Narrowing down which schools to apply to...

missnurse01, MSN, RN · Jan 28, 2013

Hello, Everyone!
I'm very interested in applying to CRNA programs throughout the nation but I'm having a very difficult time narrowing down the schools that I will apply to. For people applying, what approach did you take? There's so many factors to consider such as: location, cost, front loaded or clinically integrated, whether the school fights for cases with anesthesiologists, location of clinical sites, pre reqs, years of experience, duration of the program, class size, GRE, letters of recs, etc. I am curious to know how everyone broke it down as to what schools they decided to apply to. I started to make an excel spreadsheet but about a year ago but it is very overwhelming and difficult to find the statistics on every single school. Any sort of advice will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I took the whole list and narrowed it down. Some things were easy, like location and cost of the program, while many others were difficult. I found students that had been to a few of the programs which helped narrow down further. Finding a school that for me was established, did not have a high turn over in instructors, had fairly nearby clinicals that didn't require me to go all over the place or have 5 licenses for neighboring states, had an independent crna practice rotation, and plenty of lines and blocks is what I was looking for. Places with no competition from md students or other crna programs would be nice too. I couldn't find exactly what I wanted given the locations and money I wanted to spend, so I tried to see what I could and couldn't deal with.

have you been to the all crna forum/website? lots of info there as well.

good luck!

27medic · Feb 2, 2013

An excel spreadsheet is exactly what I did. Listed all schools by state. I initially applied to the local schools, because even though I was willing to relocated, it is obviously much easier not too. Then I used broad categories to get rid of obvious schools that would not work for me. (I don't have a BSN, those that required one are out; I was ready to apply, so if I just missed an application deadline, those were out; If I school needed a specific class that I had not completed, that school was out) This method still gave me a ton of schools to choose from, but also gave me a solid 5 or so schools to apply too.

As I talked to current students, I knew some other criteria that I was looking for (front loaded, less than 3 yrs, strong clinical sites, etc).