OakRN2B

I would say it would be VERY helpful to have both a strong community and hospital-related volunteer experience. I don't know where you folks are located but if you're in the East Bay, I know Highland Hospital has an ER volunteer program. He also should make an appointment with one of the counselors in the Admissions Department to help out also. They're very supportive and honest.

Go to www.bart.gov for info on BART, including arrival and departure times and costs, and general information on how Bart works and where it goes. South San Francisco and Daly City are between San Fran and San Mateo.

Your price range sounds about right. You could try South San Francisco or Daly City, they mite be cheaper than San Mateo. I would not recommend commuting from Sacramento - it will take hours each way due to traffic and finding time to read and study would be compromised. The peninsula (south of San Francisco) is more expensive than the East Bay, (Oakland, Berkeley, etc) but you'd still have to commute to San Mateo and get across the Bay, which is not pleasant either way, depending on time of day.

Lil Nurse - which campus are you going to?

iLnurse - Try Craigs List for apartments.

Managing Care of Adults is MedSurg for the most part. Don't worry about it! We'll get what we need.

Mal - I'd wait until you get your Financial Aid Award Letter, so you know how much you want to borrow. You can call ----- in Fin Aid, she's very sweet and helpful for further info.

Thanks White Scrubs, I thought that mite be what ATI is for.

What is the ATI Testing all about? Does anyone know?

Hey Mal, the Wells Fargo Loan you would be eligible for is the MedCap Alternative Loan for Health Professionals: https://www.wellsfargo.com/student/loans/professional/medschoolloan The most you can borrow from this loan for Nursing is $75K. It only takes about 2 days for them to tell you if you qualify. You can apply online. They email you updates and you can check the loan status online. This is the loan I applied for; I have noone that can cosign for me, but I got approved on my own: my credit is good, not very good or great, but good. I think what helped me was the fact that I have a 20 year credit history. They did not ask me for Tax Returns or Pay Stubs. I would recommend giving this a try first. If you can find someone who will cosign, you will want to find someone with good to excellent credit history; having a cosigner with bad credit won't help at all. Also having a cosigner with good credit history could get you a lower interest rate - keep in mind the loan term is 15 years so the interest adds up to a signficiant amount of money. Good luck; hope this helps.

Congrats Mal!!!!!!

I got a Wells Fargo Med Cap Loan also. There's information on the Financial Aid Award Letter about where to look for applying for the Private Loan. Sallie Mae is not listed on there, but SMU does work with Sallie Mae. If you don't have a long credit history and/or bad credit you might need a cosigner. So I would STRONGLY recommend you check out your credit reports. I believe Wells Fargo uses Equifax. Trust me on this last point - the best place to get an accurate credit report and credit score info is from myfico.com.

Thanks Bubbles -that makes me feel better at this point - I knew the Fin Aid part would be stressful, but I'm maxing out on the stress!

Does anyone know....can you take out MORE than 1 Private loan? For example, everyone seems set on the Wells Fargo MedCap Alternative Loan, but I'm also hearing that Wells Fargo is pretty strict when it comes to your credit report, and many people seem to require cosigners....some of us don't have easy access to a cosigner (being a cosigner not only means you're taking responsiblity for the loan payments, but it's also going to ding the cosigner's credit score as well). I would think one could take out as many private loans as needed, but does anyone know for sure? (for example, let's say Wells Fargo approves you for $30,000 and Sallie Mae for $40,000).

JI just applied for my private loan, I"m just curious how other folks are faring with that process?

Regarding Financial Aid - I logged into My SMU and it looks like they've been compiling the information to get us set up for the process. I couldn't decipher the info however. Consequently I do suspect we shall receive our award letters very soon, which will explain the process and be able to complete the Financial AID process. How exciting!!! I really want this part to be over with so I can feel confident I's going to nursin skool! ALso I talked to the SF Cohort contact re: books, and she said we'd be getting info the texts for the 1st module soon, so we can start shopping.

Thanks for the update. I'm getting nervous....plus I need to give my notice at my job, and I can't do that until I know for sure I'm going to be able to get the loans! WHich I think I can do, but it makes me nervous none-the-less.

Has anyone received their Award letter yet from Financial Aid? The award letter tells us what we will be receiving from the Stafford Loan so that we can make arrangements with other lenders for the remaining balance for the Cost of Attendance. Early last week ------ in Financial Aid told me via email she hoped to get the information out by the end of the week; but I have not yet received any information from her. Has anyone else heard any updates about when we will be receiving this information?

