tsscal

Hi Anne, the personal history statement is personal, so you should take any approach you feel would best show who you are on paper. It's your chance to give the school a reason to want to interview you, so make it personal and show who you are. Not sure about the language thing, but "good" is definitely appealing. Maybe take a foreign language course to improve your language skills even more and you can mention it in your goal statement.

In the goal statement, speak to SPECIFICS and be concise. Convey the specific population(s) with whom you want to work and why your chosen specialty is the one that best suits your career goals. You want to say as much as you can in as few words as possible. In the personal history statement, simply follow the prompt. Discuss personal experiences, hardships, and how your culture and/or gender and/or sexual orientation and/or family structure and/or you name it informs your decision to seek a graduate degree in nursing and how who you are/what you have done/the challenges you have faced/the obstacles you have overcome will make you a damn good nurse. Good luck to the 2010 applicants. It seems like not very long ago when the '09s were applying. We are here to help, as the '08s were there to help us. We will be super busy when classes start on the 22nd, but we will try to offer you the support you need!

I have heard the same thing re: being somewhat disappointed by the MEPN year, but I have also heard that the Master's portion of the program is what makes UCSF SON so great. What are your thoughts/insights?

Hey all, Have you received the long letter from UCSF that gives us a heads up of what we need to do prior to classes? Talk about a reality check!

Congratulations, nightnurse007! So glad you made it in. I'm rooting for all the other alternates, especially sammypi!! :)

I wonder if you snatched the spot from #1 and #2 because you replied the quickest? Doubt it, but you never know.

SASYR - it's just under her name, next to "Registered user"

Looks like there are no MEPN grants to be awarded this year. Not a surprise, though. First-time debt, here I come!

Hey Guys, PotreroLCSW was awesome enough to offer all this info: Ok, here goes: Your first quarter you will be either in class, in clinical skills lab in San Rafael at Dominican School or on the floor of the hospital you will be assigned to. Classes for us were pretty much all day Mon and Wed, skills lab all day on Tues and 8 hour shifts on Thurs and Friday. The entire class was together for the summer quarter and then split up for the rest of the year, except for one class we'll all take together our last quarter in the spring. Your classes will be: Fundamentals of nursing, Pathophysiology and Pharmacology. You won't get a break until your fall quarter when you'll have at least a half day per week off, depending on which group you will be in--A or B. Also depending on which group will also determine how long your summer-fall and winter-spring breaks will be. Each will be a minimum of 1 week and as much as two weeks. The difference is the quarter when you have your Med Surg rotation which is 11 weeks, the rest of the quarters are all 10 weeks. My first quarter was mostly exams, and a couple of small papers. My second quarter was a mix of both, as is the case this quarter. Your life outside of MEPN really depends on how dedicated and organized you are. Plan on dropping a few of your regularly scheduled activities. Classes don't start before 9, but the commute to your respective hospitals could be as close as Parnassus or as far away as Stanford, not to mention the skills lab in San Rafael. There is absolutely no consideration of where someone lives as to where any of the clinical rotations are, so get to know your classmates and arrange for carpools. Carpooling is a great way to study and/or get to know those in your group. As for the BRN requirements, I couldn't find it there either, but was able to find a letter sent to me before school began. it lists 6 units of communication course and 24 units of natural, behavioral and social science course work, which includes a course in psychology before licensure can be granted. As far as nutrition, there is no requirement in that field, but you will be exposed to it, either in class setting, or from one of your classmates. Your classmates will have a vast variety of skills and knowledge that you will be able to, and should, draw from. I hope this doesn't sound too foreboding, but the better organized you are, the better. Good luck. You'll be fine, but will have to study and apply yourself very diligently. Bill PS: Feel free to post this on the thread.

Hey Everyone, I would love to join on May 31st; however, I may be on a trip at that time, but not sure. Last year the program started June 16, so I would think June 15 is the start date this year.

hopefulnurse, we've replied to each other's posts a lot over the last several months. tell me about yourself! where do you live? where are you working now? what specialty? etc? i'm tony in oakland, 28 yo, working as a triage assistant at a community health clinic in berkeley, going for the FNP specialty.

i'm thinking about taking 6 weeks off! i wanna clean house, get organized, take a trip, have fun, relax, and enjoy myself before diving into MEPN madness.

craigslist.org is great for the bay area renter's market. be prepared for high housing costs, but you CAN find affordable rooms in houses. you might want to check out the presidio area as well. good luck hunting!

schmooper - i, too, cannot wait to meet everyone. we are all going to be going through an intense program, and i am sure we will be building lifelong relationships with each other as we get through a year of boot camp. i think cocktails are in order for this evening!

after all this posting and sharing since last summer, the time has finally come for us! ysinx: i live in oakland right now - i might move to SF depending on what i can find that is "affordable."