autobiography for nursing program! please help!

[mustlovemars]

Hello everyone,

I just joined this site and I was wondering if anyone out there could shoot me a few ideas over! I am trying to get into the nursing program at my college. One of the requirements to the application is a 5 page handwritten autobiography. I haven't really had that interesting of a life. I mean what are they looking for? What high points should I aim for? Do I talk about why I want to be a nurse or why I would make a good nurse? Or just stick strickly with an autobiography from the time I was a child until now.. which would pretty much go like this... i went to kindergarden at a catholic school and kids were mean and made fun of me cause i was fat. i had an alcoholic father but a mother who was supportive and always there for me.. i contemplated suicide in 5th grade and left catholic school for public.. they weren't nice there either and pushed me down bleachers and called me names... from 7th to 8th grade i lost 120lbs and all the people that were mean suddenly wanted to be my friends... my father is still an alcoholic and ignores me... i tutor kids for an A+ scholarship.. get sick with a renal abcess and can't move around for 2months and gain 50 pounds back.. now i'm in school trying to get into the nursing program and my mom has dementia and my father is still an alcoholic?

[Despareux]

You can take one incident in your life and make it an interesting autobiography. But you have many that you could use. Write about your insights regarding your experiences that had a tremendous impact on your life--what happened before the incident or what led to the incident, what was your response to the incident and what was your response to other peoples response, how did it impact your life then and how does it impact your life today, what is your current perspective on the incident and the people involved.

[LadyinScrubs, ASN, RN]

I have the belief that the autobiography is actually a way the school can test your writing skills. The assignment will require you to think about what you will write, make a concise autobio, use correct grammer/spelling, etc.

Nursing school requires student nurses to have the abilty to think as well as write. While the content of your autobio is important, but so is your ability to put your thoughts into a written form.

[ashleyisawesome, BSN, RN]

i wouldnt say you havent had an interesting life.. seems pretty eventful to me..

anyway, you could mention all of those things and build upon them. explain what impact they had on you and how they have made you into who you are today. did anything that has happened to you in your life inspire you to peruse a nursing degree? Why?

I didnt have to write an autobiography to get into NS, but we did have interviews and for some reason they asked a lot about my personal life. I'm not sure how they got me on the topic of my heroin addict mother and my ex boyfriend who beat the crap out of me and put me in the hospital, but they did. I think it helped them see me as a person, and not just a name on a list to pick from.

that is actually a good sign, because they are going off of life experiences and personality and not just picking the 40 highest gpas.

--side note, i got into my program that had over 400 applicants, and only accepted about 60, with a gpa of 2.65 (long story, im not a slacker.. haha). i fully believe that without my interview i wouldnt have made it.