help! SUNY downstate? Hunter-bellevue? or NYU nursing?

sesiliachan · Jul 25, 2013

Hi! You might remember me from the other topic about Hunter! Anyway, the thing with private colleges is that they accept less people for their nursing program (at least in some, for example Monroe where they accept only 25 people). I find it ironic that you were a psych major because those were my intentions as well, but then reality hit me and after 2 years of taking psych classes and GERs I decided to go for nursing (it wasn't solely because of the money though). So to sum it up, I would definitely encourage you to go with public schools, have you checked if Lehman has an accelerated program? I know they have nursing too and I'm going to apply there if Hunter doesn't accept me. The psych of aging might count as human development, I'm 99% sure, but you should still check with Hunter because they're very picky haha. Good luck!!

DoGoodThenGo · Jul 25, 2013

Hi! You might remember me from the other topic about Hunter! Anyway, the thing with private colleges is that they accept less people for their nursing program (at least in some, for example Monroe where they accept only 25 people). I find it ironic that you were a psych major because those were my intentions as well, but then reality hit me and after 2 years of taking psych classes and GERs I decided to go for nursing (it wasn't solely because of the money though). So to sum it up, I would definitely encourage you to go with public schools, have you checked if Lehman has an accelerated program? I know they have nursing too and I'm going to apply there if Hunter doesn't accept me. The psych of aging might count as human development, I'm 99% sure, but you should still check with Hunter because they're very picky haha. Good luck!!

Private nursing programs may or may not have smaller classes than pubic schools. It depends on several factors. For instance both CUNY and SUNY nursing programs like the rest of the system faces financial constraints that come from being a state/local run college system.

NYU OTHO has resources CUNY programs can only dream about, but then again when students are paying $$$$ in tuition there is bound to be some differences.

In 2011 NYU graduated 357 nursing students of which 327 passed the NCLEX (91.6% pass rate), and in 2012 it was 442 grads with a pass rate of 396 (89.6% pass rate). Only Adelphi and Molly (BSN programs) have classes of similar sizes but not always the same high pass rate.

Historically persons chose CUNY nursing programs both ADN and BSN because they represented good value for money. If you wanted to become a RN and didn't wish nor have huge sums of money (or go into deep debt) CUNY was and still is a great choice.

Sadly CUNY has

All things being equal and if one has the money and does not wish to play the waiting game say with Hunter, NYU seems a more viable option IMHO. Indeed over the years know several nurses who simply got fed up with HB and went to private BSN programs (NYU, Columbia, Wagner) where they got in, completed, graduated and were licensed instead of cooling their jets and hanging around HB.

sesiliachan · Jul 25, 2013

Yes I agree with that. Time is more valuable than money. And of course, private colleges are always the last resort if you don't get accepted into any public schools (at least for me it's like that).

DoGoodThenGo · Jul 26, 2013

Yes I agree with that. Time is more valuable than money. And of course, private colleges are always the last resort if you don't get accepted into any public schools (at least for me it's like that).

Colleges probably love for students to hang around and continue taking classes waiting and hoping they make the next nursing class cut; but in the meantime *you* are using up your financial aid (especially Tap and Pell) and really no closer being a RN than when you entered.

Prior to HB revising it's admission policy awhile back and adding the NLN component heard of students waiting 2-3 years to get in; that is just wrong. It is going to be interesting to see the stats for this new Generic Pathway undergrad program, in particular how many complete out of each incoming class and of course the board passing rate.

CUNY and the City of New York need to sit down with Bloomberg (a man with lots of money and even better seems good at getting others to part with theirs), and start considering another undergrad BSN program in Manhattan to take some of the pressure off HB. City College's program was closed IIRC because CUNY was going through financial problems and at least back then nursing wasn't the hot degree it was now. That probably meant low enrollment. Am betting many would even like to see Columba bring back it's pure undergraduate BSN program.

ebinbrooklyn · Jul 26, 2013

Hi! You might remember me from the other topic about Hunter! Anyway, the thing with private colleges is that they accept less people for their nursing program (at least in some, for example Monroe where they accept only 25 people). I find it ironic that you were a psych major because those were my intentions as well, but then reality hit me and after 2 years of taking psych classes and GERs I decided to go for nursing (it wasn't solely because of the money though). So to sum it up, I would definitely encourage you to go with public schools, have you checked if Lehman has an accelerated program? I know they have nursing too and I'm going to apply there if Hunter doesn't accept me. The psych of aging might count as human development, I'm 99% sure, but you should still check with Hunter because they're very picky haha. Good luck!!

