UBC 2021

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Hiya folks!

It's a bit early, but since the application period opens in a couple of months, I thought I'd start this topic to share support/encouraging words/info/nervousness.

Is anyone else already excited for next September?

Congrats to those that got in. Was accepted as well. Made an account to post advice from anyone that didn't make it but wants to in the future.

I have to assume: you've thought long and hard about your life and that you actually really want to be a nurse, and understand what the job involves.

-Okay so you put a ton of thought into it, and you're committed to this career. But you didn't get accepted to a school

-How to get accepted next time? Simple but not easy, become the ideal applicant.

-You KNOW what the ideal applicant would look like. Someone that if they posted their stats here you'd say WOW you're getting in! Luckily the way UBC assesses their applicants it's always possible to become much closer to ideal within a mere year.

-Grades are simple. Crush them. Take an entire year of courses in things you can demolish for an awesome GPA. Remember it's a game, and the goal is to get the best grade possible. Play (fairly) to win, but don't forget it's only that silly number that matters.

-Supplemental stuff? Hard, but you know what looks great...Be a leader, start a business, volunteer for CHALLENGING things etc, literally be the change you wanna see in the world (it's all so cliche, but that kind of stuff stands out) What would you rather read: I volunteered at the gift shop in the hospital OR I started company xyz to address problem xyz in the healthcare field and had zyx impact? (you could spend the same amount of time at both these things and guess which one jumps out, and likely changes your life in a bigger way...but one is harder...)

-Casper: a lot of people *** on this test, but as someone who is fairly confident I did well on it...this test is great. (though I have no idea how good the grading is) What its trying to get at is fundamentally important to this field...if you can't do well on a test like this, I think it fairly should be held against you. How to improve? Learn how to be a leader, learn how to work on a team. Put yourself into difficult situations. Through the life experience of learning how to deal with real problems...quality answers to the CASPER come naturally.

 

I hope that made some sense and was somewhat helpful. I know I always appreciated this sort of thing.

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6 hours ago, yahjeh said:

Hi all, wondering if anyone got accepted or rejected that is still completing the A&P? Also, wondering if there are any indigenous applicants here?

I'm still waiting on either response, but pretty patient considering it's hard to email 850 people in one day.

Im an indigenous applicant too still waiting for an email :0 Do you mind sharing your stats and what you applied with?

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15 minutes ago, nikom said:

Im an indigenous applicant too still waiting for an email :0 Do you mind sharing your stats and what you applied with?

Oh okay, there's still hope!

I applied with a Bachelor's in Psych and around a 3.5 GPA depending on what courses they went off of, to be honest I haven't looked at my transcript in years. I've worked and organized the OSCEs for the dept of medicine at UBC. I have been volunteering at VGH and VASS (Vancouver Adaptive Snow Sports) for a number of years. And have volunteered at a retirement home during high school. And a hell of a lot of obstacles and life experience. I'd kill to know how I did on the CASPer tho!

What are you applying with? Did you apply anywhere else?

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7 hours ago, yahjeh said:

Hi all, wondering if anyone got accepted or rejected that is still completing the A&P? Also, wondering if there are any indigenous applicants here?

I'm still waiting on either response, but pretty patient considering it's hard to email 850 people in one day.

Hi good morning! I'm an Indig applicant - I got accepted last Friday and just finished A&P Pt 2 last week too. Be patient! There are definitely a lot of decisions underway - have you checked your junk inbox?

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Writing my A&P final next week and just wondering if they would be likely to retract my offer if I finish with a very average grade in the course (like 70% or whatever)?? Haha

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3 minutes ago, kgoldsmith said:

Writing my A&P final next week and just wondering if they would be likely to retract my offer if I finish with a very average grade in the course (like 70% or whatever)?? Haha

I think this would be considered on a case-to-case basis, but definitely push to do your absolute best! I think if you're above 70% (which is the minimum academic standing to apply) - you should be good. Good luck with your exam!

