guest2016

Just type "UCSF MEPN 2016" into the search box on Facebook, then click to sort results by Groups. Hope that helps!

Just got an email. Our application statuses have changed online. Check yours for an admission decision!

Congrats to everyone who has been getting acceptances from other programs recently! Does anyone know if UCSF does a wait list? It seems like at least a few people accepted to UCSF may end up going elsewhere, so perhaps anyone who gets placed a wait list might have a decent chance of actually getting in.

I don't think that your age will county against you. If anything, it could help. The final question that I was asked in my interview was quite age-biased, in retrospect. To paraphrase, "Are you sure you can start over at your old(er) age?". I definitely can, and I have before, but I'm not sure I convinced them. Both of my interviewers were pretty non-reactive. My interview was a series of questions and answers, not a conversation (though I tried hard to break the ice and connect). Later, I talked to a couple of other MEPN applicants interviewed by the team who interviewed me, and they had similar experiences. Still, I don't think that I really nailed the most important questions: Why nursing? What is the role of an NP? How will you help solve the challenges facing nursing today? In the meantime, I'll just keep following the path I'm on and do my best to prepare, learn, and get involved in the nursing community.

It does seem like quite a long time to wait. I'm fairly sure I didn't get in, so I'm working on figuring out how to make the best of my second-choice option. It's a lower-tier school with a curriculum that won't prepare me as well for clinical practice. I'm hoping to find time to do extra clinical shifts and volunteering while I'm in school and perhaps find a UCSF preceptor for my graduate-level practicum. Anyone else thinking about their Plan B? In the meantime, there is an LGBTQI health care symposium at UCSF on Sat., Feb. 20. Tickets for the general public are $20. Is anyone else going? I'd love to meet up with any of you there.

The AGNP group was told at the MEPN meet-and-greet on Saturday that the meeting of the admissions committee was on Feb. 11, and that we could expect email notification to check our status online on or around Feb. 19, hopefully.

The questions were primarily about nursing as a field, and your motivation, experience, and goals. They didn't seem to want to get to know me as a person much, and there were no situational behavioral questions. Also, they said that notifications will go out in late February by email, not snail mail. The email notification will prompt you to log in and check your status online through the UCSF graduate school applicant portal.

Hey everyone: I just got home from my morning interview session. Here are some tips for those of you who haven't interviewed yet. 1) Don't be nervous. Honestly, the UCSF staff who did the pre-interview orientation were nothing but supportive, helpful and positive. In the interview, most of us felt that it was more like a conversation than a high-pressure situation. 2) The first 40 minutes of my interview were spent on a list of 19 standard questions for all AGNP candidates. The interviewers spent most of that time writing notes on paper about my answers, and rarely looked at me or engaged me with follow-up questions. This seemed typical of many other interviews, except for FNP/Midwifery. Those candidates really seemed to have fun in their interviews, and the style of their interview was less formal. Those are just my impressions from talking to about a dozen people after their interviews. 3) Some of the questions you might expect (like strengths/weaknesses) weren't asked, and others were a complete surprise. "Why UCSF? Why NP? Why your specialty track?" are the big ones, just as others have said on this forum. But be prepared to answer more in-depth about your future plans, how you will contribute to changing health care, and how you will give back for what UCSF will give you. Other people will have had different experiences, I'm sure. My interviewers were fairly stoical and non-responsive, but others seemed to be very genial and open. So it's the luck of the draw. Oh, and people were not dressed as formally or conservatively as I expected. You don't have to wear a black suit. You don't have to wear a skirt and heels if you identify as a woman. You can be colorful and show some personality in how you dress. I wish I'd known that in advance! I wouldn't have been so conservative and boring in my choice of outfits. Good luck to everyone who is interviewing next week. I hope to meet some of you out-of-towners at the Saturday MEPN meet-and-greet on the 29th (I can't go to the one tomorrow).

Which classes don't match the schedule? I'll look into it when I try to register tomorrow.

I've found that some nursing school cohorts maintain active Facebook group pages. To get the inside scoop on another nursing program, I sent a message to the previous year's cohort group administrator on FB, and got a detailed response right away. It was an awesome wealth of information about how that program really works. Hope that helps!

