Successful CRNA students consider listing your school, GPA, experience, GRE et.

Published

In this way a database could eventually be created of the average profile of successful/unsuccessful applicants at various schools. Obviously, this would only be a guideline since the profile of a successful applicant changes to some degree even from class to class. It might also be useful to list schools that did not accept you or ones that you elected not to attend. This could amount to a powerful tool enabling future applicants to direct their efforts to schools where they are the most likely to succeed (an especially important point with CRNA schools since travel expenses are often involved in the application process).

gpa 3.42

gre 1060, 4.0- new test

ccrn, acls, pals

1.5 years in a medical/surgical ICU with majority cardio/trauma/neurosurgery patients

Applied to one school, our lady of the lake college in baton rouge as part of their initial class, accepted and start next month.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Undergrad BSN 3.4

Gre 1050 , 620 math, 430 verbal, 5.0 writing

CCRN

2 years large urban teaching hospital CVICU with IABP, VAD, TP ect.

Currently attending Baylor CRNA program

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Nursing GPA 3.4

MAT 49

3 years ICU as well as PACU, ED, and Recovery

Excellent letters of rec (3X what schools asked for) including several pulmnary docs who ran our unit.

ACLS, PALS, NRP, CCEMT-P (Critical Care Emergency Medical Transport-Provider

6 months doing Critical Care Transports and scene calls with EMS on this special-built rig. We carried our own DataScope IABP. RN had lead call when doing hospital transports (mostly cardiac and decompensating septic pts). Paramedic took lead on trauma calls. Go to http://www.puckettems.com. Then click "Programs and Services", then hit up "Critical Care Transport Services".

I think the CCEMT-P class set me apart. The provider class was $700 of personal money and a month of my time also working full-time. Seeking further education on your own constantly since graduation after allowing adjustment phase of being a new grad in the units is really impressive to adcoms. I was going to sit for CCRN but wanted to do transports instead during my window of opportunity. MAT score was slightly above average but nothing to write home about.

Adcoms want to see someone that challenges theirselves with extra education, is a solid and consistent worker, and is confident but not cocky. Pull this attitude off in the interview, absolutely nail your LORs impressively, and before you get up from the interview table, no matter how crappy you think you did - implicitly tell them that this is something you have wanted for _____ years, how you will fight tooth and nail to get in, and do just the same for the duration of the program. You will not belive how many people for various reasons, give the most unimpressive interviews. You have 15-30 minutes to prove to these people who don't know you from Jack to allow you to realize your lifelong dreams. Use your time wisely.

Not that I did this in any way, but something I heard about: All of one of "my friend's" schools wanted their letters of recs to be filled out and in the packet along with his application, with signatures across the flap of the sealed envelope by the individual - thus assuring confidentiality. He got paperwork from one school he had no intention of applying to and had his people fill out these recs as well. He opened all the letters for this particular school that he had no intrest in going to. You have to be absolutely careful. People have hidden agendas all the time and young bucks (or bucketts) that apply to anesthesia programs from the units can sometimes have people who are passive / aggressive and will screw you over the first chance they get. Be sure they don't do it when you apply to school. Adcoms see bad LOR as an absolute red flag. Two bad LORs and you just wasted your time even applying to that school.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I like the idea about the CCEMT class however I'm not sure how widely available this course can be found. Also, the letters of reference idea is also good. I find it absolutely frightening that we are not even supposed to look at information (in the letters) that could have huge ramifications on our lives and careers. It would be akin to not being able to see your credit report!

Also, I think this could be a bit better than a standard "convienience sample" given the following factors: The relatively limited/small pool of SRNA students/applicants. The motivation of many in this group to help others via participation in this board. In any case, it would still be nice to be able to enter a given school name (in a hypothetical database) and get a list of profiles of five to ten or more successful applicants at that school. Consider, if we were taking a similiar approach with undergraduate institutions of higher learning. Let's pretend that we asked for profiles on a voluntary basis at an imaginary discussion board from sucessful applicants to imaginary, undergraduate engineering programs. Let's further pretend for a moment that we received 300 replies to our query. Even in such an unscientific, self reporting survey would you expect to find significant differences between the profiles of successful students at say MIT and Indiana State University? I would suggest that in fact you would be likely to find such differences even in a non random, self reporting sample. Furthermore, I would submit that such information in the area of CRNA schools might be useful to prospective CRNA applicants.