Lehman does have an accelerated program, but here's where it gets tricky: YOU CAN ONLY APPLY TO ONE CUNY NURSING SCHOOL AT A TIME AND YOU MUST ALREADY BE AN ADMITTED STUDENT. It's a massive pain in the...

If you're going to Hunter, that means you apply to Hunter as a general student, get admitted, THEN apply to the nursing school in the spring. The same thing for Lehman. I tried to move to Lehman after not getting into Hunter's accelerated program and they took so long to admit me as a general student that the deadline for nursing school admission had past. Hunter has added prereqs as well and those classes are hard to get into when you're not a full time student. Trust me, I begged, cried and overtallied many of them every semester. If you're not a traditional student you register last, when classes are full.

Hunter and Lehman have listings of exactly which courses they require, you can use the CUNY TIPPS website to see if the class you took at another school is considered an equivalent. SUNY Downstate also has a list of which CUNY classes they accept for prereqs broken down by college: Transfer Equivalencies: College of Nursing â€" Undergraduate

sesiliachan · Jul 27, 2013

Yeah it really sucks that only 2 CUNY schools offer BSNs :/ But I heard it's because there's nobody who wants to teach. And ebinbrooklyn, it's probably better to just apply to a private college then if Hunter doesn't accept me, huh? :dead:

ebinbrooklyn · Jul 27, 2013

Yeah it really sucks that only 2 CUNY schools offer BSNs :/ But I heard it's because there's nobody who wants to teach. And ebinbrooklyn, it's probably better to just apply to a private college then if Hunter doesn't accept me, huh?

Try a few SUNY schools? Almost same price point - unfortunately there's only one SUNY BSN program in NYC but if you're willing to go to Long Island there's more.

Vincent_ · Jul 31, 2013

Hey thanks for replying everyone.

Couple things I would like to note:

I went to Hunter for their info session on the A2DP program. Seemed like they were just regurgitating what is already on their website. Was looking for more info about current students and alumni experiences, a bit of info about clinical sites..however I know what they discuss are just on the surface so to speak.

@ebinbrooklyn: yes you're right, one can only apply to one CUNY nursing school at a time. Hunter only allows you to apply to one of the programs at a time too; can't apply to both their generic and A2DP. I'm sorry to hear hunter gave you such a difficult time, thanks for the heads up. Thanks for linking me to the transfer course equivalencies.

@Dogoodthengo: I was also considering private colleges but they are last on my list simply because of the price tag. Thankfully, I had the full scholarship during my undergrad years so I don't have to worry about loans at the moment. There definitely needs to be some review of the CUNY system nursing programs or even another program added but I dont know if that would change the level of tightness on the requirements for applicants. Could possibly be stricter lol

I would definitely not put all my hopes in getting into the hunter program only. For the A2DP, they added two new pre-reqs: Nutrition and Genetics and at the info session they were really specific about which schools had the specific nutrition and genetics class that they would like one to take. If one is considering to take it at another college, they would like to see a summary of the course for review to see if it is acceptable. Pretty strict.

DoGoodThenGo · Aug 1, 2013

Hey thanks for replying everyone.
Couple things I would like to note:
I went to Hunter for their info session on the A2DP program. Seemed like they were just regurgitating what is already on their website. Was looking for more info about current students and alumni experiences, a bit of info about clinical sites..however I know what they discuss are just on the surface so to speak.
@ebinbrooklyn: yes you're right, one can only apply to one CUNY nursing school at a time. Hunter only allows you to apply to one of the programs at a time too; can't apply to both their generic and A2DP. I'm sorry to hear hunter gave you such a difficult time, thanks for the heads up. Thanks for linking me to the transfer course equivalencies.
@Dogoodthengo: I was also considering private colleges but they are last on my list simply because of the price tag. Thankfully, I had the full scholarship during my undergrad years so I don't have to worry about loans at the moment. There definitely needs to be some review of the CUNY system nursing programs or even another program added but I dont know if that would change the level of tightness on the requirements for applicants. Could possibly be stricter lol
I would definitely not put all my hopes in getting into the hunter program only. For the A2DP, they added two new pre-reqs: Nutrition and Genetics and at the info session they were really specific about which schools had the specific nutrition and genetics class that they would like one to take. If one is considering to take it at another college, they would like to see a summary of the course for review to see if it is acceptable. Pretty strict.

