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All of the schools I applied to looked at both my cumulative (which was honestly terrible - like a 2.9 - due to a lot of issues that are all very old now) and my last 60 credits aka my ABSN GPA (which was a 3.9). They also looked at my science GPA as its own entitity. Honestly, the numbers will get you into the interview; the interview will get you into the program. Once you can get some face time, your grades aren't what is going to make or break you. I got accepted everywhere I interviewed, but I was declined quite a few interviews entirely as well. All this to say... every program looks at things a little different and I found that admissions coordinators were generally very open and willing to chat about how their program looks at candidates' GPAs and that helped me fine-tune my application strategy after the first few "thanks but no thanks" to interview

Agreed with all of the above. I started in the ICU straight out of school and was glad I did; I would have been insanely frustrated with the low acuity of the floor. The ICU has a large learning curve, but if you're truly the CRNA type, you'll be happy to dig into the large amount of stuff there is to learn and apply. I loved how much/how fast I learned to care for the really sick folks in our unit! (But to be fair, I did spend a lot of time reading/studying outside of work... so keep that in mind. ) Nobody in any of my CRNA interviews cared what school I went to; they were more interested in the type of program (ABSN, only notable for the intensity of the program, not which school) and my grades. So don't go into massive debt at a private school if you have a good option that's affordable for the BSN. And by all means go straight into the ICU if you have the opportunity. You may meet nurses there who think it's a bad idea for new grads to be there, but to be honest, I think 75-80% of our new hires in the last year have been new grads and they're by and large doing great.

Wow. We started with 62 and ended with 62. I'd be shocked if we lost anyone along the way to graduation, to be honest. I don't know that our program ever has asked someone to leave due to academics more than once or twice. (Hooray for competitive ABSN programs with tight-knit student communities and supportive faculty! It makes all the difference in the world... NS has been the best experience of my life!)

Our clinical group all chipped in for a GC to a restaurant for our CI... I don't think it was that weird, considering the semester was over, grades were in, and it's really something to take a group of complete newbies under your wing in a patient care setting. Sure, it's her job, but what a job, you know? We also baked a gigantic batch of cookies for the staff at our clinical site, because heck, dealing with us wasn't even really PART of their job, and they were truly amazing to us. Definitely no gifts for lecture instructors. Cards I think are fine, once the semester's over - I'm waiting for grades to be finalized and posted then I'm going to email some of my lecture instructors to thank them for their support and help. Some of them really went above and beyond and made a big difference. That said, my program is an ABSN program at a well-known school and we're a surprisingly tight-knit group in a VERY supportive environment. It's the polar opposite of what so many people here describe their NS as.

That's true. What I'm going through now is a full-on flare that I ignored for days assuming it was something viral that would pass; hopefully in the future I can recognize this sooner and take evasive action if possible. I have to hope they won't all be this bad. I know that there is going to be variation from employer to employer, and from unit to unit even within a hospital as far as the support of coworkers and break policies go. I know that it'll probably be easier as a student than it will be as an RN. I know I may have to make some sacrifices with my time before, during, or after my shifts. I am going to stay as hopeful as possible - take as good care of myself as possible - and do my best. I don't give up on anything easily and nursing means a lot to me. It's just so frustrating to have this come up... two weeks into school! But I guess it's better than two weeks into my first new grad job, right? There's always a positive side. I have two years to learn this new quirk of my health before I'm out on my feet supporting myself as a nurse.

Thanks, guys. :) This was really encouraging to hear.

Hey, everyone. I'm wondering if any of you out there are working nurses with Crohn's disease. I am - get this - two weeks into my ABSN program, and just spent three days in the hospital culminating with a diagnosis of Crohn's. (I was joking with the RNs that I was eager to get onto the nursing floors, but not THAT eager!) Right now I'm not a happy camper - I'm hurting, pooping, worried, feeling completely clueless and trying to catch up under the haze of Vicodin on all the pathophysiology and assessment that I missed. So the good news is I have almost two years before I really need to worry about working and my career and how this is going to affect it all, but I have to admit I am worried. In a week and a half of NS, I think I've heard a dozen jokes about never having time to pee while working - what the heck do you do during a flare-up when you need to hit the john a dozen or more times a day, and when you need to go you need to go NOW? I already feel like I need those tear-away warmup pants when the need hits. And the pain - holy sh*t. Clearly I can't care for patients if I'm on Vicodin like I am now, but without it I'd be curled up in a ball whining and whimpering again. Is it easier to control long-term than it is to deal with this initial bad flareup? I don't have my GI appointment for another 2-3 weeks so I'm sort of floundering without knowing what's going on right now. I guess I'm just curious what experiences others have had, with the disease itself, with managing it, with dealing with work and management and symptoms, and just what your long-term strategies have been. I've never had any sort of chronic disease before (plenty of acute problems, but always fixable ones) so I'm kind of going through some sort of mini-grief here... anger and depression and denial and all sorts of things swirling around upstairs at the moment. Thanks. :)