Nursing GPA 3.4

MAT 49

3 years ICU as well as PACU, ED, and Recovery

Excellent letters of rec (3X what schools asked for) including several pulmnary docs who ran our unit.

ACLS, PALS, NRP, CCEMT-P (Critical Care Emergency Medical Transport-Provider

6 months doing Critical Care Transports and scene calls with EMS on this special-built rig. We carried our own DataScope IABP. RN had lead call when doing hospital transports (mostly cardiac and decompensating septic pts). Paramedic took lead on trauma calls. Go to http://www.puckettems.com. Then click "Programs and Services", then hit up "Critical Care Transport Services".

I think the CCEMT-P class set me apart. The provider class was $700 of personal money and a month of my time also working full-time. Seeking further education on your own constantly since graduation after allowing adjustment phase of being a new grad in the units is really impressive to adcoms. I was going to sit for CCRN but wanted to do transports instead during my window of opportunity. MAT score was slightly above average but nothing to write home about.

Adcoms want to see someone that challenges theirselves with extra education, is a solid and consistent worker, and is confident but not cocky. Pull this attitude off in the interview, absolutely nail your LORs impressively, and before you get up from the interview table, no matter how crappy you think you did - implicitly tell them that this is something you have wanted for _____ years, how you will fight tooth and nail to get in, and do just the same for the duration of the program. You will not belive how many people for various reasons, give the most unimpressive interviews. You have 15-30 minutes to prove to these people who don't know you from Jack to allow you to realize your lifelong dreams. Use your time wisely.

Not that I did this in any way, but something I heard about: All of one of "my friend's" schools wanted their letters of recs to be filled out and in the packet along with his application, with signatures across the flap of the sealed envelope by the individual - thus assuring confidentiality. He got paperwork from one school he had no intention of applying to and had his people fill out these recs as well. He opened all the letters for this particular school that he had no intrest in going to. You have to be absolutely careful. People have hidden agendas all the time and young bucks (or bucketts) that apply to anesthesia programs from the units can sometimes have people who are passive / aggressive and will screw you over the first chance they get. Be sure they don't do it when you apply to school. Adcoms see bad LOR as an absolute red flag. Two bad LORs and you just wasted your time even applying to that school.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I agree it might be useful, but it ain't gonna happen. You will realize that anesthesia is an EXTREMELY SMALL world and no one is dying to identify themselves on the internet. I have already given away too much personal info.

Others might think that instead of new people coming in with a recipe on how to get into a particular school, it should just be that the slots go the the best candidate.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Well there's still hope. Consider, that in addition to the nice people who have posted on this thread we have years of old threads where various people at various times have identified their schools, GPA's and experience. Unfortunately, it's spread out over dozens if not hundreds of threads, and over many years. However, this information could be "mined" taking care not to double list information (the same person posting twice in different posts) and to sort out people using different names, and abbreviations for the same school. In this way a useful database still might be created.

My take is that we shouldn't have to beg for the information that is available to most canidates in other disciplines from the institutions themselves. Again average GRE's (or MCAT's,LSAT's as the case may be), GPA's, and student profiles are available for law, medical and other graduate level students. Why for example should Duke have one policy for their CRNA program, but a different one (with regard to class information disclosure) for their medical, or law school?

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Here is a squeeker for you!

GPA: 3.25

GRE: 650 analytical, 450 verbal, 4.5 writing

EXP: 1 year ICU,CCU and Open Heart Recovery (inclusive before interview)

Cert: ACLS, CCRN

Refrences: Excellent...... so I was told

Akron U..................... Interviewed......Denied

Case Western............. Interviewed......Alternate

University of Cincinnati.. Interviewed....Accepted and start this fall

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Here is a squeeker for you!

