UCLA MECN FALL 2013

eoneill · Mar 9, 2013

I was told that those who were accepted have until march 22nd to confirm their decision. so i assume around that day is when waitlisted people will begin to hear back.

mlilley · Mar 11, 2013

who did you e-mail to confirm your spot? Thanks!

35572vb703 · Mar 12, 2013

@ SDBruin: Thanks for the info! I'm gonna start looking at places these next couple weeks.

@ Eli19T: I have a Bachelors of Science degree, volunteered at a community health clinic for four years, have close to three years of experience in human subjects research, talked about my career goals as a nurse and how my experiences have prepared me for the CNL role, and strong letters of rec. I had several people give me feedback on my personal statement and that was very helpful. It might be helpful to read up on the CNL role and talk about why you want to take on that role. I wish you the best this coming year!!

I never got an email from the graduate division, but I logged into my account at gradadmissions.ucla and saw the official letter there. For those that haven't gotten an email, try logging in to your account to check your admission status. You might see your official letter.

sc24 · Mar 12, 2013

Finally got the official letter :)

@eli19t: UCLA alum with several years experience as an admin asst within the nursing dept at RR UCLA hospital. I didn't have a competitive overall GPA but my prereq GPA was around a 3.8. Since I lacked in GPA, I had to focus on my LORs and statement. I had excellent LORs, with one being from my dept director at RRUMC. I also focused on my statement to express my interest in nursing with emphasis in community based public health.

For those of you applying or reapplying for next year, I highly suggest you find some type of clinical experience (Cna, lab tech, unit admin asst) that allows you to work or volunteer alongside nurses. It will not only help you out during nursing school but it will set you apart from the pool of qualified applicants. Just an FYI, UCLA offers a clinical internship program known as the Care Extender program that allows you to volunteer alongside nurses and docs at several units in the hospital (med-surg, cardiothoracic, er, etc) which gives you decent experience. From my understanding, it is open to non-ucla students as well and varies in length.

Trust me, GPA is important but isn't everything, I am living proof of that!

Good luck to everyone :)

suffersfoolsnot · Mar 12, 2013

Hello all. Congrats to all of u that got accepted. If you guys don't mind, will you please tell us the non-accepted your background and what you talked about in your statement of purpose? Maybe this will help us for next year. Most of my healthcare experience is from volunteering and internships as a MA and phlebotomist. I currently work in a cord blood bank. I honestly thought my statement and background was strong enough to get accepted. Apparently UCLA didn't think so :-(

Thanks for your post. I'm in the same boat and would really like to hear from those who were accepted.

suffersfoolsnot · Mar 12, 2013

Finally got the official letter :)
@eli19t: UCLA alum with several years experience as an admin asst within the nursing dept at RR UCLA hospital. I didn't have a competitive overall GPA but my prereq GPA was around a 3.8. Since I lacked in GPA, I had to focus on my LORs and statement. I had excellent LORs, with one being from my dept director at RRUMC. I also focused on my statement to express my interest in nursing with emphasis in community based public health.
For those of you applying or reapplying for next year, I highly suggest you find some type of clinical experience (Cna, lab tech, unit admin asst) that allows you to work or volunteer alongside nurses. It will not only help you out during nursing school but it will set you apart from the pool of qualified applicants. Just an FYI, UCLA offers a clinical internship program known as the Care Extender program that allows you to volunteer alongside nurses and docs at several units in the hospital (med-surg, cardiothoracic, er, etc) which gives you decent experience. From my understanding, it is open to non-ucla students as well and varies in length.
Trust me, GPA is important but isn't everything, I am living proof of that!
Good luck to everyone :)

sc24, thanks so much for your detailed response! I really appreciate the info about the UCLA volunteer opportunity. Good luck next year!

nextway55 · Mar 12, 2013

Sc24

When did you send the intent email to them? I sent it last Wednesday and they replied to me by the end of Last Friday. And the email says I need to wait 7-10 days to receive the email from graduate division and I need t register it.

I just checked online status. Still no updated info. I wonder when I will be able to see the official letter. Thanks

sc24 · Mar 12, 2013

@suffersfoolsnot- you're welcome, good luck to you :)

@nextway55- I submitted my SIR this morning :) I'm sure your status will update very soon, good luck!

35572vb703 · Mar 12, 2013

Has anyone signed up for the BYU Epi course or plan on signing up? I'm hoping to get a sense of what the workload looks like.

Thanks for the help guys!

samas · Mar 13, 2013

I haven't received the official email either, and still no change on the online status. I will probably wait till Thursday to call the School of Nursing because that's the 10 day mark for me.

mina80 · Mar 15, 2013

Hi Eli19t

Im a senior and I will graduate this June with a BS in biology. There is someone else in the thread that spoke about how GPA is important but how this person did not have a stellar GPA, yet the individual was accepted. I will second this person's opinion because my GPA was also pretty low, yet I was also accepted.

In my statement, I spoke about personal experiences I have had with nurses and the role nurses play in an inpatient and outpatient setting. I emphasized my leadership skills but I did not focus on the CNL role because I want to be a nurse-scientist. Since my goal is to be an RN-PhD, I wrote about my research experience and how it relates to nursing.

UCLAMECN · Mar 16, 2013

Hi everyone - congrats for those of you who got in and keep at it for those of you who did not. I'm a current MECN and just wanted to pass along some information anonymously to get you in the right mind set for the upcoming 2 years. Hold on to your hats, class of 2015! Don't come in to it thinking that it's going to be an amazing experience - because mostly - it's not. Sure, it's great to help patients in clinical - and occasionally you'll have a professor who rocks your world, but for the most part it is not great. This is how nursing schools across the board are (I hear) so it's not a UCLA or Cal State or CDU thing. UCSF has its problems, UCLA has its problems too. It's just a nursing school thing. So just temper your enthusiasm and then you won't be that disappointed. I know it seems pessimistic, but it's just...well, true. Sooo... yes, you got in - woo! And yep, you'll have UCLA on your resume, which is better than having CDU on your resume (IMHO) BUT don't count on the experience being world and life-changing. Also, you need to NOT be timid with faculty. If there's something that isn't working or if the class is struggling, you need to speak up. What you'll learn very quickly is that as much as we need to advocate for patients, we need to also advocate for ourselves. Good luck!