DQuixote

LOL. Nice to see nothing changes. You will get your skills bag day one of Skills Lab. They will hand them out, you will be shocked at the amount of stuff in them, and then over the course of the semester you will use 1/4 of the crap in there and proceed to be pissed off.

Hey, I'm fully sleeved on my right arm and I bought a basketball compression sleeve from academy and haven't had an issue during clinicals or during my first semester skills lab... I only covered my tats in my Collin uniform and never when we had to wear our own scrubs for afternoon activites

Hahahaha. Not accurate at all... AT ALL LOL. This was actually a thing at the start of the semester because everyone was giving each other scrubs because the sizing is so wonkey. They run large for women. I'd definitely order them early

All white shoes for clinical/lab practical attire. Material is inconsequential.

They are under the bookstore as a type of book bundle you have to buy. It is not a part of tuition, but you can use your FA to buy it... If you happen to be a veteran you can thank me because I was able to coordinate with the VA and Collin to get the expense added as a "mandatory program cost" that we pay for up front and get reimbursed for... Took me all of semester one to un*** that nightmare...

The way that I study is by honing in on pertinent information as related to the lectures and PowerPoints. You will be given exemplars (disease processes) to study. So exam one could be Hypertension, CHF, PVD, PAD, Gestational Hypertension (until 1), Osteoarthritis, osteomyelitis, otisis media (unit 2), MD, MS, Parkinsons, and Alzheimer's (Unit 3) all for your first exam. With these will be a slew of medications you will need to know about. The way that I study is to learn the Nursing Process for each one... I.E what can you, as a nurse do, and are expected to know (S&S of stroke r/t hypertension, ranges of hypertension, S&S of left/right sided heart failure, ect.) and then couple those exemplars with their respective medications and learn what I need to know about those (how to administer, contraindications, reversals for overdose, ect.). What I was saying in an earlier post about not reinventing the wheel is to just utilize the same study habits that got you into the program in the first place. As for your question about studying alone, absolutely it can be done... It will be challenging for your skills portion because it is much easier for a classmate to see your errors in a skill execution then you can (you might not even notice you are doing it wrong).

I already had my co-reqs done from a previous degree for the BSN and ADN. I would take those extra classes over the Summer. Semester 2 you might be able to take an extra class... But definitely not semester one Collin has a CRAPTON of scholarships... Because I'm a veteran I didn't look for them, but I helped a few classmates out finding them. They are plastered all over cougar web. You can also just go to the Student Advisors and they will help you.

Congrats on the acceptance for everyone who got in! I'm a 3rd semester student and TRUST ME, we all had the exact same questions as you did, we were all as anxious as you are, and we were all chomping at the bit to get started (careful what you wish for LOL). Here are some BIG things I wish I knew starting: ATI fees - Picture ATI as a massive online tutor that has quizzes, videos, virtual labs and virtual EHRs (which make clinical waaaay easier then doing it the old hard paper way). ATI can be your best friend or it can overwhelm the absolute hell out of you. I'd suggest getting access ASAP and playing around with their practice exam sections. Their questions are in NCLEX format and will greatly benefit you for your Collin exams. ATI COSTS $800 PER SEMESTER. Plan accordingly and apply for scholarships (there are a TON and as a nursing student you will get one). Don't reinvent the wheel - Nursing school is going to throw A LOT at you semester one. There will be a point where you feel underwater. This is by design. Buckle down, push through, and use the study habits that landed you at one of the most competitive programs in North Texas. You will be regularly assigned 800 pages of reading for TWO WEEKS... This is an impossible task. Get good at streamlining, making study guides, and study groups that work for you. Everyone is feeling the same - We are all OCD, Type A, neurotic, overachievers... Nursing school very well might be the first time you've ever encountered SO many people just like you. Don't bottle those feelings up and put on a front. Communicate and ask for help. I promise your classmates are thinking the same thing. Amy Wilson is a freaking God - So, I was the top applicant for my class, I was a valedictorian, and I have INSANLY high standards for professors. This woman HAS YOUR BACK. She is amazing and if you listen to her you will succeed. She is caring, compassionionate, and will go out of her way to help you succeed. The Skills Bag is a huge waste of money - just get ready for it... You will use about 1/4 of the supplies.

1st semester for me waz 3 days a week. Monday is 1430, Tuesday is off, Wednesday is clinical, Thursday is skills... If you have other days it is because you didn't do your co-reqs... I can imagine having co-req classes would add an unneeded level of stress. There isn't a single person in my cohort that doesn't have them all already complete. The next semesters are only two days a week which is great so you can work and starting building a hospital resume

Oh damn, that blows. They didn't let you recycle into my class (Just finished 2 and heading into 3)? My class has had a few people fail a semester and drop into my class...

Correct. After the first semester your costs are reduced to ATI fee ($800) and regular tuition ($900 for out of county, for me). As a side note, Semester 1 is significantly more challenging than Semester 2 IMO. The content of Semester 2 is slightly more challenging, but the work load is much much much less and you'll already be adjusted to nursing tests and what YOU need to do to succeed. Which leads me to my next point. When you get in, don't reinvent the wheel with the way you study. They are going to assign you an unreasonable amount of reading (about 500 pages per week) to go along with skills. Just focus on the PowerPoints, pertinent material l, hit the high notes, and ALWAYS look for what nursing interventions can be done for each exemplar (body system issue). For meds just learn the high notes for each drug class and the ADRs that pop out.

Congrats! Welcome to the hell that is Nursing School LOL. WGU is a great program! I think they hit the 100% NCLEX pass rate with one of their classes in 2019. Get ready to have a crap ton of info pumped into your brain.

It's not that they don't care about the TEAS it is just that Collin is one of the best programs in the area and INSANLY competitive. Collin averages about 500-600 applications PER cycle. Of those about 150 have a 4.0 GPA... So what the director is getting at is that losing a point with a B can be a very hard obstacle to overcome... You essentially need to crush the TEAS to have a chance. My cohort (fall 2020) has a class average of a 4.0 GPA and our class low for the TEAS was an 80 with 8 tiebreaker points. The Spring semester was a tiny bit less competitive because they took more students, but still very difficult to get into. Collin has an excellent reputation and NCLEX pass rating for a reason. Not all Nursing Programs are created equal... There are some absolute jokes of programs out there that won't teach you *** and that have terrible NCLEX pass ratings... Collin is not one of them... They are actually a center for nursing excellence LOL...

As I have commented previously in this thread, the 16 points low acceptance was from my Cohort (Fall 2020). We were under a different point system. We were actually an incredibly difficult class to get into because they only took 60 of us. Our class low for acceptance under YOUR point system would have been 19 points with 8 tie breaker points. People REALLY need to stop confusing others with this misinformation.

Also, the first semester you will have to drop about $300 for a *** "skills bag" that you will only use 1/4 of the material out of... Then there are the Castle Branch fees, buying a set of Collin scrubs, book bundle, stethoscope, ect. I spent about $1200 on top of tuition for first semester. Good news is Collin offers a TON of scholarships to help offset the cost. They are easy to get and you'd be a fool to pass them up.