Does anyone know if there are any really bad areas that you would not want to live in? I don't really know the names/locations of neighborhood areas, so if you could street names or landmarks as a reference, that'd be great. Thanks!

I'll reiterate the above and approve ONE stereotype of Durham: Avoid neighborhoods east of downtown. Perhaps most importantly because Duke is west of downtown... but also because they're crummy. Don't be shy of NORTHeast of downtown, though.. if you find a place in that area I can be more specific.

-j

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Specializes in Public Health - Pediatrics.

I just wanted to let you guys know that they have ranked the waitlist. (I'm number 12. woo hoo!) Hopefully, they'll get to me. :D Good luck everyone!

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#12?? That's AWESOME!!

Good Luck!

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Hey Abbie Grace,

I can't reply to your message because I haven't posted enough times yet:uhoh3:

If you want, you can try to contact me through the Yahoo group (crockett1066) or the Facebook group, or let me know if it's okay to post the info here!

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Hi, I am also on Duke's waitlist (#9) and I was wondering if anyone had any idea whether or not those of us who may get accepted from the waitlist will have a chance at any of the scholarships, because it seemed as though those would have already been given out by the time we would move up on the list? Thanks!

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Hi Shannon,

Not sure if you received this email from "her"

Due to circumstances beyond our control, we haven't been able to prepare financial aid packages as early as we originally thought. Therefore, we feel it is only fair to extend the decision notification deadline to April 1st. Financial aid packages will be available before this deadline and this should allow candidates to make a more informed decision about the program.

So it appears that a few things are held up... maybe you'll have a better sense of where you stand on the waitlist by April 1- and whether or not you'll be eligible for scholarships. (I'm guessing you won't be considered for them unless you've officially accepted an admissions offer) But hey, a lot could happen in a month... 9 people could decline.

hope this helps! :)

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Yeah I heard this from someone else...I was looking forward to possibly hearing from them soon so this news is frustrating! But oh well, in their place I would want to know my financial aid package too. From reading the past posts it looks like at least one person has declined so I think that would move me up to #8 at least, since I was 9 on the day that decisions came out. Thanks for the update!

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I am going to apply for DUKE's ABSN program for Spring 2011. I am currently taking some prereqs and will be retaking the GRE. I have been working at a clinical diagnostic lab for 5 years. Any advice on how to make my application a strong one?! My undergrad GPA is a 3.0 and I hope to get a better grade on the GRE. How much are they weighted in your application? Is volunteer work recommended??

Thank you.

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Specializes in Neuro ICU.
I am going to apply for DUKE's ABSN program for Spring 2011. I am currently taking some prereqs and will be retaking the GRE. I have been working at a clinical diagnostic lab for 5 years. Any advice on how to make my application a strong one?! My undergrad GPA is a 3.0 and I hope to get a better grade on the GRE. How much are they weighted in your application? Is volunteer work recommended??

Thank you.

I don't even think they're really weighting the GRE much from here on out... I know our application group was given the option to have it left out of the application. That said, my undergrad GPA was only a 3.3 and my GRE was a 1470, and I was accepted, so perhaps it helps.

I think - and got the distinct impression - that the essay, recommendations, and interview are very heavily weighted. I did not start volunteering until after I had interviewed with Duke, so I know it's entirely possible to get in without service work; however, they do have a service to the community scholarship if you've been doing volunteer work for a long time or in some significant capacity.

For those of you in the August class, speaking of the scholarships - the essay-based ones, at least - the decisions have been sent out to those who were awarded them, though complete financial aid packages aren't done yet. They just emailed the decisions out today to help people who were waiting on the results to make a decision on accepting/declining acceptance. I have no idea if they've done the same thing with the non-essay need-based ones... anyone know?

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