SIUE CRNA School Interview/Program for May 2011

I have applied for spring 2011 and have not yet received and interview as well. I do have an interview with Wolford College and Thomas Jefferson University. The Jefferson interview is on July 27th and I am a little nervous.

Good luck in PA.... still no mail from SIUE

Just got an interview letter in the mail today. Looks like it will be a 20 min 'writing' portion, an overview of the program and then 3 sessions of interviews with professors and crnas.... Does anyone have any idea what the writing portion will cover?

Hey Foxman

I also applied at thomas jefferson, but have n't heard anything...how was your interview? Would you mind sharing your stats..

I got in to Thomas Jefferson. GPA 3.77 20 months CVICU experience. I did not take the GRE.

Has anyone gotten a acceptance/rejection letter from SIUE yet?

I am about to interview for Thomas Jefferson. Beyond nervous have no idea what to expect. Any heads up would be great.

Response to RxrRn

Someone else asked me about Jefferson, so I will give you my response to that person, hope this helps

This email is in response to your questions about interviewing at Jefferson. Last July I received a letter to interview at Jefferson. When I got the letter, I only had 10 days to prepare for the interview. I interviewed on the 27th of July of last year. In preparation, I reviewed some of the CCRN exam prep stuff and looked up most commonly asked anesthesia school interview questions. They gave us three generic questions in the interview letter to prepare for, but they did not ask any of them. The format for the interview was not what I was expecting. There were 25 people there at the interview. We were separated into groups, we interviewed as a group. There were two interviews, one in the morning and one after lunch. The morning, we interviewed with the three main instructors for the program. They asked questions like what are your strong points, weak points, why should we accept you...stuff like that. They also asked about a difficult situation that we had had with a patient and what we did to work through it and what we learned from it. All of the groups which consisted of 5-6 people had the first interview, then we had a break and went back for another round. We split up into different groups and interviewed with the clinical coordinator at Jefferson Hospital. She asked us more clinically oriented questions, like about drugs, hemodynamics, our previous work experience and if we had ever shadowed a CRNA before. We never actually met with any of them one on one, so you answer all of your questions with other applicants sitting right next to you. After we were done with her interview, they made a copy of our drivers licenses, mainly for our pictures, and we were free to go. So I got to the interview at 0830, and I didn't get done until like 1500. It was a long day. The group thing through me off, but I thought it went alright. They interviewed another 25 at the end of August. So if you get an interview, you will basically have a 50% chance of getting in. (That is of course if they do the interview the same way)

I found out a week later that I got in via email. I received an official letter about 10 days later. Looking back on it, and to give you some insight as to what they are looking for in an applicant, I think it is mainly about finding applicants that can adjust to new things and be somewhat easy going while doing it. School is stressful and they push us pretty hard. Clinical is even more stressful than the book work and they throw us into it very quickly. School starts in January, and you are in clinical 2 days a week starting at the end of March. So, from what I can tell, the people that got in were the ones that were just being themselves and answering the questions the best that could. Be calm, confident and go with the flow. If they want to interview you, they think your grades are good and your experience too, now all you need to do is let them see why they should select you. Good luck to you and let me know if you have any other questions

I do appreciate the time you took to answer my question. Even though all of us know exactly what you said to be true it's always nice to hear a confirmation of your thoughts. The group thing would be a new style of interviewing, should be fun. Thank you again.