Eagle2005

Thanks but they told me on the phone it was my GPA. I wasn't trying to sound arrogant, but you certainly do! I wasn't implying that I should be "entitled" to a spot, I just said I was disappointed! You don't have any idea what I've been through this year so don't proclaim you "know" it was my attitude or my interview. I've had a hell of year and I'm ****** about it, who are you to tell me why I didn't get in? And by the way, when I attended the interview prep they told all of us that WSU was looking for well rounded students. Maybe you should get your facts straight before you start throwing accusations.

Thanks for the insight, I'm just mad because I gave up my job to get the extra prereq's out of the way and I worked my butt off to get 4.0's in almost all my classes. But even if I don't get in, I will still come back for my BSN when the time comes.

I got my letter from WSU on Saturday, I'm on the waitlist so I'm very disappointed. I called to see what specifically they could tell me about why I was placed on the wait list and my overall GPA is a little low 3.26 from my first B.A. But my nursing prereq GPA is 3.85! I don't think it's fair of them to judge me based on old grades from when I was a kid when I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life, because now obviously I'm a high achiever and ready for this. I also think they are a little hypocritical in saying they look for well rounded students because I know of many students who didn't even get an interview simply based on GPA. They don't take into account non-traditional students who are having to work full time and sacrificing so much to go back to school. The guy I'm thinking of works full time, and was taking 20 credits summer quarter and got a 3.7 in biochemistry! And on top of that he was volunteering every Saturday at the hospital! His overal GPA 3.6, and probably the most "well rounded" canidate I can think of and he didn't even get interviewed! WSU needs to be more open minded, if someone can balance full time work and school and still get decent grades think of how well they will work under pressure as a nurse! No offense but until you try making your mortgage payments while making tuition payments you haven't been under pressure. Maybe WSU should recant that statement and just tell the truth, "we only care about your GPA". Thats my rant for the day!

I just had my interview on October 29th, they asked me the basic questions but also what being an advocate means to me and how culture relates to nursing. Those questions really threw me off because I really don't know that kind of stuff. Everyone will get different questions, you draw them from a basket with different envelopes.

LOL, thats what the girl training me said too. But the problem is I don't have kids and I've never changed a dirty diaper ever. The only time I babysat kids it was for ones that could do that themselves. The family member idea is good though. Another thing about my caregiver job that has me really freaked out is the fact that one of the guys is extremely agressive about showing his "affection". He likes to grab at me and I don't even want to think about where his hands have been. I don't think I'm going to continue the training for the job though because they want me at some point to be completely alone in this house with the 4 men, and yes they are mentally challenged but they are adult men. They can say he has the mentallity of a 2 year old but obviously still has adult urges. I just don't think thats a safe situation for me to be in. But regardless of that I want to try and get a caregiver job working with seniors and see how it goes. Hopefully that will be less akward for me.

i recently decided to change careers and i've left my office job to go back to nursing school. this is what i really want to do because i love medicine and science and i'm actually a very talented student i seem to learn the subjects with ease. but anyway, i've never worked in a hospital or around people in a healthcare setting. i had worked in a veterinarian clinic when i was in high school and i seemed fine with cleaning animal poop, blood etc. i had also been in the operating room and witnessed a few cats being spayed so i knew i was fine with blood and guts. so while i'm waiting to get into my program i thought i would get a job as a caregiver, just to get some experience working with actual humans and see how it worked out. i found a place that had an in home caregiver job working with mentally challenged individuals and they offered to pay for me to get my caregiver license which sounded like a good deal so i accepted the job. on my first day on the job they show me what i'm going to be doing: helping patients toilet themselves, documenting the results, and bathing them. at first i thought i could handle it, but the house has 4 adult men to be cared for and when i had to watch one of them being helped on the toilet and showered i was very disturbed by it. i don't want to sound like a prissy little princess to you experienced nurses but how can i get past the feelings of disgust? i am literally terrified of having to see these guys nude and shower them not to mention wiping their butts. i know it has to be done and i should get over it, does it happen gradually or does it mean i should choose another career? these are the only things i get grossed out by. blood, horrible wounds, mucous, vomit, skin lesions don't bother me! is there anything someone has told you or you told yourself to get through such situations? i'm going to be so disappointed in myself if i can't go through with it, i've worked so hard and it's my dream to help people and work in a hospital. i know eventually i'll have to do catheters and that thought upsets me too. i guess i could work at a blood bank and just draw blood but my career options would be limited if i did that.

What was your GPA? I think it has to do with the pool of applicants you're competing against in that particular group. I heard that in this "crop" there was a chemistry professor at EWU that was giving out 4.0's like candy so there was an unusual amount of people with higher GPA's than normal.

Congratulations, and thanks for the info! It sounds like you were super prepared and did an excellent job and deserve to be in the program. I can't wait when my time comes, I want to knock their socks off too.

Do you mind if I ask what your grades are like? I know they say grades aren't all they take into account, but I'm curious. And do you know what your friends grades were like? Or if they did something really amazing in their interview? If you're on the waitlist does that mean you'll get in the winter group or do you have to re-apply for that?

That would be awesome if you could! I just want to be as prepared as I can be since I have so much riding on this. I just had to make a really huge painful decision, keep going to school or keep my job. My work was no longer willing to work around the school schedule. Anyway, thanks!

I received a letter for the interview with WSU but I wasn't able to do it today because I'm not going to be finished with my pre-req's before Fall 2011 . But I'm going to reapply for winter 2012 and hopefully get another shot. Can someone who's gone through the interview give me an idea of the types of questions they ask? Is it like your standard job interview stuff? Do they prefer health care experience? I'm changing careers and have gone from banking to wanting to be a nurse and haven't made the job change to a healthcare setting yet. Maybe by the winter 2012 interviews I will be working in a hospital by then (I hope!!!!). Also hoping they don't focus too much on GPA, I previously got my B.A. @ EWU in business with 3.2GPA. I've been doing my pre-reqs @ community college and have a 3.8 overall now. I wish we could find out exactly what percentage of interviewees get accepted, I'm so anxious about it!