Hopeful SSU nursing student for Fall 2014

U.S.A. California

Published

I handed in my application for SSU Nursing the other day... Now I'm dying of anticipation! Any other hopeful nursing students for Fall 2014 out there? What were your grades and scores like? What schools did you apply to?

I also applied to SRJC, COM, and CSUEB

Hopefully we will be classmates! :)

Hi Sakakaka,

I'm sorry to hear you didn't get accepted. I live in Sonoma county. SSU gives a whopping 15 points to people who live in Sonoma, Marin, Napa, Lake, Mendocino, and Solano county. Since you don't live in any of those counties I imagine that would be a huge reason why you didn't get accepted. Assuming you had perfect scores on everything, you would only be at 85 out of 100 points. Not sure what the cutoff was, but I imagine around 90 since it's so competitive. Keeping my fingers crossed that you get accepted somewhere else, good luck!

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Hi Sakakaka,

I'm sorry to hear you didn't get accepted. I live in Sonoma county. SSU gives a whopping 15 points to people who live in Sonoma, Marin, Napa, Lake, Mendocino, and Solano county. Since you don't live in any of those counties I imagine that would be a huge reason why you didn't get accepted. Assuming you had perfect scores on everything, you would only be at 85 out of 100 points. Not sure what the cutoff was, but I imagine around 90 since it's so competitive. Keeping my fingers crossed that you get accepted somewhere else, good luck!

Thank you for the speedy response!

Congrats to you for being admitted. Will you be attending SSU, or do you have another school in mind? I applied to quite a few CSU's, so at least my options are not few.

I wish the nursing department would tell us in the e-mail what the cutoff score was... Or even what our score added up to. .. But I guess that requires more work... What can ya do!

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Thank you! Yeah, SSU is for sure my #1 choice. It's only 10 mins away from where I live so I'm very lucky! :) I know what you mean, I'm curious about what I got on the essays

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I received an e-mail last week, getting rejected from Sonoma State. I guess I lost a lot of points by not living in their county! For the people that got accepted, do you all live in their county? I'm just seeing where I might have lost points...

I live in Napa county so that probably made a huge difference in terms of my points... Hopefully you get accepted into the other programs you applied to !

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Specializes in L&D, infusion, urology.
Wow congrats to you too! Any advice for us about to start?

Since the program is fast, time management is vital. I don't know if you plan to work while in the program or not, but if so, this is even MORE important. Lots of planning ahead will help you.

Spend time with friends and family this summer, because, of course, social time will be extremely limited. Be honest with everyone that you're going to be extremely busy, and if you're not available, it's not personal. You're off the grid for two years!

Do some meal planning. Write out a list of super easy meals to pack and carry with you and to prepare with little time. Your crock pot is your friend! There's a microwave in the new Student Center (by the coffee shop) and another at Charlie Brown's in the bottom of the library, so you can take food to warm up if you want. I make huge meals and freeze portions to take with me when I'm at school all day. Easy, healthy snacks for when you're studying are smart, too.

Next, stop by the nursing office in Nichol's Hall if you want to see if there are any scrubs in your size. I would recommend getting two sets, plus your lab coat. Many grads donate their old scrubs, at least the tops, since they have a patch on them, so this can save you money.

Get a good stethoscope (most people love Littmanns) and some sort of clipboard or portfolio for clinicals. You'll need something hard to write your hand-off on, and you'll be carrying this around with you most of the day. You'll also need to be able to cover patient information, so I like my hard folder thing. It has a pad of paper inside and a pocket for whatever. I printed out the NANDA nursing diagnoses (assuming your write ups are the same as ours, you'll want this), and I kept a piece of paper with handy info on it. When you are in clinicals, when you see nurses that have their own version of a "brain" (this is the common name for the paper on which nurses receive hand-off), ask for a copy. You'll want to see how different nurses receive hand-off (and give hand-off), and you'll see brains you do and don't like, and if you're smart, you'll create your own in time. A multi-colored pen can be very handy for this as well, as you'll want to create red boxes for things that you'll need to make sure get done on your shift, and you'll find other ways to color code. I like to take hand-off in one color and add my own notes in another, so I know what's old and what's new.

