oceanise

mcf011, I park at garage 8 on the SW corner of Pressler & Holcombe. I walk to school from there which is about 1/2 mile and takes 10 min or so, but there's a TMC blue shuttle that you can take if you don't feel like walking - that's what I took for clinicals in the med center. I think the SON is one of the last stops so it's faster to just walk. The time/route is available online if you're interested. Price is $6/day. There might be other garages w/that price in other locations, but garage 8 works best for me! I wouldn't recommend contracts or those lots that are close to the school because they're expensive and there's no need to be paying that much money! Class is on Mon-Wed during your first semester, but you'll probably find yourself skipping a lot because the classes are recorded and uploaded online. So a contract might seem like a good deal at first, but it's really not, lol. Plus contracts are a pain to begin with!

Haha well health assessment doesn't have lecture, just lab time. Care you'll be in the skills lab until you start clinicals, and there's maybe 1 or 2 sim labs or something after that. They're switching to pacesetter only next spring. Yeah you just do all your lectures during the first 3 semesters, and I think you do care 1 and psych clinicals. Third semester you have no clinicals. 4th is all clinicals, and don't forget those awful care plans, plus you still have to take the exit hesi. I'm in the traditional program so I can't talk about the pacesetter program from experience.

Yeah it's just people talking, some of it's worthwhile and other things aren't. Navy blue scrubs. You wear them for clinical and anytime you're in the skills lab, which will be every Monday for health assessment, the first 6 Tuesdays for care 1, and a couple other dates for care 1 that will be in your syllabus.

Yeah, there's a HESI for every class. You'll take a fundamentals (for care I), patho, and health assessment HESI first semester. I think they're doing the pharm HESI in the last semester now. There's also med/surg (for care 2), psych, OB, pedi, leadership/managment, community, high acuity, and I believe the J2s are doing a research HESI now. Also an exit HESI in last semester that you need to pass to graduate. I don't think they're bad at all but others struggle with them. It just depends, I guess!

Yes, and there is a form that you will need to bring with you to have filled out. https://nursing.uth.edu/prospstudent/applresources/documents/physicalexamform.pdf

I've heard of people not receiving acceptance letters until the week before classes actually started, so you want to make sure you're as ready to go as possible!

UT Houston doesn't make you pay a deposit! For those that are still waiting, I recommend looking up what vaccines are required for the schools you applied to and get anything that you don't have yet, also get a TB test if you haven't had one in the past year. Get BLS certified if you aren't already. https://nursing.uth.edu/dotAsset/31eebe2a-f5dc-4c69-a8e3-6a378ef1eaee.pdf Also get the flu vaccine - most hospitals require you to have it.

I wouldn't read ahead because you won't be responsible for all the info in the book (and you don't need the book for pharm, btw), the instructors will narrow it down for you so that you know what to study for tests. I went into nursing school thinking it was practically impossible to get an A, but if you stay on top of things and have good study methods, it's certainly possible to get As. Yeah it's hard, but don't let people freak you out too much, have confidence in your ability to do well! Are you on the facebook group for your class?

& to those of you still waiting to be accepted, as long as you meet the criteria, don't give up hope! There was someone in my class who was accepted like, the day before classes started. Not everyone who's been accepted will decide to go to UT, or they might have problems getting classes transferred or whatever and not be able to go.

We'll see how it goes, I personally like the traditional program and find it disappointing they're not offering the choice anymore... Patho and pharm were challenging but I enjoyed both classes and did well in them. The instructors for these classes are some of my favorites. The classes during second semester weren't too bad but I had it over the summer, so time management was the biggest challenge. Pedi this semester is probably the hardest in my opinion, it might be my first B in nursing school... bleh. It depends on your personal strengths, really! Some find the tests with NCLEX style questions to be hardest (care I and II) and others find patho and pharm hardest.

Also, just as a heads up in case you haven't heard, the school sent out an email yesterday notifying us that they're transitioning to the pacesetter program only, starting in spring 2014.

Congratulations to everyone who was accepted! I'm currently an S1 (third semester) at UTHSC so I might see some of you around next spring. To the person trying to decide between UTHSC and HBU, I've met quite a few nurses during clinicals who went to HBU and loved it. And I admit, I'm really jealous of their small class size. One of my favorite instructors during my first semester at UT actually left in May to become the new dean at HBU. If it would be cheaper and closer to you, I'd definitely go there. Parking in the med center is also really expensive!

The school was advertising a $89/month contract that's supposedly a "discount" price. If I remember correctly, it wasn't even that close to campus. There's others where you can pay for the whole semester. I don't know the details but I found this w/google. http://www.tmcparking.org/files/91/ It's not worth it in my opinion.

Yeah, it's horrible. I think the garages closer to campus are $12/day(!!!) and the one across the street on Holcombe (garage 2 if I remember correctly) is like 8 levels or something ridiculous. So I can only imagine how much of a pain it is to get in and out. I definitely recommend parking further away and then walk, or depending where you park, take the metro rail or the UT shuttle to campus.

If there's a convenient metro route near you, or a park and ride or something, you might want to consider that. Or take the shuttle if you can. I don't take the metro so I don't really have much info on it. I park at garage 8 on the corner of Pressler & Holcombe. It's $6/day (you won't find a cheaper daily rate in the med center) and there's always plenty of parking, and it's pretty easy to get in & out. However it's a 10 min walk from campus. The garages closer to campus are way too expensive and probably harder to get in & out of. Some garages offer contracts if you prefer that, but I don't think there's any benefit to a contract unless you plan on studying on campus on days you don't have class, or something like that.