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Good luck, everyone!!! I sympathize with the waiting, it was the worst part!

Hi Pmilian08! I'm sorry to hear you didn't get accepted this last go round. My friend isn't reapplying, she's applying to Watts instead, so she can still start nursing school in the fall (they have rolling admissions). Nora essentially told her over the phone that with her undergrad GPA, it's very unlikely she'd be accepted into the ABSN program, but she could still apply for the MSN programs after getting her RN license (my friend wants to be an NP). I do think removing the GRE requirement has hurt some candidates - if you have less than a 3.0 GPA, there's no other means to offset it now. But maybe that was their goal, since it would make it easier to reject some applicants/sort through a greater number of applications. I can't tell you if you should reapply or not, but I don't think a second try is ever a bad idea, assuming you can sacrifice the application fee. Should you decide to apply again, just make sure to get some fantastic recommendations and work on those personal statements. There's no guarantee, but then at least you'll know you gave it your best shot. And you never know what other applicants you'll be competing against - maybe you'll be more competitive this time. As far as the amount of people who were accepted for Fall 2016, I'm not sure exactly, but I believe it was somewhere between 68 and 73. So, if we assume for the sake of easy math that there were exactly 450 applicants and exactly 70 were accepted, then the acceptance rate was 15.56%. That's definitely competitive, so don't beat yourself up about your last application. I think that if you apply again, just do the best you can, but be sure to have some back-up options. I wish you the best of luck in whatever you pursue! :)

Hi all! I applied for Fall 2016 and was accepted, so I thought I'd answer any questions I can after successfully going through the application process. It is stressful, but worth it! @kathywasabi: From everything I've heard, no, Duke doesn't consider how competitive your undergrad school is/was, but they do consider what courses you took and the grades you received. I'm a little annoyed by the grade inflation assumption, since no decent university (Ivy League or no) is just going to hand their students grades they didn't earn. Duke, like any school, would prefer you to have a high GPA (I have a friend who was rejected for the Fall, and they told here it was primarily due to her low GPA - she has loads more clinical experience than I do), so just do the best you can in any courses you may still be taking. I don't think a lower GPA will break an application, but I also don't think making excuses or blaming your university's grading policies for your non-perfect grades is the way to go - plenty of other applicants will have gone to competitive (and non-Ivy) schools and will still have good GPAs. My advice would be just to worry about what you can do now to make yourself a better applicant. @Pmilian08: I don't know if the Spring cohort is easier to get into, but they did receive more applications than they ever have since the ABSN program began during the last application cycle (they received over 450 applications for Fall 2016). So, it is competitive. However, there's no perfect applicant - I don't have any clinical experience in my background, which was a concern I had about my application, and I was still accepted. So, @ everyone: even though it's competitive, I wouldn't be discouraged - keep in mind that they also look really hard at your personal statements and recommendations. Do the best you can on those - think of your personal statement like an interview response, and let yourself shine through. Focus on what makes you interesting. Think of it from their point of view: they look to accept students that they want to teach. Give them a reason why they should share their knowledge with you and put up with you for 16 months. Also keep in mind that the application process at Duke is holistic - they don't do number cut-offs from what I understand. Try to stay positive, and good luck to all of you!! :)

A&P is a LOT of material, and I don't think 5 weeks does the course justice, whether or not anyone would want to deal with taking it in such a condensed amount of time. If you're time and financially strapped, then you have to do what's right for you, but if you have options, I don't recommend doing it, for your own education. If you take the courses during normal semesters and study hard, I believe you'll get more out of it, and the subject is the foundation of any nursing career. Just my two cents :)

@bme_rn2b Hi! Thanks for posting! I think Duke's cohorts tend to be pretty diverse, and don't worry, I'm not a traditional student, either - also have an MA in another field, and I'll be 31 in May. I'm sure we're not the only ones! I'll be attending the April 8th Duke Day, so I'll let everyone know how it goes!

Chapel Hill is lovely, but can be pretty expensive. You'll be closest to Duke in Durham, of course, and the downtown area is a cool place to hang out, but Durham also has some very rough areas. There's loads of available places to stay in Raleigh, just stay in west/northwest Raleigh if you look there. Let me know if you have any specific questions, Raleigh is my hometown, and I lived in Chapel Hill during university! Meet you soon :)

I've paid my deposit, too! Very excited to meet all of you!! :) @Katro007, will you have a car? If not, I'd stick to Durham or Chapel Hill, but there are some nice areas to stay at in Raleigh, too. I'll be commuting from north Raleigh, most likely, which only takes about 15-20 minutes.

I just RSVP's for Duke Days - anyone else going to be there on Friday, April 8th? :)

Thank you, vitaga12, and good luck at Emory or Miami!!

You can ask, but in the past I don't think they gave out numbers (I read through past cohort threads when I was applying). The deadline for paying our deposit is April 13th, so waitlisted candidates should start hearing after that date. Is anyone else attending the April 8th Duke Day? Congrats to all who were accepted, and my heart goes out to those who weren't. If you want to reapply, I'm happy to discuss personal statements and whatnot. I'll keep my fingers crossed for those of you who are waitlisted!! Thank you so much for the support on this forum for the past few months, it's been really helpful :)

Mine's conditional upon satisfactory completion of Microbiology, but it's still an acceptance. Is your letter different? Btw, I'm definitely going, so I can't wait to meet all of you soon!

I've been accepted, too! Hasn't really sunk in yet, tbh. Congrats!!!

