Keepupwithkaitlyn

Hey Flurophore, I'm currently in the CNL program for the Class of 2016 cohort. I'd say close to 50% of the class had no hospital experience prior to this program. For many, our first clinical was the first time they had done any hospital work. The admissions staff really looks at the total person, not just specific pieces (i.e.: grades, volunteer experience, work experience, etc). We have people from varying backgrounds - recent 2014 grads to a former University Professor. I'd say if you can get some volunteer experience in, even if its a few times a month, then awesome. But if not, I do not think it will negatively effect you. Good luck with your current schooling and if you have any other questions. Let me know! PS - just make sure the SON doesn't change their policy and require volunteer experience before you apply. They added Microbiology as a prereq prior to my application deadline.

Oh Yes, I totally forgot about this! So glad you mentioned this Cassie!

Hey Emily! Glad to help. Yes, 1800 JPA is super quiet and mostly grad students/professionals. Thanks for add! I will check in time to time to see if their are any questions on the Facebook page! I just remember having SO many questions and always found it helpful to hear from the current students!

I had to pay for the deposit, and the first month or two out of pocket. The loans doing kick in until June/July, which is annoying. So you definite want to make sure you have some money saved up for the first few months of school! Fall loan money comes in, in August.

Hi Yungrudy, Congrats on accepting UVA! You've made a GREAT choice :) This was my biggest priority after accepting UVA. I started looking immediately and ended up signing my lease in January, though I didn't move in until May. I am very much a type A person and do not wait to the last minute on things like this. I asked people from the program that already lived in Cville and the current, now, 2nd year CNLs about it and it all kept coming back to anything on Jefferson Park Avenue (or JPA for short) is the best because it is within walking distance to the hospital etc. Specifically I live at 1800 JPA, by myself, and love it. It's a big complete with both one and two bedroom apartments and another birth in the program lives in the tower there, I will one of the garden complexes. There is no website for it as the apartments are owned separately. I found mine on Craigslist (kinda sketch I know) but it ended up being amazing. It was the one and only place I looked at and fell in love. The location is perfect, so I signed a 2 year lease upfront. Anyway here are some things to consider when looking around 1)Do you want to live alone or with a roommate(s). We have some CNLs that room together. But remember to consider that fact that during the summer you are with them 24/7 basically because class is everyday and then you go home with them too. Also, consider personality types that would work with yours/balance you out. 2) How much do you want to pay in rent? This could also effect how if you want to live alone or not. Starting out I wanted to pay max $700 for rent (w/o utilities). To get a nice place, and I'm not talking something with top of the line stuff, it nearly impossible in Cville. Currently I pay $855/mo plus electric and internet for a 1 bedroom apt that does not have central air. 3)Create a list of wants for your apartment. This was the first time I had a place of my own. So I had specific wants and got almost all of what I wanted, minus about 2-3 things. Somethings I was not willing to budge on. Others I just let go of (i.e.: having a W/D in my apartment, nothing was in my budget, but my complex has a laundry building, which was fine enough). 4)Look at the proximity of your place to the SON/Hospital. My place is a 10-15 minute walk or a 3-5 minute bus ride to school. Some people live further out, have to drive in park in a commuter lot and then take a bus to school. I didn't want to deal with that, so I am paying more to live closer to school. 5) Sites to check out: Craigslist, BRAC.com, livewithmsc.com 6) Place that current CNLs live: 1800 JPA, Brandon Ave (this is literally two streets over from the SON - my friend has a tiny 200 sq ft efficiency, but she LOVES it), over near the corner - wertland street. I'm just going to "warn you" unless you like undergrad party life, I suggest you avoid housing in this area - including Rugby road. This is frat/sorority/party central and gets loud. But if that doesn't bother you, then there is another option. Some other place CNLs live are the Villas at Southern Ridge, Eagle's Landing and University Place - there 3 places are quite a distance from school and I would not recommend living here. The benefit however, is that Eagle's Landing, and I think University Place, are probably the cheapest place you can find to rent. But sometimes paying more to be closer is worth it, in my opinion at least. Also just an FYI - I am paying for my apartment from loans. Hope this is informative and helps you on your jumpstart to looking around. Please let me know if you have more questions. Also, if you find a place and want me to give you my thoughts on location- since I am familiar with the area now, I'm more than willing to do that. Also I definitely recommend going up in the next month or so and just looking around, checking out some places, etc.

Hey TomCarlos, So during my OB/GYN rotation about half of my patient population was hispanic and only spanish speaking! I thought, it would be really helpful if those 5+ years of spanish I took in HS and undergrad would come back to me. I can still piece things together, but it is rough! I would really love to take a Spanish speaking class to "get it back" and looked into it at PVCC- which is the local community college in Cville. It was online and about $400 for the Fall semester- it was a Health Professionals class too. But your fall semester is one of the most class heavy course, everyone says it is the most challenging. I did not look at UVA's class offerings (figured it maybe more pricy? not sure). So that being said, I think it would be a big commitment to add anything else on. They really ease you into the program in the summer, don't get me wrong, it's still intense. But Fall is on another level. We, you, will take 5 classes over a two day period and have clinical hours to complete and clinical assignments in additional to tests and papers. Not to scare you, but I just think it maybe overwhelming to add on something else, even if you are doing it just a pass/fail. Certainly, you know yourself best and what you can handle. But for me, I know it was going to be a lot of work and I didn't want to add anything else on my plate. I still want to take the class, so I'm going to reassess next fall. But for now, I'm glad I held off on it.

