Johns Hopkins BSN/MSN Fall 2010 Anyone?

[Protongirl]

Hi all - maybe I am jumping the gun, but has anyone else begun working on their applications for Summer/Fall 2010 admission?

I plan on applying for direct entry to JHU, UCSF, Yale, Columbia, and Vanderbilt. With the exception of UCSF's 9/1 deadline, the rest seem to be due between 11/1 and 12/1. Although UCSF has the closest deadline, I am stressing the most about the essays for JHU. Anyone started them yet?

Also, does anyone plan on attending the open house that JHU is having in September? I would love to go, but I am in California, so I have to decide if it is worth the $$$. I am thinking I might be better off saving the money to fly out for the interview (positive thinking here).

Anyway, I would love to compare notes with anyone applying, or anyone who applied last year.

Thanks and good luck!

[Jesie]

Ok that makes me feel better! Thanks rockkstarr! I emailed financial aid yesterday and the person who wrote me back said that no aid packages have been sent to date to anyone...so we are all in the same boat! I just don't see how I can apply for my personal loans for school if I don't know how much to ask for. I realize that I have an estimate of how much I need to take out in private loans from the initial email sent to me about what I could qualify for, but I need hard numbers. It's my type A personality shining through! Hey, it feels like I was in this situation while waiting to hear if I was accepted or not! Oh well, it's all worth it.....

[rcldolphin]

Received financial aid award today! Anybody else? I was wondering where you guys were thinking about applying for the "anticipated supplemental loan". Thanks!

[CaliforniaHopeful]

I STILL haven't received my Fin Aid yet. Anyone else in the same boat?

[Jesie]

CalforniaHopeful--- I am not sure if you are acc or traditional. I can only speak to the accelerated program that I will be going into. I was told that payment was due one month before school starts which would have been May 1st. I think that they had to let that slide bc the financial aid packages were late going out or something. I think I got my final financial aid package around the 2nd week in April. I stressed bc I felt rushed to get the "supplemental loan." I received a bill in the mail on May 10th telling me what my balance was and that the balance was due on May 24th ! The thing was that the supplemental loan that I applied for and got had not been certified by the school yet so that portion was not calculated into the package. So it still showed that I owed money. I called the loan officer and he said that they sent the info to JHU SON on April 26th and they have not cerified it yet. I called the fin. aid office and they told me that they do not certify the loans until 1 or 2 weeks before school starts which in my case is June 1st. I just wish they would have told me that in the begining so I didn't worry about the outstanding bill that doesn't have everything calculated in it. So fin. aid package received April 15ish and classes start June 1st. I was nervous bc it was cutting it a little close .

As for the supplemental loans, I researched a lot of them. The main ones I found were SallieMae, Wells Fargo, Discover, PNC, and SunTrust. All excpet one, Wells Fargo, required me to have a co-signer. I asked if the the co-signer has the amount of the loan "hanging over them" on their credit and I was told by a loan officer that they do. So I didn't want to have my parents to have that on them so I tried to find a loan that I could get on my own. I found the MedCap loan through Wells Fargo. The interest rate goes from 4.25- 7.5% I think. I was able to get it on my own and it is designed specifically for students going into the medical field. The loan officers have been very helpful and nice. They give you the option to pay interest payments while in school so that the interest doesn't have to be capitalized at the end of the loan. I also looked at SallieMae but that was one I could not get on my own and they do require you to pay the interest payments while in school. You do not have a choice. I think that is why they call it the "smart loan." The loan that I looked at was for 8 years, which was a great term, but the payments were really high. But that's what you have to do to pay it off in 8 years vs. 10-15. This has been a new experience for me !!

[CaliforniaHopeful]

Hey Jesie!

Thanks so much for that info. It was really helpful. Thankfully I applied to Chase and Wells Fargo a few days ago and gave them an estimate of what I think I'll need. So I guess it's good that I did that already.

However, the bad news is that I called Hopkins Fin Aid today, and they told me that they still have a couple of people ahead of me on their list. The lady said that she will try her hardest to get my fin aid award before the 21st, but no guarantee. She told me to shop around with private lenders for now, and hopefully I'll get my award before orientation. And since I'm in the accelerated program, orientation is on the 24th. So I'm crossing my fingers and am praying for the best...

[Engle05]

I'm a current JHUSON student, graduating in May and I wanted to let everyone know that a phone interview is perfectly acceptable if you can't make it to Baltimore in person. If offered admission, you will always have the opportunity to attend Accepted Students Day to peruse the city and the school itself. I did my interview via phone from California as I couldn't get away from my then job to take a long weekend. They don't look down upon a phone interview and its definitely very casual, more the vibe of a conversation rather than twenty questions.

Good luck everyone!

Hey Asherah,

I was wondering how you were finding the employment opportunities for nurse practitioners right now. I have just graduated from a BSN program and am going into the NP program at UCLA. I'm planning on (somehow) finding a part-time nursing gig while in school, but I was curious as to how you were finding the employment situation for new grad NPs. Have you had any experience as an RN thus far?

Thanks so much!!!!