BMCC Nursing Program

kirham · Nov 9, 2009

I do not recommend the program if you have a Bachelors degree. I have some friends who are currently taking the courses and they say it's really hard. If you do choose to appl make sure you have a 4.0. Especially if you apply to the day program. If you are an 1199 union member they give preference.

You can take chem 118 if you want. It is a bit easier. I did apply to the program for the fall but was denied because my 3.7 was too low.

Good luck

salarany · Nov 11, 2009

hi sandrita,

i currently go to bmcc too. im not in the nursing program, but i do have some information on it. you can only take one nursing class each semester with the exception of nursing 415 which is nursing today and tomorrow. the nursing program is going to take 2 years to complete and there isnt a way around it since the school doesnt allow u to take more than 1 nursing class each semester.

let me know if you have any other questions.

Lilnurse0803, RN · Nov 12, 2009

Hello,

I agree with salarany's post in that the nursing courses are one per semester. This does not include other requirements you may need to take (applicable mostly to the day program since evening/weekend students are required to take all pre-reqs prior to taking clinical courses). The nursing courses are a combination of lecture and clinical and will easily span over three days a week (2 for classroom work and 1 for clinicals). This does not include the extra time you will have to spend in the lab learning and honing skills for your practicums and clinicals.

I graduated from the program in 2007 and enjoyed my time there. I was an evening/weekend student since I held a full-time job while I studied. The staff and chairperson at the time was very accommodating and very helpful. They were open to helping students in need and wanted you to succeed.

The minimum GPA cut-off when I got accepted in 2005 was 3.73 and I hear that its only gotten higher and higher. While there are some alloted seats for 1199 union members, this still does not give them an easy ride through the program. These students have to work just as hard and will get weeded out like everyone else, so getting a spot in the program whether through union or not offers no guarantees.

It's an extremely competitive program and very challenging to complete. Although you need a C+ to stay in the program rest assured that, at least for the Med/Surg courses, that will be a hard earned grade (very challenging material). I found this to be the hardest part of the program and still managed to graduate with honors. The time and effort you put into the program will be great, but will gear you towards success if you persist.

I transferred in some credits from my bachelor's degree and took the few courses that I needed at BMCC. Fortunately, CHEM was included, so I have no recommendations to make on that.

I welcome any questions you may have and will do my best to provide information based on my experience and recollection.

Best of luck to all.

A1551 · Nov 19, 2009

Hey,

To start, for chem 121 I know a lot of my friends took it with Professor Ling Chen and really loved her. Likewise, I took it with Dr. Pasternak, and thought he was excellent (also, very easy / friendly / forgiving!!). I highly recommend him :)

Not sure how much you do / do not already know about the program -- hope this is helpful and not something you already know! But if you haven't already done it go have a talk with Mr. Sierra who is the pre-nursing advisor. Program entry is determined by some pretty wacky criteria, and if you're not aware of them going in it can make it really hard to get in! Basically all they do is take your GPA from four "core" classes (english 1, dosage calculations, anatomy 1, and psychology), and use that GPA to rank you against all the other's trying to get in -- they only go to your overall GPA in a tie. The cutoff GPA is different each time but generally it's in the 3.8 ballpark.

So basically even if you have a terrible GPA (or a really good one) it's irrelevant - as long as you pull down 4 A's in those classes you're golden. A friend of mine made the mistake of transferring in a B+ for english (b/c no one told him these rules), got A's in the other 3 classes, and ended up just getting in to the program pretty much right at the cutoff GPA for his year.

Finally, if you've already got a bachelors and plan on attending full time (without working concurrently) I think its worth looking into the accelerated bachelors programs at schools like columbia or pace, since they only take a year. At least with my own situation being out there earning a salary a year+ earlier (with a bachelors in nursing to boot) more than offsets the total cost of the private school programs, although if you're working part time / full time while at BMCC this wouldn't hold true.

Anyway, hope this helped and good luck next semester!

elleNY · Nov 19, 2009

This is particularly relevant because I have a CHE 121 exam at BMCC tomorrow..blah..But anyway I have Professor Rwykin or Rywkin (always mix it up) and I'll tell you a little about her...She is not "sweet" or even friendly, although she does have a sense of humor. She isnt what I would call a good teacher because she only reads from the slides (made by text book company) varbatim and doesn't like doing anything that involves extra work..she bemoans grading labs and exams (hello, its a scantron, shouldnt take two weeks to grade)..BUT, besides all this, she is a relatively easy A..she pretty much gives you the questions or explains what you'll need to know to answer EACH and EVERY question on the tests...My method has been zoning out during class and teaching myself the material at home which has worked quite well, although the tests are getting trickier, I expect my average to be above 100 (due to her built in extra credit/curve)..So, although she isnt a brilliant professor, chem is a dry subjec anyway and I would take her for an A for the nursing program ..Only if you can self-study, that is. Good luck.

lilibel · Oct 24, 2011

Professor Levine is an excellent chemistry teacher. I knew exactly zero about chemistry when i began the class and got an A- by the end. He really makes the material accessible and relatively easy to understand. Very fair tests and grading.