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Hey guys. This might be totally unrelated but I have been kind of debating on what to do. I just finished my third year at UBC in food nutrition and health. I have applied to both UBCV and UBCO nursing. And I received the offer from UBCO and not from UBCV. I have been thinking if I should take the offer and go to UBCO for another 4 years of undergrad or I should finish my FNH degree first (which is next year), and try UBCV BSN again. I have talked to my friends and family and have received very divided opinions. I wanted to go to UBCV for nursing because it offers a 2 year accelerated program and it's close to my family and friends. Part of me wants to finish my current degree and apply for UBCV BSN next year, however, because I am international I'm not sure if I will be able to get in. So I'm really debated on where should I go. If I go to UBCO, that will be another 4 years of undergrad and graduate in 2026, if I choose to stay in Vancouver, I will finish my degree in 2022 and if I get accepted into UBCV BSN next year, I will graduate in 2025. I'm really hoping and would appreciate hearing your opinions!!

 

And just wanna say CONGRATULATIONS to all those who got into UBCV this year! You guys did an awesome job and wish you all the best in your journey at UBC. And for the people still on the waitlist, don't give up!! I hope all of you can achieve what you want to do!

 

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14 minutes ago, Jiawei said:

Hey guys. This might be totally unrelated but I have been kind of debating on what to do. I just finished my third year at UBC in food nutrition and health. I have applied to both UBCV and UBCO nursing. And I received the offer from UBCO and not from UBCV. I have been thinking if I should take the offer and go to UBCO for another 4 years of undergrad or I should finish my FNH degree first (which is next year), and try UBCV BSN again. I have talked to my friends and family and have received very divided opinions. I wanted to go to UBCV for nursing because it offers a 2 year accelerated program and it's close to my family and friends. Part of me wants to finish my current degree and apply for UBCV BSN next year, however, because I am international I'm not sure if I will be able to get in. So I'm really debated on where should I go. If I go to UBCO, that will be another 4 years of undergrad and graduate in 2026, if I choose to stay in Vancouver, I will finish my degree in 2022 and if I get accepted into UBCV BSN next year, I will graduate in 2025. I'm really hoping and would appreciate hearing your opinions!!

 

And just wanna say CONGRATULATIONS to all those who got into UBCV this year! You guys did an awesome job and wish you all the best in your journey at UBC. And for the people still on the waitlist, don't give up!! I hope all of you can achieve what you want to do!

 

Congratulations on getting into UBCO Nursing - I know it is a competitive program. I'm sorry to hear you didn't get into UBCV nursing this year, but don't give up!

I would say finish your undergraduate degree and apply to UBCV next year. I can't really speak to the odds of getting in as an international student - but it seems like that is what YOU really want to do, regardless of the opinions of your friends and family. It would be a great accomplishment to finish your undergrad and you can work on improving your application for next year ?  Best of luck making your decision.

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21 minutes ago, madss said:

Congratulations on getting into UBCO Nursing - I know it is a competitive program. I'm sorry to hear you didn't get into UBCV nursing this year, but don't give up!

I would say finish your undergraduate degree and apply to UBCV next year. I can't really speak to the odds of getting in as an international student - but it seems like that is what YOU really want to do, regardless of the opinions of your friends and family. It would be a great accomplishment to finish your undergrad and you can work on improving your application for next year ?  Best of luck making your decision.

Yeah, you are right, finish my degree would be a great accomplishment because I'm three years in this program and so close to graduation. But also I know that nursing is something that I want to do, not nutrition. So I was thinking is it really worth it for me to spend another year in my current degree while paying the international tuition and studying something that I no longer find myself have a passion for? Being an international student just worries me if I will be able to get accepted even if I improve my application next year because I know it's really competitive at UBCV.

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Hi Everyone,

I've seen a lot of comments about how to improve CASPER/Supplementals, so I thought I'd offer my thoughts. I was a first-time applicant, but I've applied to several competitive job positions throughout my undergrad and I've found some commonalities throughout all of them that I used when applying to nursing. In general, I've learned that more often than not, it's moreso a question of how well you market yourself rather than how strong your experience is (though both are obviously important!)

