I recently came across a very helpful thread on allnurses regarding last year's applications to the ELMSN program and thought I would try to get some dialogue going for those applying for the program starting in June 2016.
I took the GRE earlier this week and am wrapping up my applications (PLU, Seattle U, etc) now. I would be happy to answer any questions about my experiences throughout the application process, but mostly I thought this would be a great space to encourage and motivate one another!
I'm a non-traditional student and former finance professional making one of the most exciting transitions into healthcare. I'm also a current PLU student so I'm familiar with the campus, which is beautiful by the way (if some of you aren't and were curious).
If you have questions, ask away. If you have answers, we'd love to hear them. Or, if you just want to pop in and introduce yourself, we'd love that too!
Whoops! I knew something felt off with the scores. So I went ahead and logged into the GRE website to find my scores. My quantitative was 151 and my verbal was 157. Haha. My blind guess based off of recall was a total miss apparently. The highest I could get with writing was 3.5 even though I practiced and took the GRE a couple times.
Overall, I think my strengths were highlighted in my GPA and Verbal portion of the GRE, and my weaknesses were shown in my writing score of 3.5 (average 4.0?).
As for other criteria, whether having a CNA helped or not, I really don't know. The same goes for having some volunteer experience at a hospital under supervision of RNs. How much that is weighted or contributed to the overall acceptance is something I would have to discuss in person with the graduate admissions faculty.
In my personal essay, I highlighted some of my life experiences such as studying abroad in college, going through the personal loss of my father to cancer, and my involvement in college and post-college volunteer opportunities as a way to paint a picture of my character, my values, what drives and motivates me to succeed in the program, and how I will contribute to the community and world.
Letter of recommendations were also important for me personally and professionally. I sought out my university professor who was also my on-site mentor during my study abroad. I have no clue what she wrote in the letter, but I felt she knew me more than just as a student. Because she was my mentor, she acted as a counselor to me and someone who could guide me on the journey. She was able to get to know me both personally and professionally, and could comment on many aspects of the online letter of recommendation that PLU uses.
My other letter was from my CNA instructor who also was able to supervise me at clinicals to evaluate me on a professional level as well as on a personal level with clients. Overall, I think having letters of recommendations from people who know you professionally as well as personally would strengthen this part of the application.
I also have volunteer experience in the hospital. Most of it is physical therapy related for when I applied for PT schools, but I started volunteering in adult/med surg since last summer to better understand the roles that nurses have among other healthcare practitioners. I've heard that having your CNA can help, but it's not a requirement, so I don't know. I considered getting my CNA, but decided to only pursue it if I didn't get accepted this year.
MSNhopeful, I'm sorry for your loss. I also lost my father to cancer, but I did not discuss it in the PLU essay. I discussed it in the SU essay instead. He was definitely a major impact on me for staying in the healthcare field.
I agree with you on picking people that know you both professionally and personally. I actually changed the people giving me recommendations this year because I felt that it was more important to have people that knew me better. For PT school, my A&P prof and my work supervisor (and the same physical therapist who wrote me one this year) wrote me recommendations, and I knew they would write good recommendations, but I didn't think they'd write anything stellar about me. I felt better about the people I chose this year.
I actually only took one class from the professor who wrote me the recommendation, but it was a small senior-level class (14-ish people?) and she got to know me pretty well. I did research for her in the class and also excelled in her class (physiology is my favorite subject).
The physical therapist that wrote my recommendation has been mentoring me about PT ever since I started volunteering at the clinic she worked at. She guided me through everything about PT and taught me so much about different physical conditions patients may have and how she works through creating treatment plans for them. She also supported my decision to not attend PT school and to pursue nursing instead. I wasn't sure if it'd be ok to have a recommendation from a physical therapist, but I think it helped in the end because I wrote about physical therapy in my essay.
What is great about entry nursing master's programs for non-nurses is that we can apply our education and experiences outside of nursing and incorporate that into our nursing education and goals. I think because of that, your background in physical therapy is a wonderful contribution to what you'll experience in this program and in your career.
Have you checked out the SU allnurses page? It has tons of posts. Most likely this is because there are like 400+ applicants and SU generally doesn't like to notify students until around end of february and march which gets many people anxious and psyched up.
Yes I have. It seems like it's extra competitive this year since it's the last year that the MSN will be offered.
I applied to SU last year for AGNP along with my physical therapy school applications and I was waitlisted without an interview.
I applied again this year for the same specialty, but I doubt I'd get an interview just because it's even more competitive this year.
Is SU your top choice? Are you planning on going to PLU?
What age are you? I'm excited to find out who's in our cohort. My husband's cohort (occupational therapy) has around 45 students, but ours will only have 20 students. It'll be interesting to hear about everyone's background and where they're from. Are you from WA or out of state?
