momo90

Going straight from MDE to DNP doesn’t shorten the timeframe, it’s still 15 months for MDE and then 2-2.5 years for DNP depending on speciality. There’s no accelerated DNP option. Having said that, if you’re a non-Columbia RN coming into DNP, the timeframe is an additional semester long and you have a slightly heavier course load for the first few semesters than those of us who did MDE because you need to take a few classes we already took. They also knock $40k off the DNP for people go straight from MDE to DNP. If you didn’t apply to DNP with your MDE app, you can apply to DNP usually in the fall or Winter of MDE. They do accept some competitive internal applicants but my year very few internals were accepted, none to midwifery and a handful to the other programs. congrats to all accepted! Celebrate & Enjoy these next few months!!

@AnthonyforMichael LOL I just wrote out a whole long response and then deleted it because I don’t want to rain on your parade! In the end, I don’t regret going to Columbia but if I could do it all over again, I would go elsewhere. I had high expectations based on their position as an Ivy League program and promises that I just think they didn’t deliver on. Having said that, I did well academically/I feel prepared to pass the NCLEX, it’s definitely the fastest game in town, and we were able to get in most of our clinical hours despite COVID. Hopefully the name helps open doors so I can repay these hefty student loans! I’ve also heard the DNP programs are better than MDE so that’s something, and just be prepared to advocate for yourself when issues inevitably arise. The administration at least listens to the students if nothing else and they are trying to do better. If you are planning to work during DNP, I would get specific scheduling info from the program director for your DNP before committing, it seems less flexible for working nurses than I would have thought. The Patagonias are from two group orders we did, one thru student nurses association and one thru the student council. I’m sure they will order again when you’re here, it seems pretty annual!! Best of luck and enjoy!

Ahh thanks so much! Congrats! This is super helpful to know. yes, we all get that seamless discount automatically, but they aren’t considering any of us for additional merit based scholarships which is frustrating, even for those of us who were inducted into their honors society, etc., I am unlikely to continue thru to the DNP at Columbia for a number of reasons but this is one of them! appreciate the response and good luck with your studies!!

Hi, I'm a current MDE-DNP student at CUSON. Would you, or someone else who received a merit scholarship, be willing to share how much that is for? Some of us who are in MDE now and continuing straight into DNP this fall asked the school about more $$$ and they told us that they are not offering merit scholarships for MDE to DNP students, so I would love to hear more about this! Thank you and congrats to those accepted!

Thank you!! Congrats!!

oh nooo! I'm sorry!! but okay thank you that's helpful to know!!

Hi, congrats to all of you who were accepted! I'm considering applying to this program for Fall '22 and wondering if any of you could share whether you received scholarships from the school with your acceptance offers? Totally don't tell me how much, but JHU had said that 80% received scholarships and so I am curious! Thank you!!

Hi @CrystalC to answer both of your posts: 1. how much I like it depends on the day ?. this is a difficult time to be going to nursing school (or doing anything really!) and Columbia's program is accelerated. That has its pros (done faster, worst experiences are over quickly) and cons (sometimes it feels like we are moving so quickly we are not learning as deeply as we could be, the workload can be overwhelming at times). There are some professors who are awful and some who are wonderful, because of the pace you're not with either type for very long before you're on to the next thing. I would say the material is not dissimilar to the pre-reqs, it goes a little bit deeper, there's a nursing focus, and it's just a high volume (firehose analogy). Clinical experiences all over the city are great to see different hospital systems, though I think our actual clinical experiences could be better. If I could do it all over again I might choose another school and I wish I had applied to a program like MGH that does the direct-entry masters to be an NP for less $$. On the other hand, I hope the columbia name will open doors/strong alumni network. Tl;Dr is that I think columbia is a very decent nursing program but it is extremely expensive and can be very stressful. 2. I'm honestly not sure about the process of going from a MS/RN to an MSN/APRN, but a ton of people do not go straight through to DNP, many go to work as RNs or do their NP elsewhere. 3. I know some people who are working 1 day/week and I worked part-time for a few months in the beginning as I wrapped up my job (in an extremely flexible position). Columbia also offered for us to work as nursing assistants at NYP for a bit this Winter two 8-hour shifts a week max if we wanted to, and some people took them up on it so are working 1-2 days a week and getting paid for that. I think if you can swing it so that you are not working, you'll be glad, it's really just a lot to stay on top of and you'll be happy for a little downtime. If you are going to work, I would try to keep it to one day a week, best if on a weekend. Columbia changes the schedule randomly during the week with meetings, sim labs, or whatever but weekends are our own! Also I would add that a bunch of people have kids in this program and that seems to me like a job in and of itself and they're balancing it all, and if you're not particularly concerned about grades and/or things come super quickly to you, you may find you have more flexibility to work Sorry this is so long and I hope it's helpful!

