Anyone else applying for Fall 2015 BSN program at OHSU?
I am getting my application together now, but I wont be able to finalize or submit it until after December when fall term grades are posted. I am only applying to OHSU, specifically the Monmouth campus. I currently have a 3.93GPA and after Fall term I will have all but two prerequisites finished. The remaining two are Writing-122 and Nutrition.
I think I have a pretty competitive application but there is still a lot of doubt.
I have experience working in long term care and also as an EMT in an under served rural community. I know I will also get extra consideration for having already taken Microbiology.
I know we are still months away from interviews or acceptance letters but it would be nice to get the conversation started and get to know others who will be applying for 2015.
For me it took a about a month for them to receive and process my transcripts. If you go to your nursing cas application page and find the section marked "Quick Status" (Which should be located on the main application page sort of in the center of the screen) there you will find a link marked transcripts. You can click that to see if nursing cas has received and processed the transcripts that have been sent to them.
I am going to be applying to OHSU's portland campus! I have my associates from Clark College in Vancouver and all but one prereq done (Anatomy) and am currently at the UW. I also have around 350 hours of volunteer work, and microbio and chem are completed! My pre-req GPA isn't the best (about a 3.7) and I'm super nervous about applying! Does anyone know what they base a lot of their decisions on? Is it mostly GPA? Supplemental questions?
This will be my second consecutive year applying to the 3-year BSN with OHSU. Here are my application stats from last year and then for this current cycle:
I decided to apply to the Portland campus rather than try for Monmouth again for one reason, which is that Chemeketa Community College (CCC) in Salem, Oregon does not use a +/- grading system. Many students from CCC apply to OHSU's Monmouth campus and I think that the lack of grade differentiation artificially inflates applicant's GPAs.
I am really nervous about applying to Portland just because I have heard that they solely base their decisions on GPA. Since I feel like I don't have the BEST GPA ever, I am hoping they will extend their decision factors to other aspects of my application such as the essay, second language proficiency, and community hours. Do you have any tips for first time appliers? Thanks!
Likewise. J A friend of mine said to me when I voiced similar concerns: OHSU can be a pain to get in to though, so don't take a rejection from them as a comment on your overall competitiveness. Again, I'm not sure what applying to nursing school looks like in the state of Washington, but many of the people that I have met or known throughout the years that have been granted admission to nursing schools in Oregon, including OHSU, haven't been admitted on their first try. Obviously, I have not yet been admitted to a program, but I have learned a little bit in the process. The following bullet points are inferences based on my experience and hopefully there are others who may be able to confirm or elaborate upon them.
· First of all, you may never have the best GPA, and even if you do, there may be someone else that has matched it and will raise the bar in another area of the application. The following link is a compilation of OHSU's student statistics. Of particular interest to you will be New Student Qualifications – Average Undergraduate GPA of Students Enrolling for the First Time, which is under the first Excel workbook heading titled Students. Download that file and then when Excel opens, you will see tabs on the bottom of the window. The average undergraduate GPA of new admits will be the third tab from the end and it will tell you the averages over the years from 2009-2013 for each program option. What it does not tell you is what each individual campus looks like in terms of matriculation GPA, although that can be found on a different page. Also, these are just averages, not minimum requirements. I'm not sure if you've taken statistics or not, but the reason that averages can be somewhat misleading is because on either side of the curve where the mean is, there will be X% of students who are still granted admission, but their GPA falls X points outside (above/below) the mean; this is referred to as a standard deviation. Major outliers bring down averages, which isn't beneficial for recruiting prospective students or achieving prestige, so it's in the school's best interest to limit those. Hopefully this made sense to you.
· Secondly, GPA is important. A friend of mine who recently graduated from nursing school told me that when he met with a nursing advisor at Linfield College, she was very direct in telling him that there is no excuse, no sob story that can replace a good grade. Rhetorically, she asked him why Linfield should admit a student with lower grades when there's an applicant whose transcript reflects higher ones.
So on that note, become comfortable with the idea of retaking a course, or even several. If math isn't your strong suit and you have to retake it, then once your other prerequisites are finished, register for a math class and nothing else, then pour everything you've got into it and find a tutor.
· GPA brings me to my third point, which is that preparation and application are cumbersome and can feel very defeating, even when you've worked so hard to get to where you are. You should be proud of your 3.7, but be humble enough to realize that you may have to do better than that for some schools or programs. The reality may be that getting into a nursing program, beyond GPA and clinical experience, will boil down to how determined and/or stubborn the applicant is; it is easily a battle of will.