With the laptop thing - you can pick up a netbook nowadays for $200-250, and they're so small and portable that you can basically close it and toss it in your purse while running around campus. I still prefer my 15" notebook for working on, but if I'm going to be running around a lot or need to stay mobile, the netbook can't be beat, and the keyboard on my Dell 10v is nearly full-size - wasn't hard to adapt to at all. I hate hand-taking notes. I can type 90wpm, and when I take notes on my laptop I find I can get the relevant information recorded and actually listen to the explanation/rationales/connections being made instead of struggling to keep up with my scribbly awful handwriting and achy wrists! I don't know how y'all do it!

It's RAD. I'm coming from FL, so I'm used to $200-300 in the summer and when it gets cold (like it did this January) we hit $450 in a townhouse because all anyone has down there are the heat pumps that work down 'till about 50 degrees then start running off heat coils. I think we ran the coils 24/7 that month. That was a *painful* bill. I can't wait until winter here when literally the only things we're paying for are the fridge, lightbulbs, TV, dishwasher, and laundry.

Just as an FYI for those wanting to live near campus... check out University Apartments (I live here, full disclosure!). It's just over one mile from my door to the nursing school, plus I'm on a bus route directly to there and two blocks from a free campus bus that also goes up to school. It's a complex built in 1936 that was just fully remodelled inside and out so while it's still got its historical charm, it's now ridiculously energy efficient (we have a 2 bedroom and our electric bill in a blazing hot July was under $70), rent includes heat & hot/cold water, still has the original hardwood floors refinished, has huge windows and the kitchens... oh the kitchens... gorgeous. Anyways. Sorry, nice kitchens make me drift off all happy-like. We just moved up from years of Generic Rental Kitchens to granite countertops and new appliances and my inner foodie is still dancing. ANYWAYS. The point I was going to make was it's reaaaally close to campus but a super nice, QUIET, safe place to live. All the buildings have locked exterior doors if peace of mind is a big issue. Rent seems to be average for the nicer quality places around here. And the apartment manager is actually someone I taught in undergrad four states away (small world!), so I can vouch for her as a fantastic person and a great manager. I spoke with her today and she confirmed they will have a few units available for January, even though she's 100% full right now. So if you don't wanna battle traffic to campus every day and park out in the overflow lot with everyone else, it's somewhere to look. (If you talk to Amy, tell her Kristin sent you, she'd be so entertained that I'm plugging for her online.) Also - the Duke Community Housing page is where everyone around here rents out rooms if you're the type to house-share. One of our classmates has the entire top floor of this great little house about 2 miles from campus, fully furnished, all utilities included, gorgeous huge garden in the back... and pays what I think is criminally low rent for it, too. :)

Yeah, I know, I just didn't feel like calculating it. :)

Uh... not sure... whatever a 3.4 across 60 credits (my first degree GPA) plus a 4.0 across 20 more (prereqs) works out to be. Probably a 3.4 or 3.5ish.

I'm kind of confused as to how "never updated any information on the list" automatically means she may have screwed up. What if the person's an alternate? What if there's no processing and updating to be done right now? Maybe she hasn't updated any information because... there's nothing to be updated right now?

Chapel Hill is 7+ miles from campus and the main corridor between the two is a nightmare at anything remotely resembling peak traffic time. The rest of NC seems terrified of Durham but it's actually quite a fantastic little city, the crime rates are far lower than they used to be, and there's no reason to fear living here. (I live right on the edge of campus and I'm SO glad I'll be able to bike or bus to class. Everyone else is going to have to fight morning traffic and park in an overflow lot about half a mile from the building. ) And no, graduating is not a guarantee. Jobs are scarcer than before and while they do hire ABSN graduates first/predominantly, there are not enough jobs for everyone. The class that graduated in December did not all get hired (and the girl from that class that I talked to from that group said they were only allowed to apply for one position! YIKES!). But a LOT of them do - a lot more than other schools/hospitals.

Congrats, all! I'm so pleased for all of you! Let me know if you have any questions about moving to Durham!