2017 Lone Star ADN Hopefuls

varango02 · Mar 28, 2017

@KEW787 that's a great score! The selection process seems to be based on your points. Someone had commented earlier that all the applicants scores are placed in a spread sheet and they just start going off of that from 8 to lower. If you are tied with someone for the same school then they go through each section on your HESI as the tie breaker. From my understanding.

varango02 · Mar 28, 2017

When you know you won't hear a response back for a couple weeks but still have your email open 24/7 just to be safe!

gee2017 · Mar 28, 2017

@kew787 your score is great. based on what JUANITA in the office told me, their selection is based solely of your score. Now for the last place (for example number 120 for North Harris) if the two people have the same score of said 7.524 they will look at your critical thinking score and other classes you took. Their decision should be pretty easy from all they have. With your score I wouldn't be worry. My score is way lower than your. Good luck

Tinkersells26 · Mar 28, 2017

Agreed! :) Keep checking my email too... gonna be a long few weeks...

nan48 · Mar 28, 2017

I'm applying for the program in Montgomery campus for fall 2017

i make A in all pre-reqs along with Medical microbiology, pharmacology

92% on HESI

now we just want for the result

penny reverential, ADN, BSN · Mar 29, 2017

Hi everyone.

I'm finishing up my last semester at Montgomery.

If you have any questions, please let me know. I'll do my best to answer them.

Good luck to everyone applying. :)

KEW787 · Mar 29, 2017

@Penny Reverential. How many times per week semester 1 do you go to class? Assuming pharmacology, micro, and a&p are all done before starting. What is the real work load like? Do you get any choices on class times and clinicals? Thanks

penny reverential, ADN, BSN · Mar 29, 2017

Keep in mind anything I can say might be outdated. They're always evolving their program to make things better, more fair, etc. For example, my class was the first to use the 8 point application system, the first to have 12 hours of classes cut, and the first, iirc, to front-load the CNA portion so we wouldn't have to start in the summer.

Our first semester, we had class twice a week, lab twice (so like class MT and lab MW or TTh) and clinical one day a week. So we were on campus three days a week. The CNA portion is lab, and we met three days a week for it (so for those weeks, we met 5 days a week). This way, we get started on clinicals early.

You don't get choices on class times. Our first year class was MT. Second year WTh. As far as I've noticed, they kept this. This is because first year professors have to go to clinicals W-F, so second year professors teach lab to first year students. Second year classes are WTh. (No labs second year. Practice, practice, practice your skills in the summer between first and second year, because they expect you to start clinicals in third semester remembering all of them.)

No choice of clinicals. It's random. If what we got didn't work for us, we could trade with another student with approval of the clinical professors involved. They do try to vary where you are every semester, though. If you live in the area, sometimes you will have a clinical far away, and sometimes your hospital will be just down the street. Part of clinicals also means doing one-off clinicals at, say, a school or ob/gyn clinic. Those weeks we had two clinicals.

Work load...hoo boy. Nursing school is hard. You're responsible for a lot. In the first year, you're responsible for didactic knowledge (i.e. the stuff you're taking exams over, which involves the lectures and homework of course) and group work (at the end of the semester you do a major presentation in a group, too). With lab, you're responsible for homework and getting your skills down. In clinical you're responsible for caring for your patient (1 first semester), clinical worksheets, papers. So basically you learn a lot of brain-stuff, and a lot of hands-on stuff, and then you go to clinical to try to integrate all that with the unteachable nursing stuff, like compassion, prioritization, critical thinking. And safety. Safety, safety, safety. Safety and wash your hands will be imprinted on the backs of your lids.

It's not impossible, but it's nursing school. It's hard, and nothing really compares. Plan to work every day to keep on top of things.

Hope any of that helps.

mgf826 · Mar 29, 2017

Thank you for all the info penny reverential. Are you assigned either morning or evening classes? If so what times? About how many hours are you on campus for class days?

penny reverential, ADN, BSN · Mar 29, 2017

I just looked, because schedules are probably the most dynamic aspect of nursing school, and for 1st semester (Montgomery), classes are Mondays from 9-noon. Lab MW or TTh from 1-130 (wtf, what's the point?) or 1-3PM. Clinicals W or F. This is slightly different from what we had. I also don't know if that is finalized. Montgomery does not offer evening classes.

It looks like Kingwood still offers night and weekend classes, but of course they're on a different start date than everyone else. If you want to go to Kingwood, you'd be starting in January.

If you want to go to Cy Fair, their classes are closer to BSN classes to me, since they do block curriculum. You're on campus more. I see classes on Friday from 9-noon or 1-4, Mondays or Tuesdays from 9-3 (1 hour break for lunch), and Wednesdays or Thursdays from 830-1230. Clinicals wouldn't start until second semester per their degree plan. My friends in BSN programs have schedules similar to this. That doesn't make CF better, it's just a matter of how you want to learn. Do you want to study all topics from simple to complex, or do you want to study topics on a theme? Would you rather spend 2 weeks on a topic every semester, or 8 weeks studying it all at once? Etc.

mgf826 · Mar 30, 2017

@pennyreverential thanks that helps a lot! Did you get your schedule at orientation or do they not do it until August?

penny reverential, ADN, BSN · Mar 30, 2017

Orientation was a bust, imo. It is PROBABLY different now. Ours was basically discussing the DO, meeting the faculty, and a drug test. I firmly believe this is because ours was the first class dealing with the new program style. By all means, attend the orientation, because it's usually required.

I got accepted in April. We had to register ourselves, the information for which we got in May. They didn't have the clinical site information yet (a very common issue, actually, becauses they have to ask hospitals to accept us and work out where in the hospitals we can go), so we just registered for what was available at random. Second through fourth semesters were different: they had the clinical site information, broke us up into groups, and then told us which sections to register for. First semester, we got the class schedule in May with the registration information; we started getting more information through the summer. That style of information-giving held through the other semesters.

They really expect you to have 100% availability. If you have a job or dependents, please have multiple plans in case something comes up or falls through. Even now, everything we have planned is marked tentative. It's not that the schedules are volatile and we don't know what's happening week to week, but just know that things are subject to change.