LSU CARE PROGRAM 2021

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Hey y’all I just wanted to start a thread for those planning on applying to the CARE program for 2021. I know it’s far out, but we can start planning ahead. Looking forward to talking to every one ?

1 hour ago, Vanicia said:

Are classes going to be virtual due to covid?

Hard to tell. I'm leaning towards likely if only because the first semester of CARE is taken alongside the first semester of traditional students, meaning the class is easily 100+ students. No lecture hall is large enough to accomodate that many with social distancing. 

Some lecture classes for upperclassmen are returning to campus this Summer and we've started returning to campus for select exams.

The good news is you'll be on campus for hands-on labs at the very least, including the awesome cadaver lab for Anatomy. 

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What does the first and second semester schedule look like. Time wise. Will we be in school all day or is it an hour per 3 credit course?

 

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4 minutes ago, Vanicia said:

What does the first and second semester schedule look like. Time wise. Will we be in school all day or is it an hour per 3 credit course?

 

First semester is a nonaccelerated schedule so its reasonable. If its a 4 credit class, you have 4 hours of lecture a week. That first semester is 13 total hours a week. Most days you'll be done with lecture by noon. Your lab times may be mornings or afternoon depending how they split up the groups. Cadaver lab schedule was funky due to be optional for us. Some folks never went. Some went 3 hours a week. I find it useful to do atleast an hour a week but I don't know how it'll go for fall. 

First semester ends the first week of December. Traditional students go into Winter vacation. CARE hits the ground running. They frontload the work in December so you are ready for clinicals in January. January is ROUGH. 6 hours of lecture a day, 8-10 hours of clinicals twice a week, plus you'll have a ton of outside work to do to prepare for clinicals each week plus the exams are nonstop. It's doable, but hard. Thankfully that means March is way more relaxed. We don't get vacations in CARE but March is a good time to schedule a weekend out of town if you need a breather. 

Semesters 2-4 are accelerated. So that year is just funky (Spring, Summer, fall). Your last semester before graduation will be traditional but plan on being busy studying for NCLEX and applying for jobs. 

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Thanks @Banana85 the information you give is super helpful. Being a mom of two, I am trying to prioritize my time as best as possible. 

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Thanks, @Banana85! Your insight has been so helpful! Before reading your comments, I tried to find some sort of schedule on LSU's site for CARE, and came across the block schedule. It sounds pretty similar to what you described. Is that an accurate depiction of our potential schedule? Also, I know you said CARE doesn't get breaks, so does that mean they work straight through holidays as well? 

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5 hours ago, TallOne2930 said:

Thanks, @Banana85! Your insight has been so helpful! Before reading your comments, I tried to find some sort of schedule on LSU's site for CARE, and came across the block schedule. It sounds pretty similar to what you described. Is that an accurate depiction of our potential schedule? Also, I know you said CARE doesn't get breaks, so does that mean they work straight through holidays as well? 

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Yes and No. The block schedule shows official start-end times and its useful for grasping the weird overlap that happens some semesters with some classes running longer weeks while others work on a shorter, accelerated schedule.

But for example, the CARE XX block schedule for semester 2 has all courses running through March 26 which isn't accurate. The nursing courses this semester all wrapped in February and so for March, we are just attending lectures one day a week and taking exams in our science courses. 

For vacations/holidays...you get a week for Christmas. You will be studying for exams but there aren't any lectures. Enjoy. When they say its a packed, accelerated schedule...they aren't joking. haha.

For parents of kids, we have several parents in my class. It really just depends on the age/independence of the kids plus the support network at home. Schedules get funky when you add in clinicals. Some students work morning shifts, some work nights, some work nights then have to be back early the next day, and there will be the occasional Saturday shift dropped in. And because we live in a hurricane prone state, expect things to get changed last minute depending on the weather. You need to have a certain amount of flexibility in your life to deal with the insanity that is nursing school. Even on weeks when you're only in lecture 10 hours total, you'll easily spend 3x as much time out of lecture studying and reviewing. Some folks handle it well, some families struggle with having a parent who needs alot of uninterrupted study time. 

If you find the accelerated pacing a challenge, there is an opportunity to move to the traditional schedule. You gotta figure out what works for you. 

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Cool, thanks for the insight! ? @Banana85That's all really good to know! I figured there weren't any breaks at all, but it's nice you get Christmas week at least. Hopefully the 8 week classes I've been taking are a good way to prep for a schedule like that. Except I'm sure CARE is way more intense. And that's funny you mentioned hurricane season, I had that in the back of my head as I looked at that block schedule, LOL.  As crazy as that schedule may sound from what you've explained, I'm ready. Before I was laid off, my work schedule wasn't far off from this and I miss it. I am so much more productive when I have a lot going on. Really hoping to hear good news this month or next. ?Thanks again for answering questions on here!

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Anyone know when we’re supposed to get our acceptance letters 

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Does anyone know how the zoom proctored essay works? I've never used zoom for an exam.

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Essentially, you type about whatever they present to you on your document like Word. Then you submit it via email or link provided. All this while you are being watched by the Procter. 30 minutes to type your essay. I just did mine today at 1pm and it was pretty easy going. They also had a question and answer session with current nursing students afterwards which was really helpful. 

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Great thank you, Thuy!

Also Gabby, from what I've seen it looks like we should know by mid April if we were accepted

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2 hours ago, Thuy Vu said:

Essentially, you type about whatever they present to you on your document like Word. Then you submit it via email or link provided. All this while you are being watched by the Procter. 30 minutes to type your essay. I just did mine today at 1pm and it was pretty easy going. They also had a question and answer session with current nursing students afterwards which was really helpful. 

What was your topic?

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