Hey Taramtoms. Congrats! I know you have been sweating bullets, but I was 99.9% sure you would be accepted based on your qualifications. There's a LOT to do before your program starts, but how exciting!!

Regardless of the cost of the school - the reality is that it is a private school, and private schools are more expensive than state schools. Private schools and public schools do not adjust their costs to the job market - it is what it is. You can choose to either accept the costs and move forward, or not. Continuing to complain about the cost of SMU isn't going to help anyone, it's actually going to make you feel worse. Why not choose to focus on the positive? SMU is a highly competitive program, and being accepted is quite an accomplishment. When you've started the program, having a positive "can do" attitude is a must. You simply have to get over it, it is what it is.

I have to agree with Brenda. I had done the same thing - looked at the cost of 1 year of tuition plus 1 year of living expenses vs. going to a community college program - waiting 1-2 years to get in, coming out with an ADSN degree instead of a BSN, PLUS looking at 2 years worth of living expenses instead of 1. Let's face it - if you're going to a community college, what kind of job are you going to be able to get? You'll still have the same challenges with having to find a job that offers extreme flexibility because you have to work around your clinicials. That doesn't leave too many options for jobs. I too am giving up a well-paying job and I have a car payment, etc etc. When I did the comparison it was almost a wash. I figured that if I had to suffer some personal econonic damage it would be better to do it in 1 year than spread it over 2. Yes the job market is tough, but regardless of whether it's tough or there's tons of jobs, your best bet to find an RN job is still networking - who you know. From what I can see the market is loosening up a little, and I anticipate by 2012 it should be better.

Regarding Loans - the cost of attendance should cover tuition, books, and insurance, which probably comes out around $60+K I would guess. Your living expenses are going to vary depending on your situation! Yes my understanding is that you can get Private Loans that will make up the difference between the Stafford Loan and whatever the total of cost of attendance plus living expenses. Yes it is a lot of money. It will probably be around $80 to 90K when all is said and done. But an MBA is about $50K in the bay area also, and lots of folks get MBAs these days. Yes the monthly payments will be high. BUT....having a BSN will open TONS of doors even outside of hospitals and other direct patient care situations. You could work for 1 of a million pharmaceutical companies, or a legal company, or some other healthcare related company. There will always be a demand for nurses - regardless of what the job situation is today.....there is a nursing shortage (even today) and it will only get worse in the next 10 years! Once we have some experience under our belts - you can work anywhere in the US. A CA Nursing license is good in all 50 states. Remember Nurses are paid a wage and there is tons of overtime available all the time. You could work 2 jobs since many nurses work 12 hour shifts and so only work 3 days a week. In the end....it's only money. I say work hard in school, work hard in clinicals and during your preceptorship so that you can impress the Unit Manager and increase the liklihood of being offered a job.

My understanding of clinicals is that they can be anywhere within reason. They can also be any shift: which includes AM shift, PM Shift, or Night Shift. They can also be either 8 hour shifts or 12 hour shifts, as RNs work both. I believe the reason for this is that SMU wants students to experience what all these different shifts are like; which makes sense to me because each shift has different aspects to it. For example, on the AM shift you have to deal with 2 meals (bkfst, lunch) and scheduling time for patients to go to X ray, PT,as well as helping pts get cleaned up for day and bed linens changes. It can be hectic. etc etc. PM shift you only have 1 meal, and fewer appts but some patients can experience sundowners, which is basically aggitation when the sun goes down. Night shift can be hectic too because pts don't always sleep all night long, and hospitals usually have fewer or even no CNAs to assist, so it's all up to the RN. Also, if your clinical were to be in the ER, that's a whole different story (if you've ever been to Highland Hospital ER you know what I am talkikng about). I don't believe we have an option to choose which clinical rotations we want; it's hard for schools to get agreement with facilities to take nursing students so I think we have to accept what they offer us. I could be somwhat wrong on this issue, but I am pretty sure this is correct. None-the-less, this will be an exciting and demanding adventure! Looking forward to meeting everyone who will be at SF!

Hey KT - you could always drive from Concord to MacArthur or even Fruitvale and catch Bart there. That might save some time - Bart parking is $1.00 per Day but you have to get there fairly early.

Does anyone know yet when the SF program begins?