SU is my ideal choice, but I'm thinking I probably won't get in because it's just too competitive. I will most likely accept and attend unless i miraculously get into SU. I've applied to SU BSN program as well but haven't gotten notice of anything with that either. I just turned 25 years old. I'm from Portland, Oregon. :) 20 is a solid number to get to know everyone and to learn and grow as students and nurses together.
It's really interesting to hear you talk about stats and experience, from what I've heard from you all it sounds like gpa is a driving factor. I applied with a 3.3 overall, 160v 155q 4.0writing, 3.8 in pre reqs and approx 10 years direct patient care in community psych/cna/child welfare work. That didn't sparked an invite. So interesting what different schools are seeking! I did have an interview with SU for public health, denied for psych last year, fingers crossed with both, wondering if I'll be waitlisted with PLU. My dream is all centered in rural public psych health. Good on everyone who got in, the program seems focused on getting people trained and working towards their goals as soon as possible. It's great to read about other people's experiences and I'm already thinking about next year's app if it doesn't pan out. Thanks for sharing your background and motivations, we're all working towards a common goal :)
Your experience working with patients is astounding. I'm surprised you haven't gotten a call from them yet. Though, I wonder if it could be because the graduate admissions director is out of the office. I missed a call from graduate admissions stating "we have good news." When i tried calling back, I got a voicemail that said the person (can't name names) would be out of the office until Wednesday. Perhaps more calls will be rolling out tomorrow!
Thanks MSNhopeful, I appreciate the positive thoughts! Truth is, we're all something else on paper and I really do like reading about what everyone else put out there.
Just really hoping I can break into the nursing field, this in home social worker biz isn't feeding my desire to work in nursing :)
I also wanted to say, if you guys haven't heard of the Living Well with Chronic Conditions program in your community, think about getting hooked up. It's a free 6 week seminar you can volunteer to teach that creates real change for people in your community.
I co-facilitated with an MSN in my agency, thought it would be a good learning experience/ thing to put on my resume, but it really changed my interaction with people in town who want to create slow and sustainable change with group support. If it's not something you want to facilitate, think about supporting it in your clinic/practice in the future! It's relatable, evidence-based material :)
It really is odd that you didn't get an invitation. I'm pretty sure all phone calls went out on the same day (based on passed cycles), but your stats are really good and hopefully you do get waitlisted at least!
When I didn't get accepted to SU last year, I actually e-mailed the dean of the nursing school and asked her what areas in my application needed improvement. You should try contacting PLU's school of nursing to see what you can improve on for next year's cycle. Just on numbers (GPA/GRE) alone though, you seem pretty solid. Maybe the 3.3 overall lost you some points? But my prereq grades were pretty bad at 3.2, so I'm not sure.. Also, do you think your essay or recommendations could've been improved?
But still congrats on getting an interview for SU! That's pretty awesome!
It definitely is interesting to see that PLU and SU seem to desire different things.
Another user on here (anichka?) wanted to get into PLU, but only got accepted to SU. I think her stats were really good too, but for some reason she didn't get accepted to PLU.
I believe she's a 2nd year APNI student at SU now though.
MSNhopeful
33 Posts
Whoops! I knew something felt off with the scores. So I went ahead and logged into the GRE website to find my scores. My quantitative was 151 and my verbal was 157. Haha. My blind guess based off of recall was a total miss apparently. The highest I could get with writing was 3.5 even though I practiced and took the GRE a couple times.
Overall, I think my strengths were highlighted in my GPA and Verbal portion of the GRE, and my weaknesses were shown in my writing score of 3.5 (average 4.0?).
As for other criteria, whether having a CNA helped or not, I really don't know. The same goes for having some volunteer experience at a hospital under supervision of RNs. How much that is weighted or contributed to the overall acceptance is something I would have to discuss in person with the graduate admissions faculty.
In my personal essay, I highlighted some of my life experiences such as studying abroad in college, going through the personal loss of my father to cancer, and my involvement in college and post-college volunteer opportunities as a way to paint a picture of my character, my values, what drives and motivates me to succeed in the program, and how I will contribute to the community and world.
Letter of recommendations were also important for me personally and professionally. I sought out my university professor who was also my on-site mentor during my study abroad. I have no clue what she wrote in the letter, but I felt she knew me more than just as a student. Because she was my mentor, she acted as a counselor to me and someone who could guide me on the journey. She was able to get to know me both personally and professionally, and could comment on many aspects of the online letter of recommendation that PLU uses.
My other letter was from my CNA instructor who also was able to supervise me at clinicals to evaluate me on a professional level as well as on a personal level with clients. Overall, I think having letters of recommendations from people who know you professionally as well as personally would strengthen this part of the application.