Georgetown Accelerated BSN Fall 2010

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I sent my application for the Accelerated BSN in the fall of 2010 and I am anxious already. I do not know if I have a chance of getting in. My GPA from my previous degree is a low 3.1, but I have a 4.0 on my pre-requisites so far. Anyone in my same situation?:confused:

Specializes in med/surg.
Natalie, I started the program last fall. The interview day is very laid back. You are with the group for all but about 10 minutes, during which you'll be interviewed by 3-4 faculty. It is very relaxed, basically they just want to know your story and they want to give you a chance to ask questions. I don't think any part of the application decision is based on the interview. If you go to the Washington Hospital Center tour, you will be there a total of 8 hours (what with lunch and everything) and only 10 minutes is devoted to the interview. It really is just a chance for you to get a feel for the school and program.

Be careful what they tell you -- the admissions people who run the interview show tell you lots of things that aren't really true because they aren't involved in the program. They told us (and still are telling new groups) that transportation to clinicals will be arranged -- not so, you are on your own to get to WHC or the far burbs of Virginia for clinicals. I heard that community health clinical especially will require you to be at several locations in one day. Those of us without cars have a lot of trouble figuring out how to get places. They tell you you can take your senior practicum anywhere you want, but most people didn't get their first choices. They tell you that you can select clinicals near your house, but the locations aren't even available during registration so it is just pot luck where you'll wind up.

I am ambivalent on the program and am not sure I would do it again. It is a whole lot of money and I could have gotten the same degree and education at a local state school for 1/10 the money. The facilities are really substandard -- the nursing school is old and crowded. You will be taking some classes with groups of 100 and sitting on chairs with no writing surface. There are never rooms available if you want to set up a meeting because every classroom is used for every minute by another department if the nursing school is not using it. There is nowhere to study in the nursing school, you have to walk 1/4 mile to the medical school. The "lab" is a joke -- poorly maintained, inoperative computer equipment, you never use GUS (we used it once and it was broken) which is really only for the anasthesia class. The faculty is great but massively overworked and often complaining about how busy they are. There is no integration with the medical school or the hospital, no extra-curricular guest speakers or programs. They give you so much busy work (care plans, reports, papers almost every night) that everyone is miserable by the end of the program. Plus, the non-Washington Hospital Center people are having trouble finding jobs since all the hospitals have closed up their residency programs. The school does not provide job assistance.

But from what I hear every second degree program is a massive amount of work, so perhaps everyone is miserable. I think that overall my education here has been good because the faculty is really top notch and the program is rigorous, but it is not what I expected. Sorry to be a downer -- perhaps some other current students will chime in and have a better feeling about it.

I just wanted to give another viewpoint. I'm in the program that just began in January. I am a Washington scholar so my experience may be different from Tammy's. I think our cohort is almost 60 students and about 35 of us or so, received the scholarship. Now, I don't know how many people wanted it and were turned down. I know we had some people from the west coast who didn't want the commitment to stay here for 3 years, so they may have not even applied.

The largest class I have is one of my electives (outside the nursing department) and it is about 90 students. Otherwise, my nursing classes are pretty much just my cohort. Some classrooms are better than others. At least one of the classrooms in St. Mary's has outlets at each seat, so you can plug in your laptop. Actually the classrooms I've found to be the least comfortable are outside of St. Mary's hall.

The program is a lot of work, but as Tammy said, the instructors are excellent. I've had some assignments, but I don't think I can say whether or not they're not useful, yet. Talk to me in another semester :) My lab time is at WHC, so I can't speak to the lab facilities at school or GUS. I do, use the medical library almost every day to study (I am not certain that it's 1/4 mile. It takes me 5-10 min to walk from there to St. Mary's). With your ID card you can access the library 24/7, which is awesome if you like to study earlier or later in the day. It is so quiet, I love it. There is wireless access all over campus, which is really nice.