They open up applications in the Winter of MDE for current students to apply to the DNP and to allow any current seamless MDE-DNP students to switch specialties (e.g. some will have gotten accepted MDE-Pediatric NP and will decide after some experience they’d rather do Family). It’s a pretty straightforward application and as long as you’re in good standing you shouldn’t have a problem getting into DNP. Some of the DNP cohorts are smaller, acute care and midwifery for example, so those can be a bit more competitive to apply to. you get a bit of a $$$ break if you go straight from MDE to DNP, I think it’s like $40k cheaper, rather than doing MDE, leaving to go work or whatever, and then applying to DNP later.

Ours started at 208 I believe and now I think it’s about 193. Some classes, like patho 1 and 2 are closer to 250+ because there’s lateral DNP students (RNs who went to school elsewhere) taking it with us as part of their program.

My personal feeling is the faculty are a mixed bag... there’s a few professors who are fantastic and a few others who aren’t as great... maybe they struggle to adapt to online or are just not as interested in teaching. I think many feel this way because there’s a few that have a reputation for being awful. Most are supportive but keep in mind that the MDE is a huge cohort (200+) so it’s difficult to get one-on-one attention. All profs have office hours if you’re able to make the time and that can help develop a relationship. And you’ll be assigned a faculty mentor to meet with in a group of mentees periodically (via zoom). The MDE churns out nurses though so it can feel at times like you’re just a face in the crowd. The DNP cohorts are smaller and it’s supposedly much better. I think of MDE like boot camp, just get through it! we are fully online for classes and exams. Most classes have an asynchronous portion of readings or more likely prerecorded lectures, then an additional synchronous portion on zoom. Exams are live and proctored via zoom. we go to the campus periodically for sim lab and we go in-person to the hospitals for clinicals of course. You can sign up for additional time in the sim lab if you want it, otherwise we are there once or twice a week for a few weeks at the beginning and then just once a month or less for the remainder of MDE.

Also a current Columbia MDE student here and I fully agree with my colleague! If anyone has any Qs, happy to answer!

The MDE program is for a MS that allows you to sit for the NCLEX to become an RN, so when you're finished you're a nurse with a master's degree. To become an NP with Columbia you would have to continue on to one of the DNP programs or CRNA.

Definitely doesn’t matter where you do them! Fwiw I really liked the Johns Hopkins pre-reqs. They’re on the pricier side compared to a CC but I thought they were easy enough and not a competitive environment at all bc it’s very self-paced within each module week. I would prob skip harvard extension, their science classes can be tough and there’s def a ton of med school hopefuls which is a whole dif vibe (not bad just different!) good luck!!? edit to add that I can’t remember for Columbia but some schools required a lab component so just make sure that if you need that, it’s included in whichever classes you chose. I know you can email admissions and have them sign off on the class syllabus beforehand too. Not sure what the pricing is but I believe MGH Nursing also offers prereqs.

Hi- I think it depends on how important these are to your app. If you think it's make-or-break then I would email (or call) admissions and ask about updating your resume. If they're just adding a little more color, I might not bother, but it doesn't hurt to ask someone in admissions either way I guess. I also remember that there was an email sent out to everyone who had applied in ~early January requesting our fall semester grades to be submitted to the application portal, so maybe that is a good time to update your resume as well? Good luck!

The Honors scholarship is $25k for the whole program, I would have to go back and check but I think that they applied it to fall and Spring semesters only at $12,500 each

