Cal State San Marcos ABSN Fall 2018

mdm1209 · Jun 26, 2018

Congrats to you!

Jmaegon · Jul 7, 2018

I am curious, are any of you considering entering an Entry Level Masters Nursing program? If so, why are you choosing the ABSN?

onstar2020, BSN, RN · Jul 8, 2018

I considered few of the Entry Level Masters programs, and most of them have too many "requirements" that I do not meet. I put "requirements" in quotes because many are unwritten requirements, such as having previous healthcare experiences or speaking specific foreign languages.

Plus I hear GREAT things about the program at San Marcos from many healthcare professionals, so CSUSM was my first choice.

polyacik · Jul 9, 2018

Hoping someone here may have insight for my situation. I'm currently working on my prerequisites. All but Public Speaking will be complete by end of summer. Public Speaking will be complete in December. Have not taken TEAS yet. Shooting for either Spring 2019 or Summer 2019 entrance.

Does is even matter for me if I apply by the priority deadline since my Public Speaking won't be complete until December? If there's a benefit to me submitting before the priority deadline I could take the TEAS earlier rather than later but if they won't even evaluate me until I have all prerequisites complete, I would probably want to wait to take the TEAS until my A&P is finished later in the summer.

If I understand correctly your application isn't complete until all finalized transcripts are in even if you've technically applied online, right?

Also, does anyone know specifically if the Anthro and Ethics classes are online or hybrid or fully in-person? I have Nutrition already and can't move down to the area until summer (currently in LA) so trying to figure out if Spring 2019 is even a viable option for me.

Thanks, and congrats to everyone accepted!

BiscuitStripes, BSN, RN · Jul 9, 2018

Hoping someone here may have insight for my situation. I'm currently working on my prerequisites. All but Public Speaking will be complete by end of summer. Public Speaking will be complete in December. Have not taken TEAS yet. Shooting for either Spring 2019 or Summer 2019 entrance.
Does is even matter for me if I apply by the priority deadline since my Public Speaking won't be complete until December? If there's a benefit to me submitting before the priority deadline I could take the TEAS earlier rather than later but if they won't even evaluate me until I have all prerequisites complete, I would probably want to wait to take the TEAS until my A&P is finished later in the summer.
If I understand correctly your application isn't complete until all finalized transcripts are in even if you've technically applied online, right?
Also, does anyone know specifically if the Anthro and Ethics classes are online or hybrid or fully in-person? I have Nutrition already and can't move down to the area until summer (currently in LA) so trying to figure out if Spring 2019 is even a viable option for me.
Thanks, and congrats to everyone accepted!

To the best of my knowledge, you can apply whenever and they will evaluate what you have done; however, if you do not have all of your prerequisites done, you will not be assigned an admissions score and therefore will not qualify for the priority admissions. So if you applied before the priority deadline, but still needed to take public speaking, they won't consider your application complete until you submit your transcripts for public speaking. If that falls after the priority deadline, then you will not be considered a priority applicant.

As far as ethics and anthropology goes, it depends on when you start. If you start in a summer semester, yes both ethics and anthropology are usually online. That's how it was for my cohort and the previous cohorts that I've spoken with, but it's always possible to change.

If you start in Fall or Spring, Ethics and Anthropology will be on campus. Again, this is based on previous cohorts and is subject to change.

polyacik · Jul 9, 2018

This is helpful, thank you!

onstar2020, BSN, RN · Jul 9, 2018

Hi polyacik: adding to what SurfCA40 wrote, I would say apply right now. When you submit your app and your transcript(s), CSUSM will evaluate everything you have up to that point and tell you what's completed and what's missing. This way you know for sure that the prerequisites that you have already taken will suffice. Then when you finish your summer term and send in your updated transcript, it will be that much quicker to finish your evaluations.

That's what I did when I applied for the Fall 2018 cohort. I submitted everything in February even though I was still taking Physiology. It took them a couple of weeks to return my evaluation showing what was completed and what was still in progress. Then when I finished my spring term, I sent them the updated transcript, and the new evaluation came back really quickly since they had already done most of the evaluation months earlier.

polyacik · Jul 9, 2018

That's a good idea. Correct me if I'm wrong - you can't submit an application until you've taken the TEAS, right? In the online application, one of the "quadrants" to complete is the TEAS score upload and I think I can't submit my application until I've completed all four quadrants. I've already filled out everything else (transcripts/course entry/etc.).

