NP school application question- Confused on what they're asking

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Im currently applying to a NP program (MSN) and am working on the essay. Im having difficulty understanding one part of the question. It asks...

1) Explain your plans for pursuing the MSN degree.

2)Briefly summarize your background professional experience relevant to your speciality selection and rationale for the program and future career goals

I don't understand what they are asking for in Question one. I assume its my future goals but then they ask for my future goals in #2. Does it mean, what are some of the ways I'll manage to be in school (financially and professionally?) or to name how I will successful in school?

Any interpretations will be helpful ? thanks!

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Specializes in Behavioral health.

The way I interpret it is:

Question 1.

Why a MSN vs another type of degree or certificate? Why that school vs another school? What do you hope to learn?

Question 2.

What are your plans after earning the MSN? What prior experience made you interested in this path?

Don't overthink it. It's open ended with no correct answers. They want to get to know you and get a sense of your writing skills.

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4 hours ago, scrubulator said:

Im currently applying to a NP program (MSN) and am working on the essay. Im having difficulty understanding one part of the question. It asks...

1) Explain your plans for pursuing the MSN degree.

 2)Briefly summarize your background professional experience relevant to your speciality selection and rationale for the program and future career goals

 I don't understand what they are asking for in Question one. I assume its my future goals but then they ask for my future goals in #2. Does it mean, what are some of the ways I'll manage to be in school (financially and professionally?) or to name how I will successful in school?

Any interpretations will be helpful ? thanks!

Question one appears to me asking how you will accomplish this task. Will you be taking time off from work to ensure you can succeed? How many hours a week to you anticipate to stay the course and succeed? Will you arrange your personal life to adequately study and achieve your goals? What kind of study habits do you foresee will be required to ensure you meet your goal? It's there to help them understand your commitment and you to start thinking about your own plan of attack.

Question two is just looking at your background and how you can either apply it to your new specialty or what parts of it influence how you decided on your chosen field. Also where you are hoping this choice will bring you career wise (maybe in context of your own history). For instance, before FNP school, I was a Preop/PACU RN for my whole career. While this has minimal consistency with the role or work of an NP in primary care, there were elements of it that moved me toward being an APRN. Understanding the eventual result of a range of disease processes and the expected outcomes of surgery can easily translate into a passion to reduce surgery need and improve outcomes before serious surgeries have to happen. Many RN positions can translate into APRN practice if you think hard enough and in some cases outside the box.

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Specializes in Psych/Mental Health.

You might benefit from contacting admissions to clarify what they're looking for from Question #1.

My guess is that they want candidates to demonstrate an understanding of the curriculum and the course requirements, and how you'll juggle everything.

I believe UAB is online (except for on-campus intensives)? If UAB doesn't provide clinical preceptors, you might want to mention your plans on securing your own clinical placements (since this will be the most challenging part of it all).

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I agree with @umbdude: Best clarify with admissions what Question #1 means because the way I interpret it is "What do I plan to do in order to get an MSN?" It is a poorly worded question, in my opinion.

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Very poorly worded questions.

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On 11/26/2019 at 10:47 PM, db2xs said:

I agree with @umbdude: Best clarify with admissions what Question #1 means because the way I interpret it is "What do I plan to do in order to get an MSN?" It is a poorly worded question, in my opinion.

Sometimes I think they do that intentionally. To get the person to think outside the box and to stimulate a range of answers because even here, different people had differing ideas of what they want.

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4 hours ago, djmatte said:

Sometimes I think they do that intentionally. To get the person to think outside the box and to stimulate a range of answers because even here, different people had differing ideas of what they want.

They probably do do it intentionally, and my response is ? lol

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