If you want my opinion as it relates to everything I just told you, I will say that the assessment of prospective nursing students for many programs could be structured in a way that gives a much more holistic representation of the applicant. Clinical experience is great. I myself was a CNA, but there are experiences outside of the clinical realm that should also be considered, such as volunteer hours, since they may give insight to applicant maturity and transferable skills, depending upon what the position's level of responsibility is. Personally, I have well over 1000 volunteer hours between a couple of nonprofit human services organizations and I am proud of my accomplishments, but it is frustrating that they are viewed as irrelevant. I would say to you the same thing I try to keep in mind: your work hasn't been in vain and that experience may allow you to shine extra bright when you are admitted into a cohort.
Unfortunately, implementation barriers exist in assessing these qualities because the process immediately becomes more subjective, not to mention it may require hiring more staff to review applications, for example. However, when you think about it, how much certainty could be given to the claim that student 1, who received an A†in anatomy and physiology, is more qualified for admission than student 2, who received an A-? The same could be asked about the math requirement of math 95 or higher- consider one student who took intermediate algebra and another who took calculus. Furthermore, how can these same students be compared when consideration is given to the following scenario?
· Student 1 went to a community college where lecture exams were all multiple-choice with an essay and lab exams were given from anatomical models
· Student 2 went to a private college that administered lecture exams composed of short answer/essays and lab exams used human cadavers and no anatomical models
The answer: Quantification of grades and limiting experience to clinical settings is the most effective method (as of now) for ranking applicants, as it evens the playing field, even though it is not without major design flaws.
I apologize for the lengthy response, but I hope it shed some light on the process for you. Hang in there and know that everyone on this site is all too familiar with the weight that comes with the pursuit of becoming a nurse at any level.
I am just finishing up my app. I will be uploading my prereq coursework form, course description, supplemental essay questions, and work experience. Am I missing anything? I feel like there was more I needed to do, though it is possible that my mind is playing tricks on me.
Ok. I think you asked this before but I am finishing my supplemental essay questions and it says "limit EACH answer to 350 words" I understand the essay question allowing 350 words but as far as those other questions, they don't provide enough space for 350 words! Also, when saving and uploading the document, did you just rename it and upload it? I am worried I am not saving it correctly as it is still editable after saving it and renaming it. Lastly, I don't have a PC to work on and I don't know if anyone noticed it saying that we can't use a Mac to complete the form. I didn't seem to have any problems with it, did anyone else?
Everything you said is really important and things that I have thought about too. I was going to apply to UW's nursing program this year and they are even more competitive with their application standards and such so yeah! I turned in my application in last weekend and it was such a relief to have that off my shoulders! It's time to begin the waiting game!
Ok. I think you asked this before but I am finishing my supplemental essay questions and it says "limit EACH answer to 350 words" I understand the essay question allowing 350 words but as far as those other questions, they don't provide enough space for 350 words! Also, when saving and uploading the document, did you just rename it and upload it? I am worried I am not saving it correctly as it is still editable after saving it and renaming it. Lastly, I don't have a PC to work on and I don't know if anyone noticed it saying that we can't use a Mac to complete the form. I didn't seem to have any problems with it, did anyone else?
Hi Kthomas1005! I am guessing the "350 word limit" is a typo that was suppose to be only directed towards the first essay response. I was confused by that direction to on the supplemental question document! The documents that are from word don't have to be uploaded in a different way but the documents such as the supplemental questions and pre-req form need to be saved differently. I used this document I found on the internet to learn how to save those two documents. http://scheduling.uoregon.edu/pdfs/howtosavefillable.pdf
Hi Kthomas1005! I am guessing the "350 word limit" is a typo that was suppose to be only directed towards the first essay response. I was confused by that direction to on the supplemental question document! The documents that are from word don't have to be uploaded in a different way but the documents such as the supplemental questions and pre-req form need to be saved differently. I used this document I found on the internet to learn how to save those two documents. http://scheduling.uoregon.edu/pdfs/howtosavefillable.pdf
Hope this helps!
Wow! Thank you so much! Who knew it would be that complicated! Haha!
Did everyone else get the email from OHSU to complete the additional supplemental application materials on OHSU's website? I thought it might be an extra essay requirement and was surprised to see it was mostly just demographic questions.
Did everyone else get the email from OHSU to complete the additional supplemental application materials on OHSU's website? I thought it might be an extra essay requirement and was surprised to see it was mostly just demographic questions.
MotoMonkey, BSN, RN
248 Posts
For me it took a about a month for them to receive and process my transcripts. If you go to your nursing cas application page and find the section marked "Quick Status" (Which should be located on the main application page sort of in the center of the screen) there you will find a link marked transcripts. You can click that to see if nursing cas has received and processed the transcripts that have been sent to them.