Hi @TP0917 I hope others will also chime in so that you get a mix of thoughts. Here's mine: First- if Columbia is your dream school, apply! The application doesn't take an excessive amount of time to complete, and even if you decide later that there's somewhere else that is better fit for you, it never hurts to have options. Second- The world is changing so quickly right now that I can almost guarantee that our experience will not be your experience, so again, if you love Columbia, apply! To answer your questions: 1. It is CRAZY expensive. I really struggled with this because I am paying for this all myself, but I hope that going into medicine is a good investment and ultimately either we pay it off one month at a time, or hopefully get a job somewhere that offers tuition repayment assistance, or another program that helps with the debt like public service loan forgiveness. I think this is a very personal conversation to have with your family and maybe see what your financial aid package is first before you worry too much about it. I received some merit scholarships but not a ton and I'm not sure if others got a lot more or less; the handful of people I know received the same or less than me but that's a small sample size. I might hesitate to take out $100k in loans for the MDE only, but then again a ton of people do that and it's just fine for them. I was more willing to stomach the cost because DNPs generally are paid well right from graduation and this is the fastest route to a DNP so theoretically start making that salary faster. Columbia has NOT reduced our tuition (they say it is a University decision not a SON decision) but it's a sore spot in our cohort for sure because we're losing a chunk of clinical time and have not had access to a lot of the Columbia "perks." 2. I can't speak to the later portions of the program but the first Summer is intense. I didn't believe it would be so bad because I worked FT while in school, but it was a LOT. It's not rocket science, it's just a ton of work. I think if you can imagine taking 6-7 of your nursing science pre-requisites at once in 10 weeks, that's what it's like. There are no extracurriculars for us to participate in in right now but I am still finding time to exercise/make dinner most days. I spend a good chunk of my weekend studying and watching lectures, I would say (on average) for me it's probably 8 hours a day M-F and maybe 6 hours a day on Sat/Sun, but everyone is different. We have a ton of pre-recorded lectures to watch in addition to "synchronous" Zoom classes during the week, plus reading/studying/making flashcards. The previous cohort was in-person and all synchronous classes so my understanding is that they were basically on-campus and in class 30 hours a week and had a full day of clinical as well, so a similar time commitment of about 40 hours during the week and a lot of study work on the weekend. 10 weeks flies by and even if you're miserable and have no fun, it's worth it to lose part of one Summer to get where you want to go in life. The DNP is supposed to be a LOT better, we only have classes and clinical a couple days a week. 3. I don't think you pay extra for the global immersion experience but I assume you pay for travel expenses, though not 100% sure. They are pushing to give us the global experience in the Spring but no guarantees with COVID travel restrictions and clinical site willingness to host students. The cohort ahead of us did not get to do global or local immersion because of COVID. Hope this is helpful and good luck with your application.

I had a 4.0 pre-req GPA, a 3.96 undergrad GPA but from a non-traditional program (I finished my degree part-time while working), 4 years of ER volunteering, and working full time throughout. It's probably not going to help your anxiety to hear this, but as long as you meet the minimum requirements that Columbia has for GPA, pre-reqs, etc., I don't think stats matter very much to admissions. The cohort is extremely diverse as far as backgrounds go. There's definitely people who came in with the minimum GPA who are doing very well, people who had zero or close to zero medical experience, people who have been out of school for a long time, and new grads. The biggest thing is being yourself in the application essay and video. They really want to know who you are as an individual and what brought you to this inflection point. I totally get the anxiousness and I felt it too! But rest assured that once you're here, you will be great. The amount of work we have is overwhelming, but the "difficulty" is similar to pre-requisite classes, and they definitely know this is an "entry to practice" program so they don't expect us all to be biochemical experts!

Hi @millie2827 glad I can help. I was exactly where you are a year ago. Everything is changing so fast right now, especially given that you're in NYC, definitely still check out Columbia because who knows what it will be like next year. One thing I didn't mention above is that everyone keeps telling me that the Columbia/Ivy League name and school ranking will open doors down the road for jobs and other opportunities. I can't say first-hand because I'm obviously not at that point yet, but people definitely seem impressed when they find out, so that's something to consider! I also wish I had looked into NYUs program a bit more. I had heard good things about it from other nurses but could never find an info-session to attend so I scrapped it. Good luck to you and definitely let us know if you have more questions!

