Lyn23

@whoAmItoSay don’t worry your stats are better than mine. I start class March 4th.

@whoAmItoSay I don’t believe it was part of the guidelines. Just a suggestion that I think helped me. I don’t think you have anything to worry about if your stats are good.

Also definitely include that you will be graduating with honors in May. The sooner that you get your application the better as they do rolling applications and I believe you may have a better chance getting into the program versus waiting later and having those spots filled up.

And if you haven’t already, I would also recommend going to one of their info sessions that they host I think once a month to answer more questions you may have. You can sign up online.

@shortyy you may not be able to add those things under certifications but you might want to include experiences from your career as a medical assistant in your essay. I would say absolutely follow the essay guidelines to a T. No more than 500 words but get as close to 500 words as possible. Include your achievements, work experience, etc. Also include why you chose MNU in particular for their nursing program over other programs, be it their faith-based teaching or their small classes, whatever you think. Again, you have to pitch yourself the best you can to set you apart from the rest.

I know that the cost seems high, but I did a lot of research before I applied and the cost seems to be comparable to other ABSN programs in the area. You also have to take into account you’ll be in the field sooner and you’re paying for a very good education. Plus my understanding is that the amount of loans you take out are about comparable to a first-year salary, maybe even a little less.

@shortyy I found this spreadsheet to be helpful. Just scroll down to the ABSN portion. https://www.mnu.edu/sites/default/files/uploads/documents/financial-aid/2018-19/20181010-SPGS-Tuition-Fees-AY2019.pdf When I applied for the program, I did add information into those sections as I felt it helped provide additional info about me as well as set me apart from other applicants. They get hundreds of applications every cohort and I’m sure they see a lot of the same information over and over again, so you have to make yourself appear as an asset to the program. You have to pitch yourself especially since they don’t do interviews. In the achievements section, I just included all of my Deans list and Honor Roll info. I also included certifications and license info as I’m already a healthcare professional, but if you aren’t already in the healthcare field I wouldn’t see why you would need to add info there. Also if you’re CPR certified, I would add that. My mentality is you leave nothing blank and cover all your bases. I’m sure even an N/A would suffice.

@justine15 I emailed XYZ about the specific dates because I know that SallieMae required specific months. She told me that Mods 1-3 are March 4 – August 7, 2019 and Mods 4-6 are August 26, 2019 – February 21, 2020. She also informed me that they can only certify loans for 1 academic year at a time. So only apply for the first 3 Mods and then wait for that loan to be accepted and processed by the school before you apply for the second 3 Mods. My understanding is that you can’t take out one loan for the whole year we’re in the program, you have to take out two separate private loans.

@justine15 you obviously don’t have to take out that much but I did because I have to supplement my income as I won’t be working while I’m in the program.

@justine15 I took out the total amount of cost of attendance for Mods 1-3. So that would be $34,400. My federal loans covered $6,250 of that cost so the max private student loan that I could get was $28,150 as the school puts a limit on the amount you can borrow from a lender. I’m going to repeat the same for Mods 4-6. This was a learning process for me as I hadn’t taken out a private student loan before this program.

@justine15 I initially was planning on getting my private loan through my credit union. They use the third-party lender LendKey, however LendKey now partners with SallieMae. I decided to use SallieMae as my lender after shopping around with a couple different companies for student loans as they had the lowest interest rates for me. It took a couple of weeks to get my loan from SallieMae to be certified and approved by MNU.

@whoAmItoSay Hi, I’ll be part of the cohort as well. I took out a private loan for the amount that federal loans didn’t cover for Mods 1-3. I plan on doing the same for Mods 4-6. It’s a lot but it’ll totally be worth it. It also took me around 2-3 weeks to hear from the school for acceptance after my NursingCAS application was verified.