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Tammy - thank you so much for your response! Sorry I am just now responding - my work week has been crazy not to mention I had a huge stats test today. I really appreciate your honest opinion about your experience so far at Georgetown. I really need to sit down and think about what I want in a program and what is the best route for me - I'm sure I will have more questions! Thank you again.

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Fralliesmom - thank you for the response!!

What were the first few weeks like? Also - are teachers willing to provide extra help if students need/want it?

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Specializes in Simulation.

I am also not planning on applying for the scholarship and trying to decide. From what I have been told G'town is $72,000 without the scholarship. Which is about twice as much as the other programs in the area. Which is definitely something to consider.

Tammy, thanks for the info. I'll definitely factor all of that into my decision.

I was also curious how many people from your class are actually on the scholarship... would I be crazy to consider going considering I am not planning on taking the scholarship?

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I am also not planning on applying for the scholarship and trying to decide. From what I have been told G'town is $72,000 without the scholarship. Which is about twice as much as the other programs in the area. Which is definitely something to consider.

I'm looking at another program that's about half as much, as well. I really want to be able to rationalize the cost, but it just seems impossible to do...

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Specializes in Transplant, Med-Surg.
I am also not planning on applying for the scholarship and trying to decide. From what I have been told G'town is $72,000 without the scholarship. Which is about twice as much as the other programs in the area. Which is definitely something to consider.

I was weighing the pros and cons of the WHC scholarship and in the end, I decided that it would be better to just apply. It's a huge investment with the scholarship stipulating that students have to work for WHC for 3 years (I am from California so this would be a huge change) but they are paying for 80% of your tuition. This ensures that you have a job after you graduate (as I hear that a lot of new nurses are having difficulty getting jobs), enables you to gain nursing experience in a diverse area, and if you end up staying and decide to go for an MSN, the hospital could probably help fund your education and work with your schedule. I think it's okay to question going to Georgetown because of its expensive price tag, but I feel like we would not only be paying for a nursing education, but a really good one that has a global network of people who are making policies and enabling big changes around the world. From what I hear, the faculty is truly top-notch. I won't know until I get in but I hope to be getting some financial aid as well to help with the tuition, as 20% is still a lot of money. I think this is a once in a lifetime chance but I also understand if people due to financial reasons and life-reasons in general aren't able to commit to living in DC for such a long period of time. I just think that even if you're not sure you can commit to living in DC right now, to still definitely apply and see if you get it. This way, you have more options available to you. Just my :twocents:

To FralliesMom - St. Mary's seems farther away from the center of campus. Is it actually more integrated with the whole campus or does the nursing school seem set apart from everything else? It sounds like a weird question but I'm definitely interested in going to a school that really integrates everything on campus since the college I go to now isn't like that at all. And I know it's been posted over and over again but could you tell us a little more about the interview process? I keep on hearing about hypothetical disaster situations and whatnot so I'm not exactly sure how to prepare...:confused:

And does anybody know about the global health certificate? I'm definitely interested in it but I don't know where to find more information about it...

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Specializes in Simulation.

I live in the DC area. My problem is I know for sure I want to go into pediatrics and WHC does not have peds. I really want to work in Georgetown's peds department when I am done. Which is part of the reason I want to go to Georgetown. To bad the scholarship isn't with their own hospital.

The nursing school is right next to the hospital.

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I live in the DC area. My problem is I know for sure I want to go into pediatrics and WHC does not have peds. I really want to work in Georgetown's peds department when I am done. Which is part of the reason I want to go to Georgetown. To bad the scholarship isn't with their own hospital.

The nursing school is right next to the hospital.

I'm having the same issue as well... I know I'm wanting to go into peds and feel like I might be limiting myself with that scholarship. So I'm not sure about applying.

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Specializes in Transplant, Med-Surg.

Ah, I see. That's definitely a point that I haven't really considered since I'm still figuring out which patient population that I want to work with. I think it's awesome that you girls already know that you want to work in peds. I kind of just want to work with everyone? Hahaha.

