Applicants to Portland/Salem Area Nursing Schools 2014

U.S.A. Oregon

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I know that it's early, but I really wanted to get a jump on this. I have read the past two years' threads from start to finish and have seen the amazing support given by everyone involved. Considering how competitive it is for nursing school admission, it is extremely informative and heart-warming. I will be applying to all the schools in the Portland/Salem area to which I will qualify. This next year is going to be rough, but ever since I started on this journey I have loved every moment.

A little about me:

  • I am 33, married, no kids.
  • I live in Salem and have taken the bulk of my prerequisites at Chemeketa.
  • I have been working as a Dental Assistant for 2 years and feel that it is supremely unfair that many of the OCNE schools do not count dental assisting towards their "direct patient care" discretionary points. (I went to school for a year to become a dental assistant. I have dealt with medical emergencies, bodily fluids and have had my fingers in mouths on a daily basis! I'm grumbling, I know.)
  • I have a 4.0 GPA (so far) for all of the OCNE prerequisites (My single B in one of three Chemistry classes will haunt me when I apply to Linfield)
  • I am still one term away from finishing my prerequisites for the majority of the schools to which I plan on applying
  • I don't really think that I will be lucky enough to be accepted to any of the Portland-area community colleges due to my lack of necessary discretionary points (if any of you CURRENT students have found otherwise, I would be very interested to find out what you know!)
  • I will be applying anyway, because I know that I should at least make it onto a waiting list or two and as I have seen in previous threads - they do go through their waiting lists!
  • I sincerely hope that all my hard work will pay off and that I will be accepted SOMEWHERE

Again, I know this is early, but I look forward to seeing the responses from everyone!

I had my proctored essay for OHSU yesterday! It wasn't so bad, until the snow caused them to close down the school. Thankfully that was right when I finished! I am happy with it! Crossing my fingers!

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I had my proctored essay for OHSU yesterday! It wasn't so bad, until the snow caused them to close down the school. Thankfully that was right when I finished! I am happy with it! Crossing my fingers!

I had my proctored essay on Thursday! It was nice to be able to just write and not over analyze as I would have done if it was a traditional essay response on an application. Now all we can do is wait...well I have to submit the supplemental application, it's done just need to pay!

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Hi all,

I, too, am a nursing school hopeful living in the Portland area. I've been working on pre-reqs for almost 2 years now, and am applying this winter for the first time. I've sent all of my application materials to PCC and MHCC already; I'm almost done with essays and will submit my OHSU BSRN application in the next few days. I completed my proctored essay last week. I think I stand a decent chance of getting into at least one of the schools: my pre-req grades are excellent, I have a year of volunteer clinic experience, and I think I write a pretty mean essay. But, OHSU is my dream and seems sooo competitive, I wonder if I cut the mustard for that program. I heard something like in the past, OHSU Portland campus received hundreds of applications for only 24 spots. That just seems so crazy, and it's not like the other schools are much less competitive. At the Nursing Informations Session I went to at MHCC, they said that last year their stack of applications to the program was over 6' tall.

Thanks for everything you've shared on this forum, previous nursing-school hopefuls. I really appreciate being able to hear of your experience with this stuff I'm going through... And much luck to other hopefuls! Hope to see you in my cohort next fall (...or spring, or a year from next fall...) wherever we wind up.

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Also, to missjordie: I'm sooo glad I got the proctored essay done last week! I feel very lucky. I imagine it is such a headache for anybody who couldn't do it earlier. I think at PCC RC --------------- was offering to proctor on Saturday. I'll bet a lot of people were counting on that, and I imagine they're pretty upset that the campus was closed from the snow.

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I know. The number 24 is pretty discouraging. Any flaws in my application are like little daggers in my stomach (regardless of the 4.0 in prereqs). It seems strange to want something so badly, to give your soul to the process, and it feels like a coin toss. I am honestly a really great student, I wasn't when I was young. It's taken a lot of positive self-talk to get this far- so I'm just continuing to do so. When you want something bad enough- it will happen eventually. It seems to be that persistence is key here. I'm not going to give up regardless. My heart is sold on nursing.

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Bry- I was at the PCC with --------------- on Thursday! Were you there?

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Proctored essays already? I'm surprised since the cut off for applications is Feb 15...

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Proctored essays are part of the application for OHSU's Portland campus BSRN.

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Jordie-- No, I did my essay earlier in the week. I'm so relieved it's over!! I hope I did alright.

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Ahhhh ok. Misunderstood. I forgot that PDX campus does things a little differently that the satellite campuses :)

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Women's Health, Primary Care.

The 3 year BSN program at OHSU this year as close to 40 students in it, counting the VANP students. So the 24 number might be a bit off, just FYI

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I am a current OHSU student and had similar stats as you, Linfield didnt even give me a chance because my accumulative was 3.61 but I was accepted to OHSU with a prereq GPA of 3.9. At least last year OHSU did not look at accumulative but Linfield did, make sure you have that the right way around since applications are so spendy. Good luck!

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