Sorry I didn't reply sooner! I second everything otay5 said, and you'll have to look into funding options regardless of where you go, so I'd get that ball rolling now anyway. And it never hurts to speak with admissions offices - they're trying to get you to apply and go to their university, so they typically do all they can to help accepted applicants (granted, I can only speak to my own experiences). I applied for Fall 2016 with all of you! I'm making a career change from politics/law - I got my BA from UNC-Chapel Hill and my MA in England five years ago. I'm from NC (Raleigh, specifically), so I want to stay in-state, too. I've moved countries recently, so the idea of moving states at the moment isn't really feasible or attractive! If I don't get into Duke, I'm planning to reapply for Spring 2017, apply to UNC, and possibly Watts. I'm sure it's a relief to know you'll get your BSN somehow! Good luck with your application, and let us know how things go! :)

What does "planning" entail, exactly? If it's just sending deposit money, and you can afford possibly to lose it, then I would go ahead - having a fall back plan is always wise, in my opinion. And the 18th is only two weeks from now. Have you spoken to the program about your situation directly? Admissions offices are usually pretty understanding of this kind of situation. Congrats on getting accepted, btw! :)

Hey everyone! I spoke with someone at the admissions office yesterday, because I wanted to know about the info session date/time in case I'm waitlisted. Essentially, we're all just reading into receiving/not receiving the email because we're all understandably anxious - it was sent by Tia Troy, who doesn't deal with ABSN admissions, and it was sent to those who expressed an interest in Spring 2017. So, I imagine for those who received it, they were on that email list for whatever reason (they were waitlisted in the past for Spring, for example). Our applications are currently with faculty, so the admissions staff doesn't know what the final decisions are. When I asked if we'll have a decision by the time of the info session (March 21st), I was told we absolutely would - right now, it's looking as though we'll know by Friday, the 18th (she told me the week of the 18th, too, so it will be during the week of the 14th, but it will most likely be towards the end of that week). It is frustrating, because we were told "early March", but apparently they had a lot of applications this year, so there's a delay of a week or two. Suffice to say, we'll know very soon!! :)

Week of the 18th!? That's a Friday… so confused! I didn't get the info session email, either. Would someone mind posting it to the board? I'm curious as to what it said!

Did you mean Spring 2017 (I'm confused about the dates)? I didn't receive it (I'll let you know if I do), but I'm sure it doesn't mean anything - they're automated emails that get sent out to people who give their email addresses - I don't think the admissions office has the time to go through whose on each email list. Good luck with your application, and try not to over-think things! We'll know when we know, there's nothing left to do now but wait (I hate waiting!). :)

Meh… we have to wait another week Thank you for letting us know, though!!

When did you hear that? I know the MSN students found out yesterday. Ditto, gakpele! Good luck everybody!! :)

@vivaciousjo: It's still too early to have heard back from Duke, but we should hear back starting the first week of March - this is according to when Fall 2015 applicants received their decisions and to Nora's email from December. Hang in there, we'll know soon! @FrankieSomoano: Hi there! No one has replied to you, yet, so I thought I might. I don't feel comfortable reporting my exact GPA and any test statistics, one because I don't know if I'll be accepted, and two because I don't think it's entirely helpful to compare yourself too much with other applicants. Every applicant pool is different, and Duke looks at candidates holistically. I will say that when I applied, I had 3 pre-reqs completed, was in the process of finishing 2 (including Nutrition), and had 1 outstanding. They did receive my grades for last semester and updated my application, so they'll review my application with 5 pre-req grades, and only Microbiology will be outstanding (which I'm currently taking). My undergraduate GPA is also competitive (well above a 3.0). At present, I'm only applying to Duke, which had to do with the application deadline, and if I'm not accepted, I will be reapplying to Duke, and I will also apply to UNC (where I competed my undergraduate degree) and Watts as a backup. I'm tied to the triangle area for the near future, so applying to other schools in NC or out of state isn't an option for me. I don't have any previous medical experience, per se, though I do have a lot of volunteer and public service experience, and I've lived abroad and spent time working in other countries. I'm changing careers from a political science/law background, and I have a MA in International Relations and an unfinished law degree in England. I hope the information helps, and good luck with your applications! :)

Hey all! Just wanted to let you know I got the email today about Duke Days - it's just to let us know when they are in case we do get accepted, it's very explicit in saying decisions have not yet been made. When decisions go out, those accepted will receive an official invitation according to the email. This year, Duke Days will be on Friday, April 8th and Monday, April 11th. If I get accepted, I'll be going on the Friday, I think. Hope everyone is well!! :)

I haven't received anything, yet. I did notice, though, that in our student portal, the financial aid office is requesting a completed FAFSA, so I'm busy getting my 2015 taxes sorted - I submitted a completed FAFSA for 2016-2017 during the first week of January, but it was tentatively based on my 2014 tax return. Only one more month to go, everyone!! Bit scary!

Hi everyone! I hope I'm posting this in the right place, if not, I do apologize - I'm a pre-nursing student, so I generally post in the student forum. I just read this article in the NY Times about drug shortages and rationing, and I wanted to see what your take on it was. Have any of you observed this trend yourselves in your workplace? I found the article to be very concerning, as I was not aware of this issue. Here is the link: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/29/us/drug-shortages-forcing-hard-decisions-on-rationing-treatments.html?emc=edit_na_20160129&nl=bna&nlid=54581823&te=1&_r=0 I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Hi there! It's nice to hear from somewhere else who did law, too!! Have you heard back from UNC, yet? I was going to apply there in case my Duke application wasn't successful. I hope you get in! What kind of law did you practice? I live in Raleigh now, my husband and I have been here a year and a half. Nursing feels like a much better fit for me. Good luck with your applications, and take care!! :)

I couldn't agree more. The critical thinking skills gained from mathematics courses, including logical reasoning, are very important. Personally, I think statistics should be required of every undergraduate program - you do use it in everyday life, in ways people don't even realize, and it also provides invaluable analytical skills.