Grindin26

Indeed! The inside info provided was priceless during my application process. I really can't believe this thread is about to turn 5 years old. Its always funny when you're asked, where do you see yourself in 5 years? I guess I'm here reminiscing, proud to be a VEEB graduate. There are so many things I only learned at VEEB that I haven't learned anywhere else. Put in the effort and stay hungry for knowledge and VEEB will serve you well. Good Luck!!!

Congrats Class of 2011!!!. Good luck in your future endeavors! P.S. Cowbell is right, stay focused. Ladies treat every female as potential drama. Gentlemen don't get distracted. It will feel like high school at times but just remember why you're there.

In the 2011-2012 book, I scored 71% on the CD, 79% on the book and got 64% on Question Trainer 7. Passed with 75 questions over the weekend. Also used the Kaplan Course Book and Kaplan Drug Cards. I didn't take the Kaplan course however. I'm just a huge fan of Kaplan after I used pretty much only their strategy book to pass the PN exam with 85 questions.

If you can believe it, my first question on the NCLEX last week was SATA. I was shocked, I think they're trying to integrate it to be as common as multiple choice. With SATA, the best thing is not to be psychologically duped into thinking you have to select a certain # of answers every time. If it sounds fishy, it probably is, don't select it!

Its helpful to peruse the text at this point, but don't delve too much into the minor details. I see a lot of students making that mistake, then when it comes time to take the exam your mind gets too cluttered. Stick to the basics the professors highlight and discuss on the powerpoints, that's already a lot of work in of itself. I rarely used my texts unless I needed to clarify something or for the process records. And most importantly take deep breaths before and during the exams and just RELAX! The nervous and the nitpicky people tend not to do so well. If you need any texts, feel free to PM me, don't pay an arm and a leg at the book store.

Your chances look bleak for getting into the program. Think realistically. I was in a similar position at Hunter College, terrible GPA etc. If I were you I'd look into a 2 year diploma program or LPN school then bridging. I prefer the former however, it's a lot more straightforward. It is very costly, but about the same as tuition, room, board at SB. It doesn't hurt to apply all over the place and weigh your options, the last place you want to be is taking useless classes with no other options. Another option is get your degree and an accelerated program, but again GPA becomes an issue. If you really want it, you'll find a way. Your parents pushing you is definitely a double edged sword in your case. The best of luck to you.

One of the worst financial decisions you can make is buying all those books brand new right away. The school isn't strict to the point that they'll make sure you have a specific book. Only books you'll need to bring in are clinical calculations and the A&P review book. Trust me when I say you don't need the latest editions. It's all the same material, only difference would be page numbers. Shop around eBay, Half, Amazon. Honestly most of my books sat around and collected dust. PM me if you need a specific book and maybe I can help you out. The Quiz's are strictly off verbatim, a better investment would be a lightscribe pen. Seriously don't be intimidated by the material, the school does everything in it's power to help students succeed. The pace may even seem slow at times.

Don't let the school's scare tactics affect you. You can always schedule a visit at the office of the MD who performs the exams. It's a bit out east and you might have to pay more, but if you can't make it, you can't make it.

I made a visit to Downstate a few months ago and the inability of the staff to answer simple questions was a bit discouraging. Pretty much any question was met with look in one of the packets on the wall behind you. Also none of my emails were ever answered. I hope you guys can fill me in. My main concern was really the entrance requirements. Does every single pre-req need to be fulfilled before starting nursing classes or can I take a few simultaneously? And how was your experience transferring credits in? Thanks.

Personally I would spend the money and just get it over with in 2.5 years. What's the total cost looking like? If it's under 40k total, I would say go for it. You'll be all set once you're done. An ADN program can become a big headache, they tend to be very intense and with no prior nursing background I'd assume, you might struggle. The time you're going to lose by doing pre-reqs with no guarantee of even getting into a cheap ADN program. Then the 2 years to do the ADN and finally spending more years going for a BSN. RN to BSN as I'm finding out is not as easy as it sounds. Pretty much every school has unique gen. ed. requirements, so you roll the dice with your prior credits. Again possibly wasting more time. If you think about it you're potentially going to lose 2-3 years of salary by going the "long" route. Your situation may warrant you having to move, so definitely weigh all your options and take your time to decide. Another option I've heard of is getting your ADN and with a Bachelors you can get your Masters right away from Excelsior. Unfortunately I don't really know much about it. Good Luck!

I never got anything. Feel free to email me: [email protected]

You can pay for parking just for the convenience of it all, but personally street parking was never hard to find on the north side of Union Tpke unless I got there after 7:50AM. Worst comes to worst you can park on the south side of Union Tpke, there's a ton of parking there. Your best bet is always in the vicinity of 269th st and 77th ave. I hope you have Prof. * for your Peds rotation, she'll change the way you think. If you're into Indian food, Platinum Palace close by has a terrific lunch buffet for 8 bucks. And Yes! I just graduated this spring. It'll be all over before you know it. Opinions are always subjective, but I would have to say 203 is the toughest. The content can get confusing between cardiac and psych. Then throw in the 3 in 1 NPR's and extra assignments. I surely hope they're doing something about those NPR's.

Yup just found out today. you need your BLS before starting anything. And something about the NLN. The whole landscape of the program is pretty much changing from what I heard from incoming 203 students. Makes sense though, you're taking care of patients in 101, you should at least have BLS under your belt.

