atki

My situation was very similar to yours - I have a MSW and worked for years as a social worker, I was 32 when I started going back to school to complete prerequisites and 35 when I started nursing school, and I ended up going through a direct entry MSN/FNP program. I'm now 8 weeks away from graduating and while it's certainly been an experience, just know that many before you have done it and you certainly can too. Probably one of the best things about nursing is the ability to work in a variety of settings with different populations and while it may take some trial and error, I'm confident that you could find your niche in the nursing world. Good luck and I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have!

I can't tell you much about the outcome because I'm currently in the thick of it. My background is fairly similar to yours though. I have a MSW and worked in the field of social services for about 13 years before I decided to go back to school. Some prereqs I took for the first time, but many I had to redo since I'd been out of school for so long. I treated the whole prereq process as a test for how I felt about going back to school. Ultimately I decided to go forward with the whole process, although I will say that leaving a good job and an established career was a bit terrifying.

I'm almost one year into a direct entry program and I have two young kids. It's rough at times, but doable. What's been a huge help for me is having a partner with a somewhat flexible schedule because there will be some rotations that involve leaving home at 5 am and others that involve coming home at 12 am. Everything is in constant flux and my house is a mess but we're still alive!

I'm just finishing up my third quarter here and every quarter has been challenging in different ways. The good news is that you're with some incredible people and you will find yourselves helping each other out along the way. It's tough, but doable. You'll be amazed at how much you learn!

Congrats! That's a great spot to be in. Seattle U and MGHIHP were two of the schools that I chose between last year. Ultimately I chose Seattle U but I had some additional factors that pushed me in that direction (I already live in the Seattle area, my husband has a good job here, and I'm planning on working here after graduation). I felt that I would get a good education at either school so it came down to other factors. For example, I had heard that MGHIHP uses some online courses which I wasn't a fan of. As for financial aid, MGHIHP offered me a really nice merit-based scholarship, but most of Seattle U's scholarships are need-based or are focused on underrepresented populations in nursing. It also doesn't seem like they have a whole lot of scholarship money available, but they are also one of the most reasonably priced direct- entry programs that I've seen. Good luck with your decision! I think you can't go wrong!

@husky2k16 If all goes according to plan, there should be at least one faculty member and one current student in the interview. There may be an additional current student or faculty member, but there shouldn't be more than three people because they don't want to overwhelm you. As for whether they've read your application, assume they haven't so that you feel free to highlight your strengths again.

I'm not a nurse (I'm currently in nursing school) but I did work for CPS for a couple years and can answer any questions that you might have. I'm not sure what the CPS issue is in this case since they seem to have gotten the child appropriate medical care but if your school told you to call you probably should to CYA. I can't imagine CPS doing much with this though. To call you just need names, contact info, and what the concern is. It's not a difficult process and the person you call should be able to walk you through it. Let me know if you need anything else.

I'm a current student in the Seattle U program direct entry program, although I'm in a different track so I can't answer specifics about the midwifery program. There's a great Facebook page, though, for Seattle U APNI applicants. If you post a question on there, you'll likely get responses from folks currently in the midwifery program. Just look up Seattle U APNI applicants on Facebook and ask to join the group. And good luck!

I'm only going into my second quarter of the program so I don't know if things will change in upcoming quarters, but it seems like generally we have classes on Monday and Friday and we'll have clinical on two other days during the week. For this quarter's clinicals they took student's location into account when assigning sites but they were also limited by where they have clinical sites. You do have the opportunity to trade with other students after you get your assignment in case another location/schedule works better. Also, there are plenty of people in the program who live outside of the city of Seattle so you certainly wouldn't be alone as a commuting student.

I don't think that you're screwed at all! Your stats look great! It's probably in your best interest to get the micro or an A and P class done next so you can show them how well you can do in "hard" sciences. Best of luck! You sound like a great candidate!

I declined my FNP slot

Ha, ha! I drove myself and everyone around me crazy too as I tried to sort out the best option for me and my family. I've officially turned down all other offers so there's no looking back now!

@may25 so are leaning towards PLU? I'm interested to hear what your final decision is! Best of luck!

I asked this during my interview and the interviewer said most nursing students live in New Haven

I would call because I think there's going to be a lot of movement in the next couple of weeks. Many acceptances just went out and they have 14 days from the time they receive their offer letter to accept or decline so they should be pulling off the wait list shortly.

It did change. It said "decision available" on one page and on another it said something like "grad admission provisional.". It didn't change until I got the email from graduate admissions though.

Yay! Keep the good news rolling in!

I hope you all hear good news soon!

Congrats to those who were admitted! I was wait listed but I'm going to be ask to be taken off of it and I'm accepting another offer. Best of luck to you all!

Right now it's 678 per credit so less than 80,000 for the whole program (around 115 credits). With books, fees, and other required supplies they estimate that it's around 85,000-90,000

@may25 I'm really hoping that they're over estimating that time frame because that's crazy. They will no doubt loose some really good applicants if they end up making people wait that long for a response.

It's hard because it's such a personal decision and what's important to me may not be important to you. I have kids so the cost and quality of childcare was a large factor as was my husband's ability to find a good paying job. I also considered the cost of each program including the cost of living in the area. A big consideration was also where I'd like to live after graduation since a lot of people get jobs through their practicum placements. I really tried not to get hung up on the "ranking" of each school since the way that US news ranks nursing schools is completely subjective in my mind (they send around a survey to all the nursing schools and just ask them to rank the reputation of other schools). Instead I tried to focus on things like the nclex pass rate and national boards pass rate for the ARNP portion. In the end I'm turning down better ranked schools that offered me scholarships to go to Seattle U. That said, you ask someone else and they'll come up with a totally different thought process :)

Well, after a great deal of soul searching and number crunching I'm 99% sure that I'm accepting my FNP offer at Seattle U. I've heard back from every school except Yale but unless they offer me some ridiculously awesome financial aid package (which isn't likely to happen) I'm heading to Seattle U. How about others with offers pending?

@may25 I used the videos on the education portal website. They're geared towards the clep test and I found them really helpful. The only problem is that they used to be free but now you have to pay

I took the CLEP. I studied on the own for a couple weeks and then took it...and passed. Hallelujah!