Acceptance Letters? MGH Direct-Entry Master's in Nursing

kd23 · Apr 6, 2011

Hey Molls11 and Nat Sta,

I'll definitely let you know about Saturday. I'm very excited to learn more about the program and meet the others and eventually meet you guys too! :)

johanne502002 · Apr 11, 2011

How was the info session last saturday. Hey molls11, will you be attendiing MGH?

kd23 · Apr 12, 2011

Hey johanne,

the info session at MGH on Sat was really great. Some professors from the department, along with the dean of nursing were there and they discussed that there were 499 applicants and 96 accepted students! They also had someone from financial services talk about financial aid. I though it was very helpful! They opened it up for questions and that was what took place the majority of the time..they talked about the schedule for fall, clinical placements and other things. if you want to know anything specific, i can try to answer it!

Nat_Sta · Apr 12, 2011

Hey Kd23,

What did they say about Financial Aid? Is the Merit scholarship a one time thing?

Also when does the semester start in the fall?

Thank you! :)

johanne502002 · Apr 12, 2011

hey KD23,

What is te class schedule like for the fall. Can you please give me some details. What about the financial aid package, were they specific on how much money they are giving? last question , is the number of admitted student the same as the class size? I know some schools accept more student than the actual class size? Thanks for the info

choco80 · Apr 13, 2011

Hi guys - they said that the merit scholarship is awarded only once, upon acceptance (the same thing with the need-based grants), and that they are generally 2 year scholarships. The need-based package (non-grants) is generally the same for most people - you qualify for the full federal direct loan amount (I believe it was $20,500 total each year, divided between $8000 subsidized and $12,500 unsubsidized - or it might be 8500 subsidized and 12000 unsubsidized, I forget), and you can take out the remainder in either private loans or federal PLUS loans.

I really liked the info session - I thought one of the most informative things they said was that everyone will have preceptors/clinical placements in the NP part of the program. This was a concern of mine initially since some of the other programs I was considering in the area have had problems placing students in the NP portion, and students have had to actively seek out preceptors on their own. They said they will not do that, and that while each person may not get their "dream" position, everyone will have something. They also have a dedicated person on the staff who handles this.

A couple of other thoughts on the session - I was surprised about the number of people in attendance. It was a very large group - I was expecting 30 people or so, but there were easily over 100, maybe 150 there I would guess? They had to bring extra chairs into the room several times. I also wish they structured it a bit differently and had a student panel, instead of just 1 student, to speak with us. At this point, as admitted students, we really want to speak to current students and get advice, their perspective, etc. and I think having a diversity of perspectives really helps.

Some other things that were said (albeit, quickly). They said that there are generally 10-15 people in each specialty in each class. Also, I was talking with some of the faculty afterwards, and they indicated that the waitlist was very long this year, and that a ton of people applied in Family Practice, and that they offered spots in Adult/Gero to some of the waitlist people who applied in FNP (as we already knew). I heard a couple of people ask (afterwards) if it was possible to be placed on the waitlist for an FNP spot because they wanted to change their focus, and they were told you can't add yourself at this point to the waitlist for another specialty if you were accepted into another. They did say that people who wanted to change during the program could do so if there was an opening, but there was no guarantee.

Also, johanne, they didn't specifically address how many students they anticipate will enroll of the 96 they admitted, but it never is 100% - it is never even close to that, usually. I am sure they have an anticipated yield, like all colleges/grad schools do, and they admit a certain number and waitlist a certain number based on that.

I hope this is helpful - a bunch of people were there, and I'm sure many from this board, so I'm sure they'll have a lot more to add!

johanne502002 · Apr 13, 2011

Thank you so much. you answered all my questions. that was very nice of you.

choco80 · Apr 13, 2011

No problem! Good luck johanne.

molls11 · Apr 13, 2011

Did they give information about clinical faculty to student ratios and number of total number of clinical hours for pre-RN and specialty portions of the program?

Nat_Sta · Apr 13, 2011

Thanks for the info Choco80!

Did they say anything about how the class registration works and when will we be able to register for classes?

kd23 · Apr 13, 2011

Sorry I didn't reposnd quicker! But choco80 went into great detail about the info session! =) Just to touch on one other thing, the fall schedule is set up for us all. Once they receive our deposit, the registrar takes care of registering us all for the classes we need. We have classes from 9-4 on M and W. Tuesdays are the mental health clinical. Thursdays and Fridays are preparation for med/surg clinical which will begin in October and take place on either Thurs or Fri. Hope that helps!

kd23 · Apr 13, 2011

Hey molls,

I'm not sure about the faculty to student ratio. They did say for clinicals that it would be 4-6 people per instructor, which is great. I'm not sure about for RN licensing how many clinical hrs we get; they said there is not a specific amt needed, but for the NP portion, they did say we get roughly 620 hrs and only 500 is required