Clinicals at Glen Cove (Visitor Parking), NSUH (Employee Lot), LIJ (Street Parking). No passes were ever needed. The school offers CPR classes and you won't need it until 2nd year anyway. You can even do it online, just make sure its AHA. Scrubs are for clinical only. Good Luck!

Check my post here: https://allnurses.com/ny-nursing-programs/need-help-become-552371.html#post4989145 Hopefully it will give you some insight.

The school has a lot of positive going for it. On the other hand, I can truly say the school and some of my peers would consistently manage to aggravate me. With anything in life though, you take the good with the bad and keep it moving. If I were some of you though, with the cost of tuition increasing, I would look at RN diploma programs. They run around 30k, but in 2 years you have your RN. You would end up paying roughly the same price as going to VEEB then Helene Fuld. And there is no feeling of uncertainty as far as time goes. Don't limit your choices. Personally I had no idea about the diploma programs when I applied to VEEB, had I known, I would have strongly considered that route. Graduating VEEB was definitely a blessing though, I owe the instructors a lot.

Half the class? Sounds like a severe exaggeration. The program is definitely intense, but at the same time the exams really challenge you to critically think which is what really counts when you get your job. The best I advice I can give you if you start the program, is not to nitpick info from the book. Stick to nursing basics and spend time practicing NCLEX test taking strategies. You'll eventually be able to break down each question with ease. Granted most of the students in the program have excellent study habits. Sadly though some let irrelevant preconceived notions and poor test taking skills hold them back from excelling on the exams which are 100% of your grade. Also theres buzz going around now with the advent of electronic records that students may no longer be allowed to administer meds on the floor as soon as next year. And that nursing education is now gearing toward more patient simulation rather than actual live patient experience. At least thats what my instructors are telling me. Good Luck!

How long did the application process take? Do you need your RN license before you can apply?

http://www.op.nysed.gov/prof/nurse/nurseprogs.htm Thats a list of programs, check out each one. Make the phone calls, emails, online searches or go straight to the institutions. You'll be better off.

I was in a similar predicament exactly 3 years ago, with a lower GPA and a good amount of worthless credits. I took a big risk entering LPN school, pretty much in the hopes of bridging over right away. It sounded like a simple plan, but theres so many variables involved, if one thing was off, I could have easily been set back 6+ months. I went to VEEB for LPN and had my sights set on Helene Fuld for RN. My goal was to achieve 85+ in every class in LPN, so I could bypass the 1 year work requirement of Helene Fuld. I laid back a little second semester after a excellent first and ended up with an 85.2 in Pharm. I was 0.3 points away from a set back. Then there was the problem of the antiquated way VEEB sends out academic records, I graduated in August and the earliest I could start Helene would be April the following year. Had VEEb been able to simply just print out my records and send them out, there was a decent chance I would have started 3 months later in November. Everything happens for a reason though. VEEB had never informed me of their articulation agreement with Nassau Community. So Nassau sent me a letter to try out for their program, a few months after I graduated. If I had A&P, English, Psych etc. credits. All I had to do was take a dosage test and get a 90 since I had a 90+ average at VEEB. For some reason I blanked out on the test and forgot about pediatric dosing rules, luckily I guessed right and got 100 on the exam. Also had I been missing a pre-req, that would have been an extra semester, I'm extremely fortunate, they had open seats and I started nursing courses in less than a month. Now I'm less than a month from graduating from the Nassau RN program. I hope you can see how it's not as clear cut as it seems. It's even worse in the CUNY system. There are many LPN's waiting for seats to open up. They don't really allot seats to LPN's, essentially a student needs to fail to open the door for an LPN. There's the financial aspect too. Helene Fuld will end up running you close to 20k. Another option you have are RN diploma schools such as St. Paul's, LICHSON, Cochran. You'll be spending at least 30k+ at each school, but in 2 years you'll have an RN diploma. Make sure you can dedicate the time to it, I literally put many things on hold for once in my life once I started doing nursing, but now I'm all the better for it. Good Luck, I hope you learned from my experience, but weigh your options, there are plenty.

Exactly, its in their best interest you pass. If you drop early, that's lost tuition in the future. The tests come straight from lectures. The people who ended up dropping usually didn't care, not because of material itself. I definitely love the instructors, they definitely gear you to go beyond LPN. Be open to learning and criticism and your foundation will be solid come August. And one area I found a bit lacking in VEEB was the skills teaching in the classroom. Definitely read up on each skill and check them out on youtube or something. Then in clinical ask to perform those skills. Good Luck!

It means the bridge program is under way this year. I think it's $1000 now. Anyways you take evening classes at VEEB and you retake the Math/English, ideally leading to a seat in September. Yeah VEEB is messed up, the way they make your emotions hang in the balance. If they really wanted to, they could tell you the day of. It's scantron, takes 2 seconds to pass it through the machine.

Has anyone applied to the BSN program? They refuse to give me advisement since I'm still in my last semester of an ADN program. If anyone could share their experience that would be great.

Oh wow, thats terrific, they're giving you experience with assisted living. That's a hot market right now. I actually felt a little embarrassed over the summer, when I interviewed with a place that sounded like a nursing home. In actuality it was an assisted living place, and I got caught off guard by the really specific questions in concern to it.

Well, just like anything in the general media, you have to take it with a grain of salt.