Hey Tija: I can't answer your first question, as I haven't tried yet. But the schedules for spring and summer 2016 are available online here: Academic Calendar - San Francisco State University Finals are May 18-25, 2016. Summer semester starts on June 6, 2016. Hope that helps!

@FutureNPisMe: Here is the list that I mentioned having compiled from various online and in-person sources. Not all of the following top 50 questions will be relevant to UCSF, but it's a pretty good list to prepare for any nursing school interview with. Hope it helps, and good luck to everyone! Nursing is a collaborative profession, so we may as well start now. If anyone else has any interview tips, please post them. Thanks! 1. Why do you want to be a nurse? (Be very specific--- this is a big question.) 2. What do you think an RN vs an NP does? Why did you pick your specialty? 3. How will you handle the stress? What do you know about the demands of the MEPN program? 4. What do you think the hardest thing about being a nurse will be? 5. Where do you see yourself in 5 or 10 years? How will you be using your specialty? 6. Why nursing and not medical school? Why don't you want to be a doctor or a PA? 7. How will you prioritize your day? 8. How will you know when you are being a good nurse? 9. Give an example of a difficult/high stakes decision you've had to make and describe the thought process you went through. 10. Describe an ethical conflict that you've gone through. 11. Describe a frustrating experience at work and how you dealt with it. 12. Describe your strengths and weaknesses. 13. What will you bring to the UCSF School of Nursing and to your MEPN class? 14. What have you done to prepare yourself for nursing school? 15. What qualities make a good advanced-practice nurse? 16. Why did you apply to UCSF? Once you decided to be a nurse, how did you select the MEPN program? 17. Do you like teamwork or to work on your own? 18. What would you do if you don't get along with other nurses in a clinical rotation? 20. How will you handle criticism from older nurses who don't believe it's possible to become an RN in 1 year through a direct-entry masters program? 21. What do you do if you do not agree with the nurse who is precepting you? 22. How will you keep yourself from burning out? 23. Describe a situation where you've had to prioritize and organize a list of tasks. 24. What will you bring to the profession of nursing? 25. How do you handle adversity/challenges? 26. What do you think it will be like being in a master's program with people who have been working as nurses for years? 27. How do you handle competition? 28. Do you plan to do research or earn a PhD? 29. How do you handle difference? Give an example. 30. What are some current issues in nursing? 31. What are the bigges challenges generally of being a nurse? 32. How do your current skills translate to nursing? Describe your related experiences. 33. What changes would you like to see made in the current healthcare delivery system? 34. Describe what you are doing to improve two of your weaknesses. Be specific. 35. How did the nurses and doctors you volunteered with influence your outlook on healthcare? 36. What regrets do you have about your college education and experience up until now? 37. What resources do you use to keep current on the trends in nursing? What do you read? 38. Why do you want to go to nursing school? (evaluates motivation & personal awareness) 39. When did you first decide on nursing as a profession? (influence & background) 40. What qualities do you have that will help make you a good nurse? (strengths, knowledge of nursing) 41. Tell me about yourself. (self awareness, communication skills, qualifications) 42. How did you choose your undergraduate school? choose your major? (decision making process) 43. What problems and challenges do you anticipate during nursing school? 44. Describe an accomplishment. What did you do to make that happen? Be specific. 45. Tell me about a time when you performed well in a stressful situation. What did you do? 46. Tell me about a time when you were (or you were not) satisfied with your performance. 47. Describe a problem you had in a healthcare setting. Tell me how you went about solving it. 48. Describe a time when you worked as a member of a team. What was your contribution? 49. Tell me about a time you believe you made a difference with a patient. 50. Describe a challenging situation you have faced with a patient and their family.

One more resource for interview questions, if you haven't read the past years of MEPN threads yet (this was posted by ah11): =============================== Here are some questions many of us had: 1. Why nursing and not med school?- this is SUPER common. There are many of us who thought seriously about going into medicine, and our transcripts prove that. If this is you, you'll need to be able to clearly articulate why you are choosing nursing. For me, it was that I want to work in primary care, love community health, spend more time with my patients, and the importance of advocacy (which is integral to nursing, and something we are taught from the first day onward). I also wanted a work-life balance, and I don't think that medicine would afford that. You should also think about the differences between being a RN and NP, and why you're choosing the NP track. 2. Why UCSF?- we all know it is a great school, but what specifically appeals to you? A certain faculty member, a site you're interested in, research/a study you read about, etc. 3. How/why did you choose your specialty? 4. What are some issues in nursing?- I said a rapidly shrinking work force (many of us are approaching retirement age) and lack institutions to keep up with the demand for nurses. 5. How do your current skills translate to nursing?- we all come from non-nursing backgrounds, so it is important to play up your strengths. Basically, any job where you worked in a high-stress environment is helpful. Maybe you didn't work as a paramedic, but you were a waiter in a really busy restaurant? You still had to learn to manage your time, organize supplies, prioritize tasks, calm people down, and work in a complicated hierarchy. Think about what you can already do, and how to take those skills to clinicals and classes.