Hey! I'm going to request to join if ya don't mind. We had now 2nd year CNLs join our FB group last year to answer questions and it was really helpful. Eventually everyone moves from this site over to the FB group anyway.

Haha!! I may like the program... still deciding Yes, So we have a bunch of people that commute from outside of Charlottesville- I know of 2 specifically from Richmond that commute and others from surrounding counties. And yes, doing clinical in Richmond is a definite possibility. The way it works is that you will request to work in Richmond with Dr. DeGenero who sets up our clinical placements and she does her best to make things convenient for those that live outside of Charlottesville. I know that the 2 that have lived in Richmond have had some (not all) of their clinicals in RVA. That being said, however, your first clinical during the summer is OB/GYN. All of us were split between UVA and Martha Jefferson (another hospital in Cville) so people had to commute, however you do this clinical in a 2-3 week time period after classes are finished for the summer so it's not so bad. For anyone else reading this that will be living in Cville, like myself, you will most likely have to travel at some point. In the fall your clinicals are psych and Med/Surg 1 - for both of these clinicals (you do each over 7 weeks and then swap) I was at Rockingham Memorial which is in Harrisonburg and about an hour away. It was a good experience. But just a warning that you are not always at UVA. Others have been sent to Culpepper and Hospitals in Richmond. The reason for this is so you can get community setting experience versus a big teaching hospital experience, which is completely different. So that's just a run down of how clinical works. Anyway, I will contact a couple of the CNLs who live in RVA for you Shrupert1 and see if they would be willing to email with you in regards to your specific concerns about clinical since they have first hand experience with it. All I can say is that it is definitely doable, a challenge at times, but definitely a possibility. As an FYI, one girl is married, no kids and the other woman is married, 2 small kids, husband and gets up at 4am everyday to run before coming to class (more power to her!)!! I will get back to you as soon as I hear from them! Hope this answered your questions!

Hey ocWin, So once if I remember correctly, I didn't hear much form the school until once the deadline to accept/deny addition past. It feels like a lifetime ago! ha But You need to start working on your FAFSA and information will come out for the Conway Scholar. I will say that Financial Aid is something you are just going to have to have patience with. The money will come through and as things get closer, I can explain more. But it's just a long process. Nonetheless, if you (or anyone else) has accepted, get to work on the FASFA it's just one of those that is annoying to do so just go ahead and get it out of the way. I'm excited for you too!!

WAHOOWA Friends!! Congrats on ALL the acceptances! So happy for each of you all!! A year ago today I found out that I was accepted, and now I'm a 1/3 through the program! So many exciting things are ahead of you! Definitely set up a Facebook group. My CNL cohort did and we still use it to communicate to the group! I know you all will be full of questions has time goes on. Please feel free to ask. Just and FYI, once your cohort is finalized, each one of you will be paired with a current 1st year CNL to be "buddies" and you will have our emails, etc to ask us all the questions you want. So look for that in the coming months. Until then, feel free to ask us anything you'd like, trust me we are all very passionate about this program and can talk your ears off Again Congratulations! We are ALL soooo excited for you!!

Danielle! I can't believe you typed my name incorrectly! I guess I'll let it pass this time since you probably have patho brain, like I do right now SO dead!! On a different note, We are here for you guys!! Sending you our best wishes!!!

Last year, this time, I was also a nervous wreck waiting on the decisions to be announced! So your feelings are completely normal! I've got my fingers crossed for you all! Just try to take a deep breath and distract yourself with something else for the next 9 days to take your mind off of it!!

Sorry! Just now seeing your questions, but it appears the SON has answered them below! It definitely won't appear until the 20th at 12:01am EST! As much as you wish and hope it will show up sooner, it's not! I can speak from experience!! haha 19 days friends, you can do it! The wait is the hardest! Best wishes for you all!!

Hey JRob, So I looked it up and it looks like the SON does a career fair once a year, last year it was on December 2nd, but there is no info for this years one. So I'm not really sure. I know the health system does have them from time to time, they have a Facebook page "UVA Nurse Recruitment" that updates about their open houses for all the different units. That being said, I've never attended one, during my second year I will most likely start going to a few. It's just one degree, the MSN. The way it works is your get your MSN at the end of the two years, then you need to test to get your RN license (NCLEX exam) and then to get your CNL certificate you take an additional test for that as well (I didn't realize it was a separate test/certificate before orientation week this past summer). At the end of the two years you can decide whether to take the CNL exam or hold off, but really it makes sense to go ahead and take it while all the info is fresh in your brain. My cohort is the largest to date and it is my understanding that they are not growing the program further. There are 43 of us total. Hope this helps! Kaitlyn

Hey Everyone, Congrats on all the interviews! I am in the 2016 cohort, so I just began in May. It really is an AMAZING program! I briefly read through the thread and just to add -- my GPA/GRE were not up to "par" with the SON standards for this program. But I got an interview and I got in. So that really does show that they look at the total person and not just grades and scores! As far as finding out acceptances - log into SIS at midnight on the date you were told (I think I read December 20th on here) and you will find out. I found out at 12:01 on December 21st. And it will be in there!! A very scary and nerve wrecking moment And to answer the question about how long you have to make the decision on whether to accept the offer or not, I'm pretty sure it is one month from the day you find out. But really, if you are accepted, is there anything really to say but YES?!?! The moment I toured UVA I was in love with this program! I applied to VCU as well, but UVA was my "dream" school! Let me know if you all have any questions! I'm in the midst of writing a paper/prepping for finals, so I will use any opportunity to take a break from school work! Good luck to you all! You are all about to embark on a very rewarding journey! Kaitlyn