I may be a little late with this but as someone who is finishing up pre-req's at Baker, I feel I have a little insight. It's not the school that is bad, it is the students!! The Baker College student mentality drives me insane!
First of all, before I enrolled into the program I was told that I basically needed to get all A's. Yes, the minimum is a B- however, there are tons of students with higher grades who will be accepted first... they are your competition.
Secondly, the student mentality.... SO MANY of my classmates think that just memorizing the power point slides will ensure you a good grade. For some of the instructors, this is true. For others, I have to listen to students gripe and moan about how the quizzes were not identical to the power points. The power points ARE A STUDY GUIDE!!! If there is a physiological process noted in the power point, you need to know the WHOLE process, not just the key points that are listed there. This drives me crazy!! Are these people here to learn or do they just want an easy way to find a job that seems like a "sure thing"? I'm not saying that all the students here are like this. I have several classmates who work very hard and put 100% into their studies. But the ones that don't are sooo noisy!
Withdrawing, retaking, dropping classes is HORRIBLE and you mine-as-well kiss your nursing career @ Baker goodbye. The program here is strict and unforgiving. You have NO room for error. Get a good grade the first time, don't be absent a lot, participate in class, dress professionally, and keep your emails to your instructor short and sweet(they are forwarded to the Dean of Nursing... I was very upset when I learned about this from one of my instructors-- what an invasion of privacy!). All of these factors come into play and make a huge difference when being accepted. If the school has two or three people for the last open spot for clinicals, they will go to the instructors you had and find out what kind of student you were... this may just be the deciding factor on wether or not you get accepted into clinicals.
I believe I have a shot at getting in for fall 2009. I have a 4.0 and plan on doing well for the entrance exam. I have heard, although I've only heard it through the grapevine so I don't know how true it is, that the competing GPA for winter 2009 @ the Flint campus was 3.5. I hope so, for my sake, but I'm not letting that affect my personal goal of keeping my 4.0.
I like Baker College. Just know what you are getting into. Everything counts, your classes, your instructors(picking an instructor who is known for an easy A will not help you. The health science instructors all mingle and the ones choosing your acceptance are aware of the easy instructors and the more challenging ones. You're much better off to choose a difficult instructor than an easy one), the number of transfer credits you have(the higher the number the more points you will lose), the amount of times you take a class, your attendance, your dress, your attitude.
Best of luck to you. If you're up for it, it's worth it. If it sound too rigorous then community college may be the way to go.
Oh yeah, I was worried about the student loans too... but you're allowed like $53,000 in loans, unsubsidized of coarse. That's the maximum given out for government loans (like Sally Mae).