@millie2827 I am a current MDE student in the cohort that just began in June. For me, I would say it has been a really mixed bag. It's hard to differentiate which aspects are being negatively impacted by COVID/confronting pandemic of racism in America, and what aspects are actual shortcomings of the Columbia program. I will say that everything I had heard about the program as far as the first Summer being intense, the disorganization, etc., has all been true. We don't even have our one day a week of clinical and it still feels like more work than we can reasonably keep up with, there's a lot of teaching ourselves (though I have heard this is common in nursing/medical programs). I have all As so far (fingers crossed, still have finals) but I am exhausted by the amount of time I have to spend teaching myself the material and I feel like the pace doesn't allow for deep learning, more "get through the exam and move on" style learning. Having said that, I know we ARE learning a lot and it's all in my brain somewhere, it just doesn't feel like it! There's a LOT of frustration amongst the cohort about how things are going, but I think a lot of that anger and frustration is related to not knowing what is going to happen for fall and Spring and the stress of adapting to this program which is really intended for in-person instruction to an online format. I think Columbia has fallen far short in their online programming. The school is responsive to feedback but I find myself wishing there weren't so many issues to provide "feedback" on. The choice of which schools to apply for and attend are really so personal so if you have specific areas you'd like to know about, I'm happy to try to answer questions. I know for me personally, I already lived in NYC and wanted to get through my DNP as quickly as possible so I chose Columbia. But that decision was made pre-pandemic/s, and knowing what I know now, I might have opted to move out of the city and attend a program that was a tiny bit slower but maybe more thorough. However hindsight is 20/20 and I can't compare the education to other programs, they may all be this way for all I know! I definitely wouldn't say don't apply to Columbia, ultimately I hope it gets better and have heard that it does, especially during the DNP portion for those who continue on. It's just been a bit rough going for now. A member of a previous cohort described the MDE program as boot camp for nurses. Just get through it! I hope and expect that things will be more straightforward for the next cohort, and maybe you guys will even get to be in-person by then! Again, happy to answer any specific questions you may have if I can.

I just checked and my awards/loans are gone from the dashboard but the documents section still says all things have been received, etc., seems like maybe an internal thing with Columbia as I doubt they are revoking our student loans ? Let us know if FinAid has any advice! Thank you!!

@michellemirjani hi there! You have a very impressive resume and I am sure Columbia would be excited to have you as a student next year. From what I’ve seen, even though it doesn’t help with the application anxiety, Columbia has a truly a holistic admissions process. I was accepted into both MDE and DNP with great undergrad and pre req GPAs and 4 years of emergency room volunteer experience, but I was also working a FT non-HC job and was a non traditional student (took a few years off between starting and finishing undergrad to work). At visiting day I met students with tremendous variety in their backgrounds, so there is no one preferred type of student. Many students that I met were from NY, MA, CA, Chicago, and TX predominantly but others too. There was every type of previous job and some students straight out of undergrad. I believe they do have approximate minimum GPAs for pre reqs but you seem to have great stats so I wouldn’t worry. It sounds silly but just be true to yourself during the written essays and video essay- show them who you are and why you want to be a nurse and why Columbia specifically. Best of luck!!

@Nurse luckynp Hahahaha! Yet another reason to love Columbia, I feel like everyone in the class is just super smart, kind, and good-hearted individuals. I hope we still get to gel as a class even with the online portion first, but I think we will. I've taken a bunch of online classes before and I think they are (for the most part) what you make of them, and I definitely have distance-education friends to this day. Are you already in the NYC area or relocating here? I didn't check out the online sim lab but that's GREAT to know it looks good. I took a couple of pre-reqs with Hopkins and the online labs they had were a little strange, but that was a different system. I know they were just trying to give us silver linings but it is cool that we will be able to hear both normal and abnormal heart/lung sounds, skin conditions, etc., with this program. I definitely plan to rope unsuspecting family and neighbors into being my guinea pigs. I hope my husband is ready to get his BP and hearing checked every day this Summer!

1000000% I'm going to feel so stressed about the cost of the program until I pay off my loans (someday), but I knew that going in and made the decision after a lot of careful thought and discussion. I can't speak about how other programs are handling things, but I do feel like that high price tag is already demonstrating its value with CUSON's handling of the situation. I was so proud to see that almost the entire 2020 graduating class signed up to work as nursing assistants at NYP during this final semester, and that Columbia facilitated that for them after the students voiced an interest. As a side note, I thought this was especially wonderful given that med schools are graduating students early but they get to go work at the top of their license as MDs, while the nursing students are in a nursing assistant capacity rather than working as RNs, and they STILL signed up to go to the front lines. It really speaks to the heart of nursing and I think to the group that Columbia assembles in each cohort. Anyway... I don't want to seem like I work for Columbia admissions ? I am just really happy with my choice after a lot of stress deciding and I'm excited to start in just a few weeks. Columbia seems to be really responsive to students' needs, which I know I will value a lot during a stressful/rigorous program.

@Nurse luckynp Yes! just got that email. Dr. Ferrara was fantastic on visiting day (+ he has a great NP-focused Twitter account) so I am really looking forward to this. Again, love the communication, updates, and thoughtfulness we've received so far considering the chaos of the moment.