Bronx Community College

To repeat the CUNY system doesn't accomodate anyone, as far as setting up an appointment with someone in the nursing department good luck, they barely talk to the students. The person you spoke to must be new, doesn't know the score. Here is how it works, first to apply to the nursing department you must be register at the school, second you have to take pharm 10 before you can go into the nursing dept, and the NCLEX and apply seperately to nursing dept, you need a BCC e-mail to find out date for NCLEX and pharm and registration deadlines etc. They also give preference to people who have been in BCC for at least some of there pre-regs. If you really want to go to bCC I would recommend registering for whatever prereg you have left there and watch your e-mails for NCLEX and pharm 10 registration days. Good luck

Thanks, MB --

So..., I have all the Psych, Stats, Bio, Social Science and English courses out of the way. I took A&P I and II at WCC and am taking Microbiology & Chem in the fall, so I think I should have most of the prerequisites out of the way once I'm done with them. I already have a B.S. (in business) so, since that's a big prerequisite for the BSN/MSN programs, Pace's combined BSN/MSN program is my first choice, but I'm not sure I'll get in so I'm applying everywhere.

I didn't make WCC's cutoff score on the TEAS so I've applied to Hopfer, Cochran, Norwalk Community College, College of New Rochelle, and, via the CUNY app, Lehman, BCC and Hostos. (I would've applied to Mt. St. Vincent, but they won't take my C+ in A&P I, so I'm skipping them.)

Any thoughts or suggestions? Thanks again!

-- "Maybesooninny"

Sorry to reply so late. Ditto to what everyone else has told you. It takes a lot to get into the program. You have to find out about every single class you will possibly need to make it into the nursing program and figure out a timeline. You must take some classes there in order to enter the program because as mentioned, preference is given to BCC students who have done their time. This isn't difficult since there are so many classes to take as pre reqs anyway. Most students end up taking a load of classes for their bsn waiting to get in. Make sure your grades are top notch because they do rank you by gpa and the last time I was there they were admitting 50 students to Nursing 41/42.

Pharmacology is a crazy course with so many rules it will make your head spin. And it is not a drug class, it's a math class!

Getting out is another issue. There have to be like 5 different ways to fail each semester and you are allowed to repeat 2 courses only. Most of the clinical professors were terrible. They stressed us out in clinicals. I used to cry before going in some days. I remember watching an insructor berate a grown woman and than smack her hand during practicum. I was shocked. Sometimes you think the system is designed to fail the students.

Of course there are sometimes personal reasons for failing but tell me how out of the 60 students that started Nursing 41/42 with me (10 of whom were repeating) Only four of us graduated on time. It's absolutely ludicrous. I thank God everyday that I was the exception to the rule. I spent one year on pre-reqs (most students spend at least one year before program entry). I had to take the math exam two times but made it into pharm for my second semester. I took the pax and did well (they look at pax scores too when ranking). I failed my first pharm exam because I didn't follow certain rules. I got a 55. I cried like a baby and deemed myself a failure. But I worked hard and attained an 86 on my second; it was smooth sailing from then on (in pharm lol). Of course I almost had a nervous breakdown in the final telling myself that my life depended on passing.

Oh, by the way, the finals are worth ridiculous percentages of your grades. I believe pharm was worth 60%. Most of the classe finals are worth 50 or 60%.

I ranked 25 or 26 and actually finished on time. But my story is not typical; most people repeat. You can fail by doing poorly in your finals and/or quizes, not passing a practicum, giving meds in clinical, performing any skills in clinical, doing anything in clinical that a professor deems detrimental, failing your client study. Oh there is a special pharm exam you take each semester before classes begin,, you can flunk out for that too.

All in all, it was hell. I just wanted to give you a clear picture.

Pluses were that I met some nice students on whom I depended for survival at certain times. And of course it made me a stronger person. The price is great too, but not worth your sanity. I had nightmares going into my final semester because I was sure I had to fail something. I almost did not want to go back there. I had sacrificed so much to got to school and could not lose everything.

Thanks, Girls!

I'm just hoping and praying for the best. As I said, I've applied to, like, a collective 8 or 9 schools, including the CUNY's, and the CUNY's aren't my first choice anyway, for two reasons: 1) they're too far away (I'm in Northern Westchester - close to CT) and 2) they're ADN or AAS programs and I already have a Bachelor's Degree, thus making the BSN/MSN programs much more desirable to me (except they're expensive and difficult to get in to).

So, we'll see what happens. I applied to the CUNY's when I got nervous that I wouldn't get in to Pace or CNR...

Thanks again!

Good. I wish you the best of luck!

