I'm applying to Duke for the Spring 2016 ABSN cohort as well as other universities. I have done a lot of research on Duke and acceptance, but I was wondering if I could ask an opinion of any of the current Duke ABSN students or Duke alumni.
My question is, I know that letters of recommendation are weighted heavily, but how much extra weight does it hold if I have a letter of recommendation from a Duke faculty member? I'd rather not disclose who exactly, but it's a faculty member of Duke's school of medicine. Obviously, it won't hurt to have this letter, but I was wondering if Duke will see this as just another good letter of rec, or if they will see this as more since it's from "one of their own"?
Thanks for any feedback, it is all appreciated! :)
I sent Nora an email today about something unrelated to the waitlist and got an automatic reply that she'll be out of the office from the 27th of August (last Thursday) until Sept. 4, which is this Friday. Since she sends out the emails to the accepted people, I would think that maybe the lucky ones will hear this Friday (in the past, decisions have usually been made on Friday). There is also a chance they only pulled one person from the waitlist and they're just not on this forum. Good luck to all!
I haven't heard anything about the wait list either... Getting anxious! Anyone have good news to share? Or have any idea when they typically make those decisions?
I haven't heard anything about the waitlist as of yet either. I think they are opening up Fall 16 applications next week so maybe something will open up soon. I'd imagine you could get an email after October as well. That's when the majority of nursing schools will make their Spring decisions.
The ABSN program does not show all schedules for the whole program. Can anyone tell us how long the breaks in between semesters are in general? Will all clinical hours be completed during each semester or will it be possible to have to complete the hours during the breaks?
The ABSN program does not show all schedules for the whole program. Can anyone tell us how long the breaks in between semesters are in general? Will all clinical hours be completed during each semester or will it be possible to have to complete the hours during the breaks?
Unless the policy has changed clinical hours must be completed during the semester. Global trips are the exception.
A clinical instructor must be available, DUSON is scheduled for specific times they can be on the floor for clinical. Hospitals don't really let you make up time whenever you want. I know one CI was trying to schedule clinical hours during fall break and the professors would not let them. They did make an case by case exception during the final semester with the capstone clinical. But that clinical is run differently than all the others.
I don't know if anyone else saw this, but it is not clear anywhere on the site about the actual start date of the program. Does anyone know who went to Duke Days? Thank you.
From what I've heard, UNC applicants were notified of their acceptance today. Based on past threads, I've seen that a lot of people who are accepted into both Duke and UNC opt for UNC for obvious financial reasons. Does this mean that waitlisters still have a chance?! I keep holding out hope!
I was accepted and I have known of at least 3 people off the top of my head that have had to decline their position for spring 2016. These are even ones who have put the deposit down and everything, so I definitely think there's still an option to get in for wait listers. For us, tuition is due Jan 3rd and classes start Jan 11th. I assume a lot of people are just now finalizing funding options and this may make them forfeit. I can't imagine they wouldn't give these spots to wait listers. Good luck to all! I hope it works out for the best!
The breaks between Fall and Spring are generally very long (close to two months this year) while the break between Spring and summer is shorter.....I wish I could recall exactly how long but I can at least say that people have enough time to go out of town for a while (2-3 weeks or so).
But I don't think it's possible to complete clinical hours once a course period is over because they treat the clinical hours as a necessary requirement for passing a course. You have to do these long self-evaluations for each semester's clinical period and those have to be turned in before you even take the final exam for that course.
But the breaks are long.....WAY too long, if you ask me. For an "accelerated" program, honestly, it could be MUCH shorter. If they just trimmed down on the fluff and cut back on the unbelievably long winter break you could easily get this done in a year. Less than a year. Easy.
The school has a great reputation and all but when even the best hospitals will hire people from the nearest community college what does that matter? There's nothing about being a Duke graduate, from what I can tell, that is either going to give someone the edge in the job market (outside of Duke's hospital itself) or even make one more prepared for the job. This begs the question, why bother to pay 80 grand for a job that pays roughly half that annually when there is no real incentive, beyond the schools prestigious name?
I have to disagree with the assertion that our faculty are knowledgeable or accessible. Knowledgeable about what, exactly? As compared to who?! I've only ever attended one nursing school (this one) and I honestly don't feel like it's been "educational", though I do really appreciate the opportunity to do clinical at one of the country's best research hospitals. Personally, though, I've felt that the faculty have been unnecessarily confrontational and, at times, condescending, and even mean spirited.
We have a slightly higher than average NCLEX pass rate but then the national pass rate is ALREADY pretty high. There's no reason to believe that the slightly higher than average pass rate at Duke is BECAUSE of our disorganized program, is there? I think the obvious explanation might just be that Duke students are, over all, better prepared/driven to pass the NCLEX even before they got here. Our students are, if anything, ambitious about their future nursing careers. I think it's likely the type of student and not the school's course work that matters here. Even if it were true, it's actually kind of crappy that we pay 80 grand to do "just a little bit better than average". Why pay MUCH more for only a LITTLE more advantage? That makes no sense.
Technology: Honestly, every nursing school I've ever seen has computers and rubber mannequins so I really don't see how we have an advantage here. Indeed, I actually think our blinking, talking mannequins are just a waste of time. It does nothing to approximate reality. If anything it gives you a false impression that you will have to unlearn and then re-learn once you actually perform skills in clinical: needles penetrating the skin feel NOTHING like they did in lab, foley catheters were even more unreliable pre, etc.
I've honestly not heard a lot of good feedback from the global excursions but if you have then that's cool. Perhaps some people thought that was worthwhile but not the people I've talked to.
I personally don't think the school is worth the price tag, unless you are very, very wealthy.....which, honestly, many of our students actually are. They have parents who can fit the bill and now they can tell everyone that their kids went to Duke. And Duke is honestly a pretty neat place. West campus has some pretty areas, we have that basketball team, and it's one of the world's leading research institutions. But you also have to live in Durham, which is sort of a mixed bag. Now it's getting uber-hip to live here and so all these brand new condo-luxury apartments are being built everywhere and they have all these groovy cafes and stuff downtown but that also means living here is suddenly very expensive.....even though it's still Durham, which kind of sucks. It's ugly, can be dangerous, and everything is sprawled out all over the place.....
If I could go back I would definitely not come here. I don't think I'd even do a BSN (fear mongering about the future aside) but that I would have gone to community college and then simply taken BSN courses online. It would have saved a ton of money and I honestly don't think there would have been a difference in quality. DUSON is pretty much very expensive community college in my opinion....only sort of douchey on top of it all. An irritating situation if there ever was one haha.
Katiemate24
30 Posts
I sent Nora an email today about something unrelated to the waitlist and got an automatic reply that she'll be out of the office from the 27th of August (last Thursday) until Sept. 4, which is this Friday. Since she sends out the emails to the accepted people, I would think that maybe the lucky ones will hear this Friday (in the past, decisions have usually been made on Friday). There is also a chance they only pulled one person from the waitlist and they're just not on this forum. Good luck to all!