@SBCVixen Sorry you didn't get better news! Thank you for starting this thread way back when, and best of luck with your other applications. @FutureNPisMe I've been compiling a list of typical UCSF questions based on blogs, articles, etc., that I've found online. I don't have that document handy on my phone, but this link was helpful for me in preparing for the last interview I went to (especially pages 2, 5, and 6). Some of the questions are too basic for a top-tier program like UCSF, but some of them are right on the money, I've found (at other schools). https://www.scahec.net/hcp/ho/nursing.pdf Hope this is of some help to other folks who will be interviewing next month. When I have a chance to post the list of UCSF-specific questions I've found by researching online, I can do that (if anyone else is interested).

You, too, gatewood! Good luck and sorry we won't be able to meet. As mid-life career changers, I'm sure we would have a lot to chat about. I look forward to seeing more of your posts here on the forum.

Hey everybody, I got my letter in the snail mail today (just got home and checked). I was invited to interview for the AGNP track. Hope to meet some of you in person on interview day - for Bay Area locals, the interview date seems to be January 22nd.

My snail mail doesn't arrive until 6pm, so I have no news. But I have been surprised by the credentials of those who have been rejected. You all sound like fantastic candidates! Don't let this deter you from your path. UCSF is competitive, as we all know, and FNP is even more competitive. It sounds like this year's applicant pool is very strong. I know it's almost impossible to not take rejection personally, but don't give up if this is your calling. Find another way. Your future patients will be glad you did!

This lack of clarity and transparency is not helpful, and it doesn't seem necessary. As a point of comparison, another school communicated with me no less than five times between application submission and my acceptance. They were clear about when and how we would hear, and they actually beat their own timeline by a week. At every step of the way, they were respectful and kind, which was not the case with my one email exchange with UCSF admissions about a month ago.

Wow! Good to know, thanks. My birthday is tomorrow so I'm hoping it will happen today....

That's tough, and frustrating for people who live out of state. I live in the Bay Area, so I will post as soon as I get my letter (Saturday, I'm guessing) just to let everyone else know that theirs really is on the way.

I can get into the website, and nothing has changed under the Status tab. Same as this morning. Snail mail, really? That is very old-fashioned. Every other school I've applied to and heard back from has sent notifications via email.

Just a big high-five of encouragement to all the applicants like me, no matter how things turn out. If it's a yes, celebrate! And if it's a no, don't let it deter you on your path to becoming the fanastic advanced-practice nurse that you know you can be. Good luck to everyone!

Hello, everyone: I've done a lot of digging in the forum archives, and can't find a lot of posts from current SFSU Nursing students in the entry-level Master's Programs (ELMSN, now also ELM-A). Can anyone here talk about how their experience has been? Classroom? Clinical? Preceptorships? Faculty? I'd love to hear anything (and everything) about your experience. I've just been offered a spot in the ELM-A program starting in Jan. 2016, and I'd like to find out more about what people's firsthand experiences have been at SFSU Nursing. Thanks!

Hey there, They reached out to me to tell me that my application could not be processed. If you don't hear anything, and it's marked as verified in NursingCAS, I would imagine that you're fine. I was able to resolve it only because I had notes from a prerequisite clearance meeting with another admissions counselor, who had approved the course. But it was at the bottom of my shredding pile, so I'm very glad I never got around to actually doing the shredding!

Congrats to everyone who got in! I also heard by email yesterday afternoon (3:14pm PST) that I got in. There's an informal acceptance form to fill out online, then a formal invite from SFSU will arrive in about a week. Orientation is still scheduled for Dec. 7, 2015, from 9am to 2pm.