Thank you:nurse:

Girls 1, oh I am getting sick just thinking about it, that school is a nightmare, stay away from BCC

My advise...don't even set your foot in that school...so somewhere else...at BCC you get more agony than anything else...they design there own structure of regulating the program and i'll tell you this...it's not student oriented no friendly at allllll...actuallt only two professors has actually show interest in students because they do not believe in the iron fist that the program is being operated upon, it's barbaric and ludicrous...i'll tell you this...if you lucky enough mind you NOT SMART ENOUGH i said, lucky enough to PASS PHARM 10 you get in the program and if you are lucky enough NOT SMART ENOUGH you will GRADUATE...One thing i will say though, with some of the professors now on students side which are only two out of i think more than 10...you will get excellent encouragement and with the rest of them you will get crap it will make your head spin...half of what they impose on students is not even part of CUNY regulation but their strategy of keeping the qouta with the ENCLEX STATS...my class I started 41/42 with out of 10 of us 2 made it through and if you find out what people got kicked out of the program for you will puke.!!!

Thank you, everybody!

Maybesoon:nurse:

In response to reading your post went and did little research and would not be so quick to label CUNY nursing programs as "bad".

First of all, the PHM 10 (Pharmacology Comp) class from what one has been able to gather is medical dosage calculations, so YES it is a math class, that is what it is supposed to be. The study of pharmacology encompasses more than just the study of medications.

I attended CSI, though it was back in the 1980's it was then and still is by all accounts a great program. Professors and instructors more than willing to assist and one's assigned advisor made time to either sit you down when it was felt that was required, or lend an ear should the student have problems.

Colleges and universities do expect students to take some hand in their own education, it is not like grade or high school. Part of this means finding out certain things about classes, such as what is expected and any "rules" beforehand, or soon into the session as possible. My MDC had lots of "rules" on how we could solve problems, one of which was we HAD to use whatever formulas our instructor provided. Unlike how some high schools teach math, one could not simply solve the problem any way one could long as the correct answer was reached. We also had to show all work, and were not allowed to use calculators. Violate any one of those rules (well using a calculator would probably count as cheating), and even though the answer was correct, it could/would be marked incorrect. Period, end of story.

In my day all CUNY community college nursing programs pretty much followed the same entry system. One must take and pass the pre-nursing sequence of classes with a 2.5 or better. Once this was done you could apply for formal entry into the program, and depending upon the number of other applicants you were either admitted at once, or had to wait a semester or so. Once a nursing major one was allowed only ONE failure/repeat of a nursing class and one core/non-nursing class. Withdraws were limited as well. There was no requirement for NLN, TEAS, SATs, or any other exams other than the above.

All CUNY schools have the same main policies for the most part regarding admission to the school and various programs (not just nursing), up to and including math, English, and science placement tests. These are clearly stated in the college's course catalogue.

What makes CUNY different is that all NYC high school students with valid diploma are entitled to enter CUNY, this is known as "Open Admissions" and was developed to make sure that CUNY schools were open to all students regardless of race, background and so forth. However in order to enter one of the four year colleges/universities (City College, Brooklyn College, etc), one must graduate from a NYC high school with an average of 80% and or within a certain percentile. Students below this level while still able to attend CUNY must apply to one of the community colleges.

Because CUNY must accept all NYC high school graduates, they arrive in various levels of academic readiness to begin college level work, hence the assessment exams in math, English, and other areas. And yes, if one has not passed these exams with a certain grade, then the student must take remediation classes, and yes again that other required core classes say for the nursing program require pre-requisites, which themselves require one or more pre-requisites. For example organic chemistry generally requires either general chem. or one year or high school chemistry before registering. Well many students did not take chem. in high school, thus cannot take general chem. in college, thus cannot take organic chem.

What CUNY has found, especially in the nursing programs is that many students are lacking in basic science, math and other college level skills, which drags the program down as these students must spend anywhere from a year or longer just taking remedial courses before they are even able to take college level pre-requisites for the required core/pre-nursing classes.

Ran into a BCC nursing student was near graduation at B&N last year. She was looking at board review books and we got to discussing her program. According to her, yes many, many students dropped out or failed out of her class. IIRC, the numbers left (near graduation) versus the number who came in with her nearly matched the numbers you posted. However the nursing student stated many students simply dropped out (or failed out), because the program was demanding (as all nursing programs are), they couldn't grasp the required material, they were "turned off" by hospitals (smells, cleaning up patients, etc).

