Is anyone applying to the Fall 2012 program ? I have a few questions and I think it would be good to share our concerns regarding the application process here.
I am a preschool teacher and I am applying for 2012. Have very little healthcare volunteer experience and wondering if that really maters. I have some experience looking after a family member who had a stomach surgery and chemo.
First years- thank you for the encouragement as well as giving us a glimpse of what next quarter could look like for the rest of us. We are all eager to receive positive decisions from the university and some of us are very anxious during this waiting process. Would you give us an idea of your professional/educational background? Will you share some of the background of other first year students in the program? GPA, major, school, past career, if exposure to healthcare, etc that that played a role in the admissions process.
We have a plethora of backgrounds from people who have worked in healthcare for a long time to people with no experience whatsoever. That is not the deciding factor so do not worry. They want well rounded individuals who don't just have great GPAs or just healthcare experience. We are all different ages, some of our class is right out of college, some mid to late 20s, a bunch of us in our 30s and a handful of even older people. We have a good amount of men (probably 15) and I believe it grows each year. I myself was waitlisted and I got in. I had a decent undergrad GPA, a very high GPA for my other Master's (Master's of Public Health), a ton of volunteer experience, and had been working in hospitals and healthcare management for four years along with a ton of volunteer experience. They told me the waitlist was because they only look at your undergrad PREREQ GPA and mine was about 3.3 (I partied a little too hard 10 years ago in college) but my undergrad GPA all together was 3.7 sothe PREREQ GPA it was a little lower than those who were accepted straight away but all of the other stuff helped me. It's not just about a great GPA or a ton of healthcare experience. They are looking for individuals with passion and drive. I honestly sympathize with your eagerness and anxiety. I basically harrassed my mailman everyday for months. However, I believe they went to like #27 on the waitlist bc alot of people are also accepted at other Programs that may have been their first choices. And once you get it, it doesn't matter how you got in! So do not worry. God willing you get in, it is worth every minute of the anxiety that you are experiencing now.
Also, don't worry if you still have prereqs to take. I still had 3 when I applied and they just wanted to see my transcripts from those as I went along. But do try to get As in those as you take them to show that you are ready and can handle the type of work.
Thank you so much for taking the time to respond to my request. I greatly appreciate your words of encouragement and I look forward to having cohortmates like you, wherever I may attend for school. Reading your post and some of previous years' posts, I realize that there is no perfect formula to this admissions process. I do feel good about my academic and professional background, all done with the prereqs, too, but who knows what the applicant pool looks like this year and how the faculty decides to shape the cohort.
You put it best by saying, "God willing you get in, it is worth every minute of the anxiety that you are experiencing now." You're absolutely right. If I get admitted, studying in the program will feel that much more valuable. There is a purpose to everything. This waiting period and learning to be patient will help us all to be successful in the future. God willing, I'll get admitted to a program and become a nurse. ... and I hope it's at UCLA.
Thanks again for joining the forum and contributing your thoughts!
Someone asked earlier about the deadline for sending in transcripts, and I have personal experience with this that I wanted to share. They notified me that I needed to send in my transcript for Fall Quarter 2011 January 20th. I'm embarrassed to say that I was just procrastinating on sending it because I figured they weren't even looking at the applications yet; luckily, I think I was right. Still, that's about the end of procrastination if I get into this program (crosses fingers).
Aside from this bit of procrastinating, here are my other stats:
B.S. in Bio from UCLA - departmental honors - 3.7 GPA
Interned at Planned Parenthood as Sexual Health Educator for a school year
Worked at Planned Parenthood as medical assistant for a year - received an award
Volunteer occasionally with Planned Parenthood still
Strong personal statement and rec letters (from an N.P. friend/mentor (works at UCLA), an N.P. coworker (Planned Parenthood), and the director of the education program at Planned Parenthood).
The main problems that I see in my application are that I don't have a 4.0 undergrad GPA like I am afraid many applicants probably did, and I have an even lower GPA for my prerequisites (3.6) than for my undergraduate education.
Also, a lot is riding on this application. Due to financial reasons, UCLA was the only school I applied to. If I don't get in, then next year it will be too late for some of my prerequisites (which I took in 2007 at community college before I transferred), and I'd have to take three of those over again, and I just don't even know how I'd do that at this late stage since I'm working and busy all Spring and Summer too.... :(
Anyways, good luck to everyone, I wish that we could all get in!!!
Oh, and I called the office today and they told me that there were 460 people who applied and they are admitting 60 people. And seriously, that's a great acceptance rate compared to last year. Last year they had over 600 people apply!! Also, from what I've read in threads for previous years they have about 40 people on the waitlist, and anywhere from 10-20 of them end up getting in. As far as last year went, a girl who was 12th on the WL got notification the third week of March. However, considering that we have less people applying,and therefore less people dropping out of the program before it starts, the WL situation will probably be a little more harrowing for us. Also, the Fall 2009 applicants had apparently 21 people from the WL taken, so that's a huge amount when you consider that the cohort is only 60. Anyone else get any juicy tidbits of info?
Anyways, I'm losing a bit of sleep over here, but not freaking out TOO much yet. Hope you're all doing well. I'm glad this thread got started so we could share out experiences/questions/etc :)
:(
AuntySam
20 Posts
First years- thank you for the encouragement as well as giving us a glimpse of what next quarter could look like for the rest of us. We are all eager to receive positive decisions from the university and some of us are very anxious during this waiting process. Would you give us an idea of your professional/educational background? Will you share some of the background of other first year students in the program? GPA, major, school, past career, if exposure to healthcare, etc that that played a role in the admissions process.