Sac State/Chico Spring 09

treelover · Oct 22, 2008

Here is the Sac State link with stats on previous applicants and what their avg. scores/GPA's were. I would post the .pdf document that you can download from this link, but I don't know how to attach docs, I'm fairly new to the forum. I was fortunate enough to get into the program, starting Spring 07, my GPA was 4.0 but my Teas was in the low 70's, and I think I qualified for maybe one 'extra credit' point. From what I saw on this sight (under 'applicant pool'), it looks like you may have earned yourself a spot! Good luck!:wink2:

http://www.hhs.csus.edu/NRS/Advising/GenericAdvising/fall2006/

polka-dot, RN · Oct 22, 2008

BW,

Can you share any insight into the CSUS program? I have a 4.0 and a 94 on the TEAS...I am really hoping that is enough to get me in. It's my first choice school but I haven't really been able to find any current or recent students to talk to. Would LOVE to know anything you can tell me...if you'd rather take this off the board, just PM me and I'll email you.

Thanks!

treelover · Oct 23, 2008

Apparently I'm not yet qualified to do PM's. But I can try to answer your questions as best I can. What specific questions do you have? Are you aware of the recent changes to the program? For instance, I believe they have changed the curriculum to 4 semesters instead of 6...

I'm brainstorming potential questions that you might have:

- clinicals for my class took place at Sutter Roseville, Sutter Memorial, UCDMC, and Mercy San Juan.

-Overall, the professors have very high standards.

-You will discover immediately that there is little hand-holding as far as organizing your schedule and getting every assignment done correctly and in on time. It is overwhelming and complicated from the beginning. You have to have a system of organization. You also have to 'bond' with fellow students (at least one or two) because you won't survive very well on your own. There is too much information being bombarded at you all the time, with your classmates you're less likely to miss something important!

-The bulk of work and information is available at our website that is exclusive to sac state students and only we have access to. There are discussion boards for each class, as well as a main page for all nursing students from all classes to communicate with each other.

-We print everything out, including syllabi ourselves. There are some online learning modules, some classes offer video streaming online, but attending lectures is also the norm, if not mandatory for some classes. Skills labs are always mandatory.

- Each semester begins with 'front loading' which consists of a two week 'boot camp' of multiple lectures (3 hrs each), and multiple skills labs. Feeling Overwhelmed is a common sentiment...

-Our papers are APA format, most exams are taken and proctored in the computer lab. In addition, we use the ATI program (an NCLEX review company that also does the TEAS) for each semester which are exams given on top of our regular class exams. We are required to have a 73% average for all class exams, and we must also pass the ATI exam given at the end of each semester in order to move on to the next semester. You must also (of course) pass clinicals each semester. So usually a class will have both a lecture portion and a clinical (lab) portion.

- Our program also offers (2) 'Sim Mans' which are worth I think $100K each. They are computerized mannikens, where the instructor types in scenarios, vital signs, breath sounds, hydration status, drug responses into her laptop, and the mannikin responds accordingly. This lab is interactive and is meant to provide you with as close to a real life situation as possible without using a real human being! But the instructors want you to learn from this, not to feel intimidated... we use ordinary mannikins as well and have rooms that look similar to hospital rooms...

polka-dot, RN · Oct 23, 2008

Thank you so much....that is just the type of information I am looking for. Yes, I knew about the new cirriculum (yay!) and saw a little bit of the school when I went to the advising session. I am pretty sure that if I get in a friend of mine will get in as well, so that will definitely be nice to start off with a buddy.

For your clinicals, did you get your patient info the night before? I also think I heard that clinicals don't start until 2nd semester....do you recall what skills you could do when you started clinicals?

I'm not worried about the high-standards and lack of hand-holding...I am extremely organized and have incredibly high-standards myself...but I appreciate the heads up...it's good to know what to expect.

Have you found the general attitude of the professors to be more supportive or intimidating? Are they there to help you succeed, or do they try to weed out students? Also, do you know what the attrition rate is? Just curious if their NCLEX scores are high because of high attrition, or because of excellent teaching.

THANK YOU!!!!!!

treelover · Oct 23, 2008

Except for your OB rotation, you pick your pts the day before for your writeups

I don't know when clinicals start with the new program, ours started second semester (N12 is the first clinical class)

Professors are generally supportive, but they can be intimidating only because they expect so much from you. Some are a bit more relaxed than others. As long as you hold up your end, they are fair and supportive and the want you to turn out to be the best nurse possible, so if that is your goal, too, you'll be fine. I've heard of a couple of clinical instructors that in my opinion were not fair, but the majority are.

I don't know about attrition. I started with a class of about 70 and I think only one or two dropped out. The excellent pass rate is due largely to the ATI NCLEX program that I explained earlier...keep posting questions.. I gotta go for now!

FUTURE_ER_RN · Oct 23, 2008

I am a little nervous that sac state changed their 3 year program into a 2 year program. I mean, thats like having 7 classes your first semester! Wow! I'm not sure if condensing the program will make it better at all. You have to learn the same amount of information in a shorter period. So does that mean we have to sacrifice a lot of the material in order to pass them all? I was really considering going here if I got in because I saw that they do their clinicals at Suttur Roseville and I've volunteered there for a while now so I know a lot of the staff, but I'm not sure if I want to try and learn 3 years worth of material in 2 years. What do you guys think? I didn't want to move out of my region to attend a 3 year program since I live about 30 min from sac state, but I dont know if I could handle the cirriculum change.

BonnieSc · Oct 23, 2008

The two-year program at Sac State, vs three-year, is definitely a positive. I went through the six-semester program, which was new, and we all felt like we were spinning our wheels a lot... wasting time, especially in the first and last semester. You won't be losing a thing--the classes will be the same, you just take them less spread out, and it won't be too much. It shouldn't be much different from the accelerated program for second bachelor's students, except with more vacations.

Basically, the six-semester was a very brief experiment that wasn't altogether successful.

FUTURE_ER_RN · Oct 24, 2008

still seems like having 6 classes the first semester and 5 classes the 3rd semester, along with clinicals, sounds like a meltdown waiting to happen. I just want to make sure that if I do go the 2 year route that I won't be learning less or only going for the minimal grade to pass the classes. I want to learn and remember what I learn, not memorize for this test, make room, memorize for next test, etc. Did you feel like when you were in school that you could have taken 2+ more classes each semester and been ok? Or did you feel like you were drowning and 3 classes w/ cliniclas was hard enough?

BonnieSc · Oct 24, 2008

I think, basically, the first year was turned back into one semester (which is how it was for a long time; the teachers didn't seem to know what to do with us the first time first semester was like that), and the last year was also compressed into one semester. We were bored our first semester and definitely could have done a lot more. Our last semester, I hardly felt like I was going to school it all, there was so little to do. So it isn't really 2+ classes more each semester.

You can't necessarily go by the number of classes, because some of them are really easy and don't have much work associated with them.

ETA: yes, I just checked the new curriculum to check, and it confirms what I say above. The gerontology class was moved to second semester, but that's one of the very easy ones. You won't need to worry about it being substantially harder or busier in the two-year vs. three-year track--you'll just get out and (hopefully) be earning sooner.

FUTURE_ER_RN · Oct 24, 2008

ok thanks :) It would be nice to graduate a year earlier and be nice to not have to move too far :).

kew82 · Oct 29, 2008

Not to mention paying a year less tuition!