It's definitely a hard decision to make, but I think it would be a great question to bring up at the interview/tour. I wonder why they didn't make the scholarship program through their own university...hopefully, the tour will help illuminate the answers to our questions. I'll definitely be munching on this food for thought. Good luck with the decision! I'm sure that whatever you decide will end up working out just fine :)

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Specializes in Transplant, Med-Surg.

I was taking a look at the Georgetown website (I feel like I've been obsessed, seriously haha) and with regards to choosing the non-scholarship pathway and those interested in peds, I found their scholarship link:

http://nhs.georgetown.edu/academics/scholarships.html

If you scroll down, there is a scholarship offered for the Children's Hospital in the DC area but it does say that in order to apply, you have to be a senior...but it also does say that you need to be in the undergraduate nursing program (that's potentially us, no?). It doesn't offer 80% of tuition, but it's something. If you get the scholarship, I do believe they offer you a job at their hospital. There's also the HRSA scholarship to check out too if you haven't already:

http://bhpr.hrsa.gov/nursing/scholarship/

I'm definitely considering applying to the WHC scholarship but I am also considering NYU which has a lot of qualities that I believe will benefit me. I'm just hoping to get into one school since I only applied to those two, but if I get into both *fingers crossed* I'm going to definitely have a hard time making a decision! If only I had the chance to visit NYU :sighs:. Hope the links help!

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flee43-

thanks for that information!! i'm still debating on the WHC scholarship because although i'm highly interested in pediatrics, i'm also interested in other fields as well lol. I just want to make sure i'm keeping my future options open. So we'll see! I'm working on the essay though.

and I applied to NYU too. it's my #1... my application for them has been complete since december and now that march 1 has past, the wait is killing me lol.

good luck!

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Specializes in med/surg.
I was weighing the pros and cons of the WHC scholarship and in the end, I decided that it would be better to just apply. It's a huge investment with the scholarship stipulating that students have to work for WHC for 3 years (I am from California so this would be a huge change) but they are paying for 80% of your tuition. This ensures that you have a job after you graduate (as I hear that a lot of new nurses are having difficulty getting jobs), enables you to gain nursing experience in a diverse area, and if you end up staying and decide to go for an MSN, the hospital could probably help fund your education and work with your schedule. I think it's okay to question going to Georgetown because of its expensive price tag, but I feel like we would not only be paying for a nursing education, but a really good one that has a global network of people who are making policies and enabling big changes around the world. From what I hear, the faculty is truly top-notch. I won't know until I get in but I hope to be getting some financial aid as well to help with the tuition, as 20% is still a lot of money. I think this is a once in a lifetime chance but I also understand if people due to financial reasons and life-reasons in general aren't able to commit to living in DC for such a long period of time. I just think that even if you're not sure you can commit to living in DC right now, to still definitely apply and see if you get it. This way, you have more options available to you. Just my :twocents:

To FralliesMom - St. Mary's seems farther away from the center of campus. Is it actually more integrated with the whole campus or does the nursing school seem set apart from everything else? It sounds like a weird question but I'm definitely interested in going to a school that really integrates everything on campus since the college I go to now isn't like that at all. And I know it's been posted over and over again but could you tell us a little more about the interview process? I keep on hearing about hypothetical disaster situations and whatnot so I'm not exactly sure how to prepare...:confused:

And does anybody know about the global health certificate? I'm definitely interested in it but I don't know where to find more information about it...

I understand it's a hard decision, especially committing to living so far from home for awhile. If it helps, DC is a fun town and hardly anyone is from here, so everyone was in the same boat at some time. It makes it fun for professional sports because the visiting team will actually have a lot of fans in the crowd :)

Regarding St. Mary's being furthest away, I have to say I prefer it. It is at the northernmost point of the campus. It's close to the Dupont shuttle bus and medical library, both of which I use every day. I don't participate in "campus life" or other socializing, so this may be a negative to someone else looking for those types of experiences. I'm in the library when not in class and then head home after my last class.

Regarding the international health certificate, talk to Laura about that. You need to have some room in your schedule to take those classes. We have one or two in our cohort doing that. I didn't have room, so can't do that.

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