elegant.lil.lady

I have the 13'' Air. I found the 11'' to be too small. But my classmate has the 11'' Air and she absolutely loves it! She's used it for all of nursing school and has had no problem with doing homework, research, writing papers, etc! I'd say go to the Apple store and play around with the 11''.

I'm a nursing student and one of my clinical instructors had us practice verbally present handoff reports about our patients. It was such a great experience! I definitely recommend that. It helped prepare me for doing handoff reports in preceptorship.

Taking NCLEX! Aaaaah!

Thank you for this!

Congratulations!! Enjoy your free time now, you won't have a lot of it during school!!

Bachelor of Arts in Communication from the University of Southern California

Thank you for this! I am a 4th semester nursing student and I'll be taking NCLEX this summer. This was wonderful advice, thank you so much! And congratulations on completing your first year of nursing!

Honestly, I'd get the Littman Cardiology steth. It's expensive, but totally worth it. I can't hear anything with the other cheapo brands. Even my classmates have said they wasted money on cheaper ones at the beginning of nursing school and it's worth it to just start off with the Littman cardiology stethoscope.

Woo hoo congrats!! Welcome to the rest of your life!

Congrats! And thank you for the advice! I'll be right there job hunting next July.

PM'ed you!

Congrats! That's so great! You might even meet a few of my classmates. Some 1st-year ELMSN FNP students will pop in to give you some good tips. I won't be there because I have critical care clinicals on those days. But ask them any questions you have; everyone's really nice! I honestly can't remember what happened in my interview. One year feels like such a long time ago haha. If you use the search bar above and look up past SMU threads, you'll find lots of good tips. That's what I did when prepping for my interview. Good luck!

Hi, yes you stay in Sacramento all 10 semesters. All classes are in person and a lot of clinical rotations are attached to them. So you'll be attending numerous hospital facilities in the Sacramento area. As a result, if you're not from the area and applying to the Sacramento campus, you'll definitely have to move closer. Hope that helps.

Thank you for all your wonderful tips! I'm a current nursing student and printed it out!

We had a ton of reading ands studying already after the first day. Plus the professors went over the syllabus so we could begin working on papers/projects/presentations. I started reading already before the first day of class, just to keep up. You really do not want to fall behind with your school work.

Congratulations! I know exactly how you feel. I got my acceptance letter in September and it was honestly one of the happiest moments of my life. Enjoy it! You are about to embark on a life-changing journey! (And enjoy your free time now until school starts, because you won't get a whole lot of free time when classes begin!)

This is a such a great thread! Thanks everyone for your input. I just started nursing school in January and I definitely can use these tips!

Congratulations!!! I remember how happy I was when I was accepted into nursing school too! Enjoy the free time you have until next month, because you'll be busy!

kp32, check your PMs! Hi ALXiong! It's me Nicole!

Totally, feel free to PM me! We can talk more!

Definitely go on that vacation! Take as much time to relax, hang out with friends, travel, and do whatever you want before school starts. That's what I was advised, and I definitely pass that on to you. You might have weekend clinicals. It really depends on what days that the clinical coordinator can wheedle out of the clinical facilities and hospitals for that term. This term, we all have a one-day clinical shift either on Monday, Thursday, or Saturday. But this summer, we'll have two-day clinical shifts on Tues and Wed. I get my weekends back, yay! So it really varies. That's why I wouldn't recommend working. You need to be flexible. (The school does let you to rank which day of the week and which time (AM or PM) you'd prefer, but that doesn't guarantee you'll get that selection.) For financial aid, I got a student loan to cover the entire tuition, plus a little extra for books and other expenses. I think everyone is on student loans from FAFSA/the government. And you don't have to start paying back the loans until after you graduate. You can always contact the financial aid department and ask about scholarship opportunities. But you have to write essays and stuff for most of those, and honestly to me, working hard for a $500 prize here and a $1,000 prize there (and not to mention that the chances of winning a scholarship are pretty slim) isn't really worth it to me. I'd rather spend that extra time studying. But it's really up to you. :) But definitely relax and enjoy the time you have now. Because you won't have a lot of free time when school starts. But don't worry about all the stress and worries about being jobless for a few years. Just keep in mind that this is a long-term investment. A few years of sacrifices and hard work will set you up for life as a nurse. You won't regret it!

Congratulations! You should be so proud of yourself. That's a really great accomplishment to get into the SMU program, especially the FNP track. I know the FNP track is really competitive. I'm 2.5 months into the program and it's pretty busy. I'm taking 5 classes right now: Integration of Pathophysiology/Pharmacology, Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing, Health Assessment, Nursing Skills I, and Transition to the Professional Role of Nursing. We just had 5 exams last week, and 2 more this week. Plus a paper due this week. And then I also have to proof my care plan for my clinical shift on Saturday. It's hectic. But I'm coping pretty well. Just need to take it one day at a time and study a little everyday. Everyone says the first semester is the hardest, which I can see why. It's not necessarily the material that makes it difficult, because I've heard that Med/Surg later on is the real tough one. But it's the transition and adjustment that's difficult. Especially taking the nursing exams, all those NCLEX-RN style questions. It's honestly a whole different beast lol. Sorry, not trying to intimidate you. You'll do great. You wouldn't have been accepted if the directors didn't think you were capable of succeeding and passing NCLEX. My advice would be to really enjoy your last few months of freedom. Because honestly, you won't have much time for everything else once school starts. I also quit my job the month before school started. A few classmates work part time, and I honestly have no idea how they do it. I couldn't, unless I wanted my grades to suffer. And I worked my freaking butt off to get into this program, I don't want to take it for granted and fail a class. I'm actually from the Bay Area but moved to Sacramento for school. So hello fellow neighbor! (I originally applied to Oakland but got waitlisted. Long story, but in a nutshell, I ended up re-applying to Sac and got in. So serious kudos to you for getting into Oakland!) I live like 4 blocks from campus. It's all about how close you want to live to school. Some classmates live about 30 minutes away from school. One girl lives in Fairfield and commutes almost an hour each way. It's up to you whether you want to live close to campus. (Just be cautious because Oakland has some seedy neighborhoods.) During the first term, you'll probably be on campus 4-5 days a week. But this summer, we'll be on campus only 2 days a week. Please feel free to bombard me with more questions! I'm so happy to help! Congrats again!

Hi everyone! I'm currently a first year ELMSN-FNP student at Samuel Merritt University at their Sacramento campus. I absolutely love this website and forum. I found great support and advice when working through my pre-nursing prerequisites, applying to nursing school, as well as trying to get through the past two months of nursing school. I just wanted to pay it forward and get it out there that if you're interested in applying to Samuel Merritt University's BSN or ABSN programs, they're having their very first "Nursing Success! Seminar" this summer at their main Oakland campus! It sounds really amazing; they'll provide you with good advice and tips in applying for their program. Plus it's free, along with free food! Who can say no to that? Here's the link for those interested: http://www.samuelmerritt.edu/nursingsuccess Okay, back to studying! I just got through five exams in the past three days. And now I have two more next week. I tell you: the work never stops! But honestly, I love nursing school! I am so happy and grateful to be here.

Congratulations congratulations congratulations!!! :)

Everyone in my class types away on laptops or tablets. But I'm old fashioned. I still print out the powerpoints (4 slides to a page) and handwrite notes with pens and highlighters. I find it's the process of actually writing down the notes that helps me retain the information. :) Do whatever works for you. Everyone studies differently.