Many nursing programs, ADN and BSN both have tightened up entry and retention requirement (recently CSI is now requiring SAT scores for students seeking entry into the nursing program), in response to several factors. Board passing rates, length of time it takes students to graduate, and competency of graduates all factor into the various accreditation bodies decision to give a program their seal of approval. It may sound harsh, but far better to keep weak students out of the program, and or remove those whose chances of passing the boards, much less make a competent nurse before graduation than have them floundering around for years, or worse set them loose on the floors.

Sorry to reply so late. Ditto to what everyone else has told you. It takes a lot to get into the program. You have to find out about every single class you will possibly need to make it into the nursing program and figure out a timeline. You must take some classes there in order to enter the program because as mentioned, preference is given to BCC students who have done their time. This isn't difficult since there are so many classes to take as pre reqs anyway. Most students end up taking a load of classes for their bsn waiting to get in. Make sure your grades are top notch because they do rank you by gpa and the last time I was there they were admitting 50 students to Nursing 41/42.

Pharmacology is a crazy course with so many rules it will make your head spin. And it is not a drug class, it's a math class!

Getting out is another issue. There have to be like 5 different ways to fail each semester and you are allowed to repeat 2 courses only. Most of the clinical professors were terrible. They stressed us out in clinicals. I used to cry before going in some days. I remember watching an insructor berate a grown woman and than smack her hand during practicum. I was shocked. Sometimes you think the system is designed to fail the students.

Of course there are sometimes personal reasons for failing but tell me how out of the 60 students that started Nursing 41/42 with me (10 of whom were repeating) Only four of us graduated on time. It's absolutely ludicrous. I thank God everyday that I was the exception to the rule. I spent one year on pre-reqs (most students spend at least one year before program entry). I had to take the math exam two times but made it into pharm for my second semester. I took the pax and did well (they look at pax scores too when ranking). I failed my first pharm exam because I didn't follow certain rules. I got a 55. I cried like a baby and deemed myself a failure. But I worked hard and attained an 86 on my second; it was smooth sailing from then on (in pharm lol). Of course I almost had a nervous breakdown in the final telling myself that my life depended on passing.

Oh, by the way, the finals are worth ridiculous percentages of your grades. I believe pharm was worth 60%. Most of the classe finals are worth 50 or 60%.

I ranked 25 or 26 and actually finished on time. But my story is not typical; most people repeat. You can fail by doing poorly in your finals and/or quizes, not passing a practicum, giving meds in clinical, performing any skills in clinical, doing anything in clinical that a professor deems detrimental, failing your client study. Oh there is a special pharm exam you take each semester before classes begin,, you can flunk out for that too.

All in all, it was hell. I just wanted to give you a clear picture.

Pluses were that I met some nice students on whom I depended for survival at certain times. And of course it made me a stronger person. The price is great too, but not worth your sanity. I had nightmares going into my final semester because I was sure I had to fail something. I almost did not want to go back there. I had sacrificed so much to got to school and could not lose everything.

Thanks, DoGood, you really did your homework. I am a (Summa cum Laude) college graduate, and by Jan will have had all my prerequisites completed, including A&P I and II, Microbiology, and Inorganic Chem. While I did not know the exact requirements for entry, I could definitely tell when I visited BCC that there were all academic levels of student there.

My first choice is either Pace's accellerated BSN/MSN program or CNR, but if I don't get in or get enough $$ to attend, want to be sure to have some backup plans in place that fit my time frame and budget. I don't expect that it will be a fun process, but I'm committed to getting thru it somewhere. And if a CUNY is where that happens then I'll have to honker down and just do it. After all, Pace and CNR are $40,000 and $30,000, respectively. So, I guess with the lower tuition comes some of the "stuff" that one would expect to find in a situation where some basic academic requirements have not yet been met by some of the students.

I have a question, though. You reference CSI and B&N. What are those?

Thanks, DoGood, you really did your homework. I am a (Summa cum Laude) college graduate, and by Jan will have had all my prerequisites completed, including A&P I and II, Microbiology, and Inorganic Chem. While I did not know the exact requirements for entry, I could definitely tell when I visited BCC that there were all academic levels of student there.

My first choice is either Pace's accellerated BSN/MSN program or CNR, but if I don't get in or get enough $$ to attend, want to be sure to have some backup plans in place that fit my time frame and budget. I don't expect that it will be a fun process, but I'm committed to getting thru it somewhere. And if a CUNY is where that happens then I'll have to honker down and just do it. After all, Pace and CNR are $40,000 and $30,000, respectively. So, I guess with the lower tuition comes some of the "stuff" that one would expect to find in a situation where some basic academic requirements have not yet been met by some of the students.

I have a question, though. You reference CSI and B&N. What are those?