Wwwwhat · Jul 11, 2018

Here's what they won't tell you at the information sessions.

If you have courses in progress and are trying to make the following term (ex: you're taking fall classes and trying to make spring semester) by the time your application is complete you are competing for one or two seats in the third or fourth wave of acceptances.

Say you have a good score, or even an excellent score (34+), they have already accepted almost a full cohort of 28-33s. That one seat you're trying to get is going to someone who does nothing but go to school and probably lives at home. Point being, you will get pushed a semester unless you have 40+ points by the final wave of acceptances.

I know this is super "ranty" but this being a second bachelor's program I know most of us have lives, kids, mortgages, careers etc. and you should have the correct and honest information to plan your life.

onstar2020, BSN, RN · Jul 13, 2018

That's a good idea. Correct me if I'm wrong - you can't submit an application until you've taken the TEAS, right? In the online application, one of the "quadrants" to complete is the TEAS score upload and I think I can't submit my application until I've completed all four quadrants. I've already filled out everything else (transcripts/course entry/etc.).

Maybe? I never uploaded anything in the application form for TEAS. The TEAS score was sent directly to CSUSM, and I don't recall doing anything on my end other than to include CSUSM as the school to send the scores to when applying for TEAS. But I was swamped with so much stuff, I may be wrong.

polyacik · Jul 13, 2018

Here's what they won't tell you at the information sessions.
If you have courses in progress and are trying to make the following term (ex: you're taking fall classes and trying to make spring semester) by the time your application is complete you are competing for one or two seats in the third or fourth wave of acceptances.
Say you have a good score, or even an excellent score (34+), they have already accepted almost a full cohort of 28-33s. That one seat you're trying to get is going to someone who does nothing but go to school and probably lives at home. Point being, you will get pushed a semester unless you have 40+ points by the final wave of acceptances.
I know this is super "ranty" but this being a second bachelor's program I know most of us have lives, kids, mortgages, careers etc. and you should have the correct and honest information to plan your life.

That's useful, thanks! I'm looking into options to "test out" of Public Speaking and receive credit so that I can get my materials in faster.

onstar2020, BSN, RN · Jul 13, 2018

Here's what they won't tell you at the information sessions.
If you have courses in progress and are trying to make the following term (ex: you're taking fall classes and trying to make spring semester) by the time your application is complete you are competing for one or two seats in the third or fourth wave of acceptances.
Say you have a good score, or even an excellent score (34+), they have already accepted almost a full cohort of 28-33s. That one seat you're trying to get is going to someone who does nothing but go to school and probably lives at home. Point being, you will get pushed a semester unless you have 40+ points by the final wave of acceptances.
I know this is super "ranty" but this being a second bachelor's program I know most of us have lives, kids, mortgages, careers etc. and you should have the correct and honest information to plan your life.

It is true that there will be fewer spots left in the last wave of acceptances. And since there are fewer spots, getting in at the last minute would pose a greater challenge than having everything in before the priority deadline. Although, from chatting with others, there were 5+ people who were accepted in mid June (I believe this was the final wave for Fall 2019), plus at least 1 person dropped out after the last wave creating 1 additional spot.

As for the rant, that's funny and understandable. And I can totally relate. I felt super "ranty" as well for the past 12 months because I was working 50+ hours a week (marketing analytics) while going to school full time: Micro, Anatomy, and Chem (Gen/Org/Bio) in the Fall; Physio, Stats, Psych, and Speech in the Spring. Plus my wife was in a dental residency working 80+ hour weeks, so I cooked 90% of the time, did laundry & cleaned the house 99.9% of the time (for 3 years, she did laundry twice and only because I was out of town for work and she ran out of scrubs). On top of that, it had been 22 years since I got my first Bachelors so my brain was rusty, and I had to re-learn how to study. It felt like such a disadvantage, yet I worked my butt off, slept very little, and got straight A's.

And yes, I got in at the last wave with an evaluation score of 42. So it's not always "someone who does nothing but go to school and probably lives at home."