Is there anyone lurking who is planning to apply to the 2011 program?
I have spent the last 12 years in financial marketing/communications and am excited to try and change paths into nursing. I am currently taking my prerequisite courses at city college- stats and anatomy/physiology- and going in for the GRE Saturday. I'm volunteering at a children's hospital, which is causing me to consider the pediatric nurse practitioner track... I know UCSF is very competitive and it's a long-shot for someone like me to get in, but I feel like I have to try! If it doesn't happen next year, then I'll just keep building my volunteer experience and re-apply. Also on my mind is that if for some miracle I were to get in how I would pay for it.
But enough about me... what are some other candidates' takes on preperation, interests, anxieties, etc?
no, i haven't heard from UCSF if it's been officially fixed. it looks like it's not b/c i sent out a reminder invite to my recommenders today and they haven't submitted it yet. one of my recommenders emailed steven johnson and he gave her the link. she was able to successfully submit the LOR that way.
I emailed Steven Johnson myself with my concerns, and he ended up emailing 2 of my LOR people directly with their respective links.
As for people's questions on formatting, I believe it should be 12 pt standard (probably Times New Roman) with 1 inch borders on all sides. I know there's nothing specifically written about borders, but I wouldn't try to be sneaky on the chance that they bust out a ruler and think you're trying to sneak by the typical standards.
Man..I guess a lot of you guys are also having trouble submitting LORs. Some of my recommenders are telling me that the link provided by UCSF is working and some are not. I just called UCSF Nursing Student Affairs (415-476-1435) today and they told me that my recommenders need to attach the LOR to an email and send it to [email protected]. Since some of my recommenders were successful in submitting the LOR through the link provided by UCSF, I ended up asking rest of my recommenders to submit via attached email to Steven Johnson as well as to submit another one using the original instructions provided by UCSF. Hope this info is helpful for some of you also dealing with the same problem :).
Thank you for illustrating some very important points czyja. I'm not having problems with the goal statement, rather with the personal statement (which is supposed to capture your own diversities, adversities, and opportunities that will add to the MEPN program)--for this statement, there are no written guidelines on length but only heresay as to how long it should be.
You are welcome!
In all frankness I do not remember the personal statement exactly. I think there was something like "If you feel you need to add more about yourself, then go ahead and give us a little more..."If I wrote anything I probably kept it brief. I think they may have changed the application a little since I applied.
I am on campus tomorrow. I will see if Scott or Sheila are in their office. If they are I will try to get your question answered.
There were some comments by another poster about spacing, margins, etc. We use APA format at UCSF SON- and in nursing in general. You will be safe with 1 inch margins all round, and 12 pt Times New Roman (luckily, it is the most compact font). Note that MS Word usually defaults to 1.5 inch margins - so if you reset them to 1 inch you get considerably more space.
My research lab is right next to the classrooms. It has been brutally hot here so they had the doors open. Pan Bellefueille was teaching this years class of MEPNS. She is an astonishingly gifted teacher who teaches the intro to nursing stuff. You guys will love her!
Good luck everybody! A good number of the regular posters on my class thread got in. I think there may be a correlation to posting on all nurses and acceptance to MEPN.
I spoke with Sheila Proctor a minute ago - she is the assistant director of MEPN and she teaches community nursing (Great course BTW, I learned a lot). She said one double spaced page is good for the personal statement. "A paragraph is usually not enough, but we get tired of reading more than a page.."
To clarify, do you mean the history statement or the goal statement? I'm guessing the former. I think I've just finished mine and it's about one page double-spaced. So good to be toward the end of this process!
I've been lurking, but haven't posted yet, but have a burning question that maybe one of you can give me an answer to. Does anyone know what kind of format they use when contacting our LOR people, e.g. do they send them a form with questions to answer, or are our recommenders supposed to upload a 'cold' LOR that they have written themselves. I know I read somewhere in the instructions that for LOR, they would have the option to do a more question and answer format, which I feel is less taxing to recommenders than compiling a letter themselves.
Also, do all the letters have to be in before the appl. can be locked? I thought you could lock it, and then stuff keeps coming, e.g. transcripts, LOR, that they attach to our application.
I've already called several times for other questions and am afraid to keep calling! If I could get the answer here, that would be fab..
I've been lurking, but haven't posted yet, but have a burning question that maybe one of you can give me an answer to. Does anyone know what kind of format they use when contacting our LOR people, e.g. do they send them a form with questions to answer, or are our recommenders supposed to upload a 'cold' LOR that they have written themselves. I know I read somewhere in the instructions that for LOR, they would have the option to do a more question and answer format, which I feel is less taxing to recommenders than compiling a letter themselves.
Also, do all the letters have to be in before the appl. can be locked? I thought you could lock it, and then stuff keeps coming, e.g. transcripts, LOR, that they attach to our application.
I've already called several times for other questions and am afraid to keep calling! If I could get the answer here, that would be fab..
Thanks in advance for any help on this!
Lara
Welcome Lara,
Yes, there is a new format that they are doing this year for recommenders to do a question and answer survey, however, you can have your recommenders upload a letter of rec that they have written themselves if they prefer that method. This info is taken directly form the UCSF website:
"Beginning with the 2011 Cycle, we are encouraging recommenders to simply complete a short set of on-line survey questions instead of compiling and uploading a "letter of reference." Those who prefer the traditional letter can still use that option. Think about persons who know you well and know your work and volunteer activities. Get the contact information (email) for these individuals, they will be your best references."
That should answer your question, and as far as all the information being submitted before you lock your application, I would highly recommend it! They emphasized the importance of having letters, GRE scores, and recommendations sent early. On the application I think it even says make sure that you have submitted/uploaded all required information before locking your application.
DoulaMama
30 Posts
I haven't seen any guidelines about font, size, borders, etc. but I'm just assuming 12-pt font (any standard type) and normal borders...