CASPER:

- Learn how to gameify the CASPER exam & make/follow a script. The markers are literally reading 100s of exams, and in my experience (as a TA) marking fatigue can set in REALLY easily and it's easy to miss details when you're trying to go fast. Because of this, you want to make it as easy as possible for them to see that you exhibit all of the 10 traits they look for. Part of this is reflected in the way you structure your response. For example, I'd always start out my responses by identifying what information I was missing (e.g. if someone wasn't pulling their weight in a group project, I'd note that I didn't know WHY they weren't doing their work & that I'd ask them before proceeding). Once I've identified what was missing, I'd then go on to talk about different options I'd take depending on the missing information and, time permitting, explained WHY I would take those options. Having a "script" also helped me stay calm during the exam, because even when the question threw me for a loop, I knew where I was going.

- Run through as many practice CASPER questions you can using the 3 question/5-minute format of the exam. The questions are all really similar to each other, so once you've figured out your script, it's all about getting your typing speed up and getting really familiar with yourself and your values. The more familiar you are, the faster you can get it out on an exam. I was typing around 65 wpm and I still left A LOT of questions incomplete- on the bright side, I guess that would also suggest that for the CASPER markers, quality > quantity, haha.

-Be Authentic to you, not to what you think they want to hear. Not only is this going to help you explain why you're doing what you're doing, but again, self-reflectivity is a major trait they're looking for in the CASPER exam. For example, in my case, it's a lot more believable that I would say "I saw my friend cheating in the exam. I don't think I would be able to report them specifically, but it would also feel wrong of me to let things go, so I would anonymously tell the professor that I saw some people cheating and let them decide on next steps" than "I saw my friend cheating on the exam. This is wrong, so I would tell them that I would report them if they did not confess, so they could at least have the opportunity to make things right themself."

 

Supplemental: 

- Be clear about your nursing goals and how your experience relates to them. Only one of the things I talked about was a traditional "healthcare" thing (long-term care). Everything else was either about research, basic non-profit volunteering (think communications and basic service provision, nothing too glamourous in its title), and my teaching assistantship. A lot of these seem kind of random & none of them were particularly "groundbreaking," but I brought all of them back to nursing by talking about my nursing goal (community outreach & policymaking/research) and how the skills they helped me develop would make me a good nurse. 

- Learn about the effects of colonization, racism & other social determinants of health. This is critical not only because UBC specifically asks you questions about your knowledge about the UNDRIP & TRC, but because healthcare itself is a major conduit of systemic racism- every single point I made in these sections tied back to health in some way, shape, or form. There's loads of studies about how even the most subtle forms of interpersonal racism/ overlooked forms of systemic racism can have severe effects on patient outcomes, and judging by their website, UBC Nursing is keen on addressing this. The self-awareness and initiative necessary to be a good ally are also necessary for being a good nurse, so regardless, researching these things is pretty important in ensuring you can do the best for all of your patients imo.

-Again, be authentic to you and talk about your passions. At the end of the day, I think that they recognize that nursing, in general, is a very difficult field, especially since UBC's program is SO condensed. Making it clear that you know exactly why you want to get into this program is critical imo, because it's super easy to burn out doing this kind of work under the pressure of a 20-month program

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21 minutes ago, Jiawei said:

Yeah, you are right, finish my degree would be a great accomplishment because I'm three years in this program and so close to graduation. But also I know that nursing is something that I want to do, not nutrition. So I was thinking is it really worth it for me to spend another year in my current degree while paying the international tuition and studying something that I no longer find myself have a passion for? Being an international student just worries me if I will be able to get accepted even if I improve my application next year because I know it's really competitive at UBCV.

Yeah, it's really understandable that you'd be on the fence. Would your LFS degree be relevant to the type of nursing you want to do? It might be helpful for post-grad, and as you said, you are super close. Granted, nursing is super competitive and you've said it's what you wanted to do so @.@;;; If it's any help, a friend of mine switched into nursing after her 3rd year and doesn't regret it, mainly because she's certain nursing is what she wants to do.

Also, I don't know if this is helpful because it seems kinda contradictory to me, but I just found this on the UBC-V website:

Quote

Any applicants who have either 48 transferrable credits or a recognized degree are treated equally in terms of the application process. Canadian citizens and permanent residents are given priority when offers are made for entry into the program.

 

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18 hours ago, futureRN1100 said:

I can tell you’re very dedicated and you’ll be a great nurse! You’ll have an extra year of life experience under your belt when you become a nurse! 

Thank-you for your kind words! ☺️ 

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