Anyone applying to the Duke ABSN program for Fall 2009 (c/o 2011)?

Den1978 · Jan 12, 2009

Hi Earthygirl:

Thats a great question I wonder how many people they are interviewing. Good luck to you!!

earthygirl · Jan 12, 2009

Thank you Den 1978! What does everyone else currently do for a living? I'm an Environmental Scientist in Rhode Island. I'm actually moving to the Durham area this summer (my boyfriend is a dr. and doing his fellowship at Duke). Duke is the first school I've applied to so far and I'm planning on applying to UNC and NCCU. Is anyone else concentrating their search in the Triangle area or is everyone looking at schools across the country? Thanks for the info. I've read on this thread so far!

ybq2008 · Jan 16, 2009

I just wanted to quickly wish everyone who's interviewing today the best of luck! I know I'm a little late, as you guys are currently mid-interview, but I'm sending out prayers for you. Have a good time!

ybq2008 · Jan 16, 2009

Thank you Den 1978! What does everyone else currently do for a living? I'm an Environmental Scientist in Rhode Island. I'm actually moving to the Durham area this summer (my boyfriend is a dr. and doing his fellowship at Duke). Duke is the first school I've applied to so far and I'm planning on applying to UNC and NCCU. Is anyone else concentrating their search in the Triangle area or is everyone looking at schools across the country? Thanks for the info. I've read on this thread so far!

Hey earthygirl, welcome to the thread :)

I'm interviewing at the end of January as well, so I'll look forward to meeting you. I went to the open house in September and if I can remember correctly, I believe they try to interview around 70% of the applicant pool. Which means, if there are approximately 200 applicants, they interview around 140 and admit about 50% of the interviewees. That's the assumption that I've been going on, but I think they will give us a better idea on interview day.

I serendipitously applied to Duke this past fall, so I haven't really considered other schools yet. I've been thinking, should things not work out this time around, I'll probably apply to Barry, Emory, OU (I'm from Oklahoma) and Duke again.

Have a great day everyone! :)

-Julie

MCNS2B · Jan 16, 2009

Hi All! Just found this thread. I did my interview today via the phone... they were SO nice and receptive... it seemed like they liked me, but maybe they all sound like that... one of the women I spoke with said my answer "struck a chord with her and took her breath away" and the other said, "I agree, made me smile" so hopefully that is a good sign.

From posts from other years on this board, I saw that some people found out VERY quickly after they interviewed, while some had to wait some time. On the phone, the interviewers said end of February - which is SO far away...

is that what everyone else heard?

how did Duke days go for everyone else???

SFChef · Jan 16, 2009

Congrats MDiG for having a successful interview today...I'm glad I'm not the only one who is doing a phone interview (it's too far to fly for a day in North Carolina).

Hopefully everyone will hear quickly after the interviews, but I guess the end of February is only a month away...

For everyone that had interviews today, I hope they went well. If you were at Duke Days, post and let us know what you thought of the experience and if it makes you more excited about the possibility of attending such a great program!

I am scheduling my interview next week, so I'll post an update once that happens.

KarenC9485 · Jan 17, 2009

I interviewed at Duke Days yesterday. It was amazing. I had not previously visited Duke so I did not know what to expect. Every faculty and staff member that I interacted with was wonderful. They definitely showed us true Southern hospitality. The interviews were very laid back. The interview was conducted with two faculty members at once. They had a list of five general questions that they ask and then they fielded questions from you. They also had read my application and asked me a few questions about specific things that I had talked about. It was not stressful at all. The new facility is very nice. Everything is top of the line. We had students give us a tour of the hospital and they then conducted a question and answer section. I learned a lot from talking to them. There were two December graduates that gave the tours. They both already had jobs with the Duke system and sounded very pleased with their placements. I learned a lot but I will list a few things that I found most interesting...

1.) When entering the program, you have to pick one of two pathways. These are 1 credit hour courses that you take special every semester. The two pathways are language and research. The language pathway features medical spanish. The research pathway introduces you to the basics of nursing research in the instance that you may be interested in pursuing another degree such as a PhD.

2.) In your last semester in the program, one of the courses that you take is last semester call nursing specialty synthesis. In this course, you listed your top three choices of specialty placement and they attempt to pair you up with a preceptor in that specialty. You work 14 (12 hour) shifts with that person. They told us that last year (3/4) of the students were offered a job where they did their synthesis course.

3.) You start going to clinicals in week three of your first semester.

4.) The interviewers told me that I would hear back by the end of Feb.-mid-March. The students told us that some people hear as early as the week after their interviews, but told us not to worry if we don't. The way they said it was explained to them by the faculty is that during the process there are always some "definite yes's" and they go ahead and offer admission to those. Some interviewee's they like, but hold us to see the rest of the Duke days groups.

Also, Duke Health System has up'ed the amount that they will pay back to just a little above 49,000 over three years, but it is taxed at a rate of 38%.

I hope this has helped. Feel free to ask questions.

Karen

ybq2008 · Jan 17, 2009

Karen,

Thanks for your through post concerning Duke Days. I'm glad you had a great time and good luck to you!

MCNS2B · Jan 17, 2009

Karen,

Thanks so much for posting your experience. It sounded like a really positive experience and definitely makes me more excited about the program. I would LOVE to be one of those few definite yes's haha... I guess end of Feb isn't TOO far away!

Again, thanks for the information and I hope everyone keeps each other posted!

~ Molly

earthygirl · Jan 19, 2009

Mdgi and Karen,

Thanks so much for your feedback. Your responses are making me even more excited for my trip down to Duke. Best of luck to both of you! Karen, do you mind me asking a few questions? Here they are: About how many people were at your interview day? Do you/did it seem like other people know what type of nursing they are looking to pursue? Did that seem important during the interview? And this is kind of a silly question, would it be overkill to wear a suit? So great to hear you both had a good experience. Again, good luck and let the waiting begin!

KarenC9485 · Jan 19, 2009

Earthygirl,

I believe that there were 25 people at the interview day. From things said, I kinda gathered that they did about 15 phone interviews that day as well. I don't know that for sure though. I was never asked directly what type of nursing that I wanted to go into. In my interview, we did talk about my desire to pursue a doctorate degree, but I was never asked specifics. Many of the people that I talked to knew what areas they might be interested in, but it did not seem too important. It would not be overkill to wear a suit. It was about half and half. Many people did wear suits and a lot of people just worn business casual. Just look nice and be comfortable. One more thing about the number of interviewee's... the current students told us that the number of interviewees vary from day to day.

They said that they interview about 70% of applicants are interviewed and about 50% of those interviewed are offered acceptance based on previous years.

I hope this has helped! Good luck to you!

Karen

Den1978 · Jan 20, 2009

Hello all:

Wanted to share that I also had my interview last Friday at Duke flew from NY to NC. I agree wtih both Karen and Mdig516, they are very nice and make you feel at home type of feeling. I was interviewed by two as well and they had looked into my application with all my details such as Letter of recommendation and everything. I am crossing my fingers that we all get accepted, Duke is an excellent school for nursing.:typing

Let's see how it goes with responses we all get. Good luck to all who interview in the next weeks to follow.

Denise