What do you do to reduce stress? Get in the habit NOW of doing something that's for you that helps keep your stress down. You'll need to be able to manage it, as, of course, nursing school is stressful! I try to get in a run most days (though, admittedly, this final semester finally killed my running).

The instructors in this program are great (with a couple of exceptions, of course), and the overall culture is extremely supportive of students. The teachers go to bat for their students, and will really try to work with you if you show initiative and drive and something happens in your life that gets in the way. Don't let --------------- intimidate you (so many people are intimidated by her!). She's very East Coast, SOOOO intelligent, and hilarious once you get to know her, but she WILL ask you hard questions, and she will expect you to GET the answer if you don't have it right at that moment. Don't feel like she's targeting you or picking on you, she just wants to make sure you know what you're doing and that you're safe. She's one of the clinical instructors for med/surg and critical care. I loved her, and learned SOO much from her.

If you have any specific questions, feel free to ask! Best of luck! :)

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Specializes in L&D, infusion, urology.
I live in Napa county so that probably made a huge difference in terms of my points... Hopefully you get accepted into the other programs you applied to !

Yeah, residency does make a difference. A few people in my class live in Marin, but most are in Sonoma County.

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RunBabyRun, thank you for all the advice and tips, you are extremely helpful! What semester of the program was the most difficult and/or time consuming? I'm sure they all have their give and takes, but I hear the first semester is the worst (at least that's what I'm telling myself). Also, when is the graduating class done with clinicals and donating their scrubs? I love the idea of saving some money!

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Specializes in L&D, infusion, urology.
RunBabyRun, thank you for all the advice and tips, you are extremely helpful! What semester of the program was the most difficult and/or time consuming? I'm sure they all have their give and takes, but I hear the first semester is the worst (at least that's what I'm telling myself). Also, when is the graduating class done with clinicals and donating their scrubs? I love the idea of saving some money!

The first semester was really overwhelming, and the sheer volume of reading is especially hard the first semester. Plus, you're still learning how to manage it, and learning how to take ATI exams and how to answer nursing questions. It's very different than anything you've ever studied!

The final semester I've found to be very time-consuming, if only because not only do you have your community health clinicals, you also have your preceptorship. It's a different kind of time-consuming. The second semester, the research class and project are very time-consuming, because there are so many steps to it.

Most of us are done with clinicals/preceptorship, but I would wait until after graduation (May 10) to sift through the scrubs. I know that even though I'm done, I haven't had a chance to run over there with mine yet.

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Thank you for the insight!

So a few more questions: do you know if SSU accepts the red cross's CPR certification?

Also, what's your opinion on keeping a foods&nutrition textbook for nursing school? I'd like to sell mine cause it's brand new and worth a decent amount of money, but not if it will come in handy.

Thanks again!

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Thank you for the insight!

So a few more questions: do you know if SSU accepts the red cross's CPR certification?

Also, what's your opinion on keeping a foods&nutrition textbook for nursing school? I'd like to sell mine cause it's brand new and worth a decent amount of money, but not if it will come in handy.

Thanks again!

I graduated a from SSU in 2008, so things may be different now, but they accepted red cross CPR, as long as it's the one for health care providers. If you don't have it already though I'd recommend the American Heart Association CPR as it's a 2 year certification whereas the red cross one is only 1 year (at least that's how it used to be, it's been a few years since I've done it outside the hospital.) It's actually the hospitals that need you to have the CPR done. And, we never used our foods and nutrition textbook :) Hope that helps!

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Specializes in L&D, infusion, urology.
Thank you for the insight!

So a few more questions: do you know if SSU accepts the red cross's CPR certification?

Also, what's your opinion on keeping a foods&nutrition textbook for nursing school? I'd like to sell mine cause it's brand new and worth a decent amount of money, but not if it will come in handy.

Thanks again!

NICUmomNICUnurse is right about the CPR- as long as it's provider CPR, you're fine.

You'll have an ATI nutrition book. I never once referenced other nutrition materials (other than through research, plenty of which you'll be doing) - sell away!

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Thanks so much for the advice! I will definitely keep those things in mind

@meib92 - Are you also doing your CNA certification with Red Cross this summer?

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