My own personal theory of why CUNY nursing programs are becoming more and more strict in terms of entry and retention relates to the overall student body.

Basically if one graduates from a NYC high school you are eligible to apply for a spot in a CUNY college. Where you go (four year or community) depends upon various factors including CUNY's assessment test results.

Nursing programs cannot control the quality of students that enter into the college overall, but they can do their best to see that those likely to complete, graduate and pass NCLEX (on first attempt) are admitted.

Some CUNY ADN programs historically had horrible pass rates, IIRC City Tech went from having the worse NCLEX passing rate to the best of all CUNY associate degree programs (if not all). This was done by dramatically tightening things up both for entry and retention.

If the trend of many NYC hospitals hiring only or mainly BSN grads holds, then sooner or later some of the CUNY ADN programs must make changes. Out on Staten Island NS-LIJ has stopped hiring ADN grads as part of a system wide initiative. This has me wondering where all the grads from CSI are going. NS-LIJ owns two of the major hospitals on SI along with IIRC South Beach Psyc.

Historically Hunter-Bellevue has been the queen of CUNY's nursing programs. Has been that way pretty much since the two schools of nursing merged as Bellevue was one of NYC's if not NYS's top nursing schools. Getting in has always been difficult but when interest in the nursing profession waned during the 1980's through early 1990's it was not the mad house that came later.

HB had problems starting around the mid to late 1990's from what I've heard with an applicant pool vastly out numbering available slots for each new nursing class. There were more than a small amount of students with GPAs >3.5 in the pre-nursing sequence that waiting one or two semesters for entry if some got in at all.

Being "top banana" means you have standards to maintain, and IIRC the past few graduating classes from HB had slipped in first time passing rates. One assumes that event got the attention of the powers that be in the nursing department and after examination changes were made.

On the bright side HB is getting a nice shiny new nursing lab/skills building on the Eastside that IIRC is being fully if not partially paid for by funds coming from elsewhere.

DoGoodThenGo · Aug 1, 2013

Hey thanks for replying everyone.
Couple things I would like to note:
I went to Hunter for their info session on the A2DP program. Seemed like they were just regurgitating what is already on their website. Was looking for more info about current students and alumni experiences, a bit of info about clinical sites..however I know what they discuss are just on the surface so to speak.
@ebinbrooklyn: yes you're right, one can only apply to one CUNY nursing school at a time. Hunter only allows you to apply to one of the programs at a time too; can't apply to both their generic and A2DP. I'm sorry to hear hunter gave you such a difficult time, thanks for the heads up. Thanks for linking me to the transfer course equivalencies.
@Dogoodthengo: I was also considering private colleges but they are last on my list simply because of the price tag. Thankfully, I had the full scholarship during my undergrad years so I don't have to worry about loans at the moment. There definitely needs to be some review of the CUNY system nursing programs or even another program added but I dont know if that would change the level of tightness on the requirements for applicants. Could possibly be stricter lol
I would definitely not put all my hopes in getting into the hunter program only. For the A2DP, they added two new pre-reqs: Nutrition and Genetics and at the info session they were really specific about which schools had the specific nutrition and genetics class that they would like one to take. If one is considering to take it at another college, they would like to see a summary of the course for review to see if it is acceptable. Pretty strict.

Private colleges:

Anyone I know from NYC who has the funds or can "front" (*LOL*) that doesn't want to fool around with CUNY's limited BSN offerings are applying to NYU. The place takes huge classes for both undergrad and ABSN without sacrificing it seems a very good first time passing rate. NYU also seems to not be so guided strictly on test scores and GPA.

kaisofine · Jun 8, 2015

does anyone have information of York's program? They also offer a BSN degree.