sarahk09

Honestly, yes, I do think so. I'm also a CA/Bay Area native and it doesn't hold much, if any, weight. Places like Stanford don't care where their applicants are from and hire out of state. But you do you! I just accepted an ICU Nurse Residency position out of state because I really want ICU and CA doesn't really hire new nurses into it anymore.

Congrats! Go to Johns Hopkins LOL I think I found out mid April when I applied. Johns Hopkins is a wise choice IMO because you can probably get a job there after graduation. The market is too oversaturated here.

I'm wrapping up my last semester now. I think the program prepares you pretty well for it. You take a predictor exam as a class as well that gives you a sense of how likely you are to pass.

Hi! I submitted mine last night ( I got an email requesting it yesterday) and received a call this morning to schedule an interview with the nurse managers of the unit I'm interested in.

Hi everyone! My application for Mayo's critical care residency is in and says "under consideration". I'm feeling nervous! I applied on Friday. I checked today and noticed they've already closed the application, so it was live for less than a week. Any other applicants here?

Copied from a previous comment I made: So I'll start off by saying my cohort is a very diverse group of people ranging from early 20s all the way to 50s with a myriad of life and/or health care experiences. A pattern I've noticed is that a lot of us have international experiences, whether it be living, working, studying, or volunteering abroad. But there are also students with pretty basic backgrounds who have worked as CNAs and taken a simple, direct path to nursing. I'm not one of those students. My personal background is as follows: Born and raised in the Bay Area. I graduated with a BA in Sociology and Feminist Studies from UCSB in 2012. My GPA was 3.3. Moved to NYC and worked in the service industry as a server for years. Got certified to teach English as a foreign language and began doing that. Moved to Miami. Continued serving and teaching. Then I moved to Baghdad, Iraq to teach English there. I think that was probably my biggest selling point as it's a very uncommon and bold experience to have. I also had very stellar letters of recommendations from higher ups in academia (a vice chancellor for one, and a prominent law professor for another). I decided to pursue nursing once Covid started because it became really obvious how much inequality there is in health care and I realized I could fulfill my passion for social justice and have a stable well-paying career at the same time. I had no health care experience beyond doing some volunteer work at a local nonprofit that helped the unhoused population, and calling that health care experience is definitely a stretch LOL. My prereq GPA was 4.0.

Admission to the program, like most in California, is extremely competitive. The chances of anyone getting in are slim due to the sheer number of applicants versus spots (the year I applied there were rumored to be about 400 applicants for 20 spots). If you look back at my comments I provided details about my background and I also did not have much (any, really) clinical experience. At the end of the day it's pretty much a crap shoot regardless of how qualified you are, in my opinion. I'd say do your best and apply regardless of your doubts.

Hi Thao, I'm not sure what advice you're looking for. Can you be more specific?

Hi! Good questions. You do get support and all the faculty want you to succeed. They really emphasize that once you're in the program, the competition is over. They want to ensure we all pass. The material is a lot but it's to be expected. For our cohort, we started a group chat to support each other and it's worked well. You get support in the labs and you're not expected to be perfect. Skills check offs can be intimidating but they're not going to fail you for not doing something perfectly. The med calculation tests every semester can be intimidating and yes you cannot continue on if you don't pass them, but you get a couple chances. No one I know of failed out because of it, everyone was able to pass on the second chance if they needed it. Each cohort has a student representative who can communicate with the faculty about workload and concerns, which helps when work is overbearing. Most professors are very accommodating.

Hi Sema, there is no option to study abroad. The courses all require you to be on campus at SFSU and all clinicals are located in the Bay Area.

Yes you follow the road map but there is a coordinator who emails the specifics about which sections to register for each semester.

I don't remember. And people were getting off the waitlist up until the day before the program started (mid August)

LOL I found that Reddit post and commented on it backing you up and now it's gone

Congrats on your acceptance ? you should be able to switch specialties without issue. It won't affect your coursework until your 3rd year so no need to fret about it immediately. There are no interviews.

I have not switched, but a handful of people in my cohort have. the reason you pick a specialty is because it prepares you to be a cns in that specialty. everyone besides the admin track take the same exact classes regardless (admin takes some business classes as opposed to advanced med-related classes)