UCLA MECN Fall 2014?

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Hi- Is anyone applying to UCLA's MECN program for next fall?

Hi everyone!

This is my first post ever....

I also applied to the MECN program at UCLA for a Fall 2014 start. I will look on other forums, but does anyone know the average GPA of accepted students? I heard that your undergraduate degree isn't as important as the specific prerequisites that they require (micro, physio, english, etc etc). That is good news for me, because I made more B's than A's in my undergraduate degree. It's also somewhat bad news, because I have B's in both required English classes. I was an undergraduate and we are all different students as undergrads. Anyway, I wanted to share a little about myself and my application to contribute to a general understanding of the applicants.

My bachelors degree is in Fine Arts from the University of Oklahoma. I spent one year abroad in London during my time at OU. I wasn't truly dedicated academically, because my GPA was somewhere around 3.4 or 3.5. I got accepted into a Masters of Fine Arts program at California College of the Arts in San Francisco. There, I received the only school-wide scholarship in Graduate Fine Arts. So, hopefully, UCLA will see that I can indeed excel at the graduate level!

Anyway, throughout my entire undergraduate career, I struggled with the pull I was feeling from nursing. I kind of ignored the feeling, but every year like clock work, I would come back to the idea of switching to nursing. After my first year of the MFA program, I was at an emotional dead-end. I finally recognized that my heart wanted me to be a nurse and quit the program. I moved to LA, enrolled in my science prereqs and have made A's in all my science classes! So, my overall GPA right now is probably around 3.6 or 3.7.

I do have volunteer experience at a Clinical Care Extender intern at Glendale Adventist Medical Center. The program requires a minimum of 280 hours to graduate plus three rotations. By the end of it all, I will have more than 350 hours of volunteer experience helping CNAs, LVNs and RNs take vitals, bathe patients, feed them, spend time with them etc. It's a GREAT internship..if anyone is thinking about applying to UCLA later on, look up COPE Health Solutions! They head the internship at several different hospitals.

For my statement, I decided to focus on what brought me to nursing, what I've done since I realized I wanted to be a nurse, and how UCLA's MECN program is critical to my future. That's basically what they've asked for per their website.

I am also applying to CSUN's Accelerated BSN (ABSN) and CSULA's Entry-Level Masters in Nursing (ELMN). UCLA is my number one choice right now.

Love

Robyn

P.S. I am completing speech, life-span psych and intro to sociology right now. Next term, I need to take the required Chemistry class. I took one at West LA College that, while it does transfer, is not acceptable to the MECN program. If accepted to UCLA, I'll take the epidemiology class in the summer of 2014.

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Thanks, ceecoxy! :)

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I did Care Extenders at UCLA Santa Monica too, also in Oncology! That's what my volunteer hour question was about earlier, lol. Before nursing pre-reqs, I worked in marketing and PR and had nothing to do with healthcare, so I think making a case for committing one year of volunteer hours in a medical setting is going to be helpful. At least I hope it will! Good luck!!

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Before this internship, I had zero experience in healthcare. I didn't even know what a commode was :sarcastic:

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Looks like everyone is very highly qualified for the program which makes me even more nervous!! Btw: ShirleyRex - what were your favorite rotations with Care Extenders? I am finishing ONCO this week and I am supposed to do Med-Surge next but I am hoping to switch as I heard that rotation has the least to do (i.e. only answering phones). I have gotten to have so much patient interaction on the ONCO floor that I dread sitting at phones for 4 hours/week. (Though of course I will do it if I must!)

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ShirleyRex and Ceecoxy, I'm doing care extenders too! I just finished up at the CCU (which I HIGHLY recommend Ceecoxy - I saw a ton of procedures like intubations, central line insertions etc) and I'm heading to peds next week! Can't wait!

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Peppymint - before I read your response I got switched to CCU! What a coincidence. I guess they had one opening left. Yesterday was my last ONCO shift and we had a Rapid Response on our floor - I saw another CE there and she told me she loved CCU. She was able to see a lot of procedures too! Anyway, I am so relieved. Every time I have a shift I have to put my 2 kids somewhere and it costs me money so I definitely don't want to be sitting there doing nothing for 4 hours while I pay someone to watch my kids. I have been able to stay busy in ONCO by just pacing the floor and helping patients/care partners as much as possible. You really can't wait to be asked to do things - you almost have to have your hand out ready to grab something. Ok. I'm about to read over my statement of purpose for the 1,000th time and submit. Btw: Peds sounds great!! You've gotten exciting rotations, Peppymint! ShirleyRex - what rotations did you like best?

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Just submitted my UCLA application! I'm excited :) Good luck to everyone!

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@ceecoxy - I really liked ONCO; so much so that I stayed for three of my four rotations! Now that I'm reading Peppymint's post, I wish I had thrown in the CCU rotation, too. I stuck around on ONCO because I got along with the staff and really admired the relationships they had with their patients. My first rotation was at Ronald Reagan in the cardiothoracic unit. I don't recommend that one!

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Submitted my UCLA application last night!! Now the waiting game!

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It's going to be such a long wait...:eek::( I don't look forward to it!

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Specializes in Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner.

Submitted my application this afternoon.

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