GMU ABSN 2023

timetosleep210 · Aug 25, 2022

Hey there!

I have been trying to find answers to the same questions you are asking. I am waiting for the information session on the 15th of September to get more questions answered. I am applying for the Fall 2023 ABSN cohort. I can answer with some degree of certainty that their nursing programs only begin in the fall.

As for military affiliations, you should be able to get a residency in VA if your parents have lived there for ~5 years. You might have to submit an Out-of-State tuition waiver. I am in a similar situation my husband is active duty and a resident of VA, but we have resided in many other states in the past 5 years. I should technically qualify for VA residency because he has been paying taxes there. None of my credits have been taken in the state of Virginia either, I am not too worried about them being accepted. For the ABSN they seem to be most worried about having the 1st degree and A&P I & II and Micro completed in the past 5 years.

I could not answer all of your questions but hope that helps.

starfish1028 · Sep 22, 2022

Hi everyone! I wanted to know if anyone knows what the acceptance rate is? I read elsewhere that if you're not already a NVCC or GMU student, you're at the bottom of the pile for acceptance. If that's true I'd rather have some backups like Marymount, even though it's way more expensive. Any insight?

ognimue · Oct 5, 2022

I'm a recent GMU ABSN grad and can answer some questions, although not about the military benefits.

The program runs August-August and only accepts students in the fall. It's all twelve months -- while there is some time during Winter/Spring breaks, classes may intrude into those breaks depending on how far the instructors got in their curriculum during the official course weeks -- and there is only one cohort at a time. If you have to take a leave of absence during that period, you must start the entire program over again. You can apply to GMU in general and the ABSN program specifically all in one go during their application period. The application deadline is currently January 15; I think I got my acceptance letter in April.

The GMU School of Nursing previously required the HESI for entrance, but this requirement was waived in 2020-2021 because of a lack of testing sites due to COVID. I'm not sure if they've reinstated the requirement. I would email the SON admissions office about that.

Some of my pre-reqs were done in Virginia, but others were done during my first degree out of state, and it didn't matter. They're most concerned that a) you've done them, and b) you've done them within the accepted time frame. (Some have a "within 5 years" requirements, others don't.) I wouldn't worry about the Mason Core prereqs -- what they told me was that since you have a previous Bachelor's, they just waive them all and assume that you've done the Core classes even if they're not an exact 1:1 match to what's in their catalog.

As for the program itself: to be honest, if you just want the BSN letters after your name, the GMU ABSN program is a cheap and fast way to get them. If you actually want to be taught how to be a nurse, go literally anywhere else. The whole program was a dumpster fire from start to finish, and the amount of basic skills and knowledge they expected us to learn "on the job" or in preceptorship instead of in school was borderline dangerous. The whole SON is running on a skeleton staff of admin/profs and doesn't have the resources, materials, instructors, or infrastructure to support the number of students it admits, and the staff they do have keep quitting or getting fired faster than they can replace them. I kid you not, the school can't afford literally one working IV pump or find instructors to hold open lab hours. There's also no communication between staff, so nobody knows what anyone else is doing and you'll get five different answers to the same question or drastic scheduling changes dumped on you with <24 hours notice.

GMU is also very public health focused, so of those 12 months, about 30-50% of your time is going to be wasted in classes focused on writing discussion board posts about topics irrelevant to patient care, and most of the patient care classes (especially specialty areas like OB/peds/psych) are either TAs reading off powerpoints or more talking about public health issues related to those areas. Our clinical instructors were constantly surprised at how unprepared we were to actually be in a clinical environment. Instructors and preceptors themselves are a mixed bag -- I had fantastically knowledgeable & supportive mentors, petty bullies, and some who shouldn't have been anywhere near students (or patients) but were retained because they had a pulse and an active RN license.

The students who did well in the program were the ones who had years of previous direct patient care experience (CNA/EMT/clinical technician/OTA/PTA/etc.), and were good at time management, efficient studying, adapting to sudden changes, and proactive self-teaching outside the classroom. The students who struggled were those who lacked that healthcare knowledge and experience, needed more learning support and reliability, and/or didn't have a strong financial and personal support system outside of school, and I think most of our attrition rate came from students who couldn't juggle a really time-consuming program and their outside obligations. That being said, because it's a second-degree program, most of my cohort was older and more mature with more life experience and diverse pre-nursing backgrounds, so students had mostly good energy and way less of the petty backstabbing *** that's endemic in some nursing environments.

Ultimately, the program worked for me, and I'm glad I didn't shell out $80k+ for Marymount or spend two years getting an ASN. I know other nursing schools are hurting as well right now and many students are getting a deeply subpar education. But the version of the ABSN program that they sell in information sessions and the one students actually get are very different, and I wish I'd had that information going in so that I could have been more prepared, both for the program and for how unprepared I'd be for actually being an RN once I graduated. Pretty much all of my cohort that I talked to about it said the same thing.

As for alternatives to GMU, I've heard very good things about NVCC. If you plan to be in the DMV area long-term, there are a *lot* of hospital systems around here, and with the current nursing shortage, many of them will hire new grad ASNs on the condition that you'll complete an RN-BSN bridge program in a certain amount of time. Most will not do loan repayment but they will do tuition reimbursement or third-party deferred tuition, so if you're able to work at least part-time for the hospital while you're in school, you can get an entire BSN in three years or less (one of those years with an RN salary) basically for free with a 1-3 year employment commitment after graduation. It just depends on your life/financial circumstances and how much time you want to spend in school before you can work as an RN. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

gemini · Dec 6, 2022

Hi guys, another question,

-How do you give proof that you are enrolled for an in progress pre-requisite from a community college in the ABSN GMU application? Is there a document we have to submit in the application?

Sharma · Dec 11, 2022

Hey guys,

Admission about to open this week. I am planning to apply for ABSN fall 2023. Please let be in touch! We can help each other. We are all in same boat

Sharma · Dec 12, 2022

On 12/5/2022 at 8:20 PM, gemini said:

Hi guys, another question,

-How do you give proof that you are enrolled for an in progress pre-requisite from a community college in the ABSN GMU application? Is there a document we have to submit in the application?

I recently completed most of my prereq. Only thing left is ethics, which I am enrolled in Spring. When I pulled out my nova transcript to send, it reflect my all classes including my future classes. To summarize it, you prereq transcript will reflect.

Sharma · Dec 12, 2022

Hello,

In case anyone wants to be in touch and make an iMessage group, message me on:

571-430-9455

starfish1028 · Dec 27, 2022

Does anyone know if the January 15 deadline is a strict/hard deadline for ALL application materials? I am completing one of the mandatory 2 out of 3 science prereqs via Portage and I won't be able to fully finish it by the 15th. I can submit the in progress transcript but it won't be completed until the week after. I've already emailed but they're out of office until January 3rd.

Sharma · Jan 11, 2023

starfish1028 said:

Does anyone know if the January 15 deadline is a strict/hard deadline for ALL application materials? I am completing one of the mandatory 2 out of 3 science prereqs via Portage and I won't be able to fully finish it by the 15th. I can submit the in progress transcript but it won't be completed until the week after. I've already emailed but they're out of office until January 3rd.

Hello,

did you get any reply from management? If yes, please let us know.

Sharma · Jan 11, 2023

Submitted my application today. Fingers crossed.

gemini · Jan 15, 2023

Submitted my application as well, wishing everyone the best of luck! ❤️ Let's manifest it!