GPA: 3.25

GRE: 650 analytical, 450 verbal, 4.5 writing

EXP: 1 year ICU,CCU and Open Heart Recovery (inclusive before interview)

Cert: ACLS, CCRN

Refrences: Excellent...... so I was told

Akron U..................... Interviewed......Denied

Case Western............. Interviewed......Alternate

University of Cincinnati.. Interviewed....Accepted and start this fall

wow!!!?

Up Vote Up Vote ×
wow!!!?

Here's what we have so far:

a. Average GPA is 3.34

b. Average GRE is 1158 (throwing out all of the data points which involved the old style test).

c. Average years of critical care experience is 2.45 years. However, if we throw out the "outlying" data point of the person who had nine years experience the average drops to about 1.91 years (lower still if we dropped the person with six years critical care experience).

Lesson so far: If you have a GPA of over about 3.0 and a GRE score higher than a 1000 you are in the game and it will probably come down to experience (at least so far as getting an interview is concerned). Furthermore, if you have a GPA above around 3.4, a GRE above 1200, and more than three years critical care experience you are probably a lock unless you have the interviewing skills of Michael Jackson. Obviously, we don't have data about the interviews or their letters of reference.

Keep in mind that it is likely that we are overstating the average since those with lower scores, GPA's et. are probably a little less likely to respond.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

The only place I applied was Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center and I start this August! Excited and scared! :rotfl:

Work experience: 3 years cardiology which included 2 years in the EP Lab

4 + years OR (general/pediatric/open heart)

1 + years home health management

1 year case management

1 year FULL time MICU

PRN'd ICU/CCU/ED throughout career to keep skills up

At my interview I had 4 months full time under the belt......... :uhoh3:

ADN GPA: 3.67

BSN GPA: 3.92

MAT: 47

LOR were good (so I was told)......must have been, my immediate supervisor only knew me about 6 weeks when I approached her for a letter and I never actually met my Dean of Nursing, except when I shook her hand at graduation! I believe FIRMLY that God's grace is the reason I am in this position! :p If I can do this, anyone can......go for it! You will never know unless you try! :balloons:

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Hi, GCShore!

We may be working on the same unit, but your screen name does not give me a hint about who you are...

The Lord, your scores, the many years of experience you have as a nurse and your nice personality (in case you are the one I think you are) helped you get into the school.

Best of wishes to you! It will be hard, but not impossible. I am sure you will do excellent.

flaced

The only place I applied was Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center and I start this August! Excited and scared! :rotfl:

Work experience: 3 years cardiology which included 2 years in the EP Lab

4 + years OR (general/pediatric/open heart)

1 + years home health management

1 year case management

1 year FULL time MICU

PRN'd ICU/CCU/ED throughout career to keep skills up

At my interview I had 4 months full time under the belt......... :uhoh3:

ADN GPA: 3.67

BSN GPA: 3.92

MAT: 47

LOR were good (so I was told)......must have been, my immediate supervisor only knew me about 6 weeks when I approached her for a letter and I never actually met my Dean of Nursing, except when I shook her hand at graduation! I believe FIRMLY that God's grace is the reason I am in this position! :p If I can do this, anyone can......go for it! You will never know unless you try! :balloons:

Up Vote Up Vote ×

:p Thanks for the kind words! Got you fooled... :rotfl: From what I've gathered researching your screen name to figure out who you are, you are wanting to become a CRNA also! You will be great from what I have seen so far in the unit! Your initiative and desire for learning is amazing! Hang in there and don't forget to pray for me too! :)

Renea

Hi, GCShore!

We may be working on the same unit, but your screen name does not give me a hint about who you are...

The Lord, your scores, the many years of experience you have as a nurse and your nice personality (in case you are the one I think you are) helped you get into the school.

Best of wishes to you! It will be hard, but not impossible. I am sure you will do excellent.

flaced

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion