UMass Boston - ABSN Spring 2021

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I did not see a thread for this cohort, so everyone interested in this absn program please comment!

I want to apply for the Spring 2021 cycle. Does anyone know what the total tuition including housing, books etc would look like? Can anyone who did attend this program share what their total costs came down to? Would be super beneficial!

Can everyone who did/did not get in tell me their GPAs? (If you are comfortable enough). My BS GPA doesn’t meet the minimum, and I’m wondering if people DO get accepted in if every other part of their application is “strong” except for that one small portion. 

I’d rather not take the remaining prereqs if I don’t even have a chance at all without at least the min GPA......

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1 minute ago, baobun said:

May I ask for both your GPAs? I want to apply for next year but I’m afraid my GPA would hold me back and make my application not “strong.” 

My undergraduate GPA is a 3.6 and for prereqs I got a B in ap 1 and chem and everything else was A, around a 3.6 prereq GPA as well. I had 2 academic letters of rec and 1 professional. Don’t think my essay was the strongest however. 
good luck.

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@baobun I had a 3.4 GPA for my undergrad and a 3.7 for my pre-reqs and I did not get accepted.

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35 minutes ago, krism said:

My undergraduate GPA is a 3.6 and for prereqs I got a B in ap 1 and chem and everything else was A, around a 3.6 prereq GPA as well. I had 2 academic letters of rec and 1 professional. Don’t think my essay was the strongest however. 
good luck.

Ah I’m feeling a bit more discouraged. My GPA does not even compare. I don’t think I should finish the rest of the prereqs at this point....

33 minutes ago, efc1996 said:

@baobun I had a 3.4 GPA for my undergrad and a 3.7 for my pre-reqs and I did not get accepted.

It’s not looking that great for me at this point. Thank you for sharing! 

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37 minutes ago, baobun said:

Can everyone who did/did not get in tell me their GPAs? (If you are comfortable enough). My BS GPA doesn’t meet the minimum, and I’m wondering if people DO get accepted in if every other part of their application is “strong” except for that one small portion. 

I’d rather not take the remaining prereqs if I don’t even have a chance at all without at least the min GPA......

My undergrad GPA was a 3.2 and my prerequisite GPA was a 3.6. def not the most impressive GPAs but I still got accepted! I did spend a lot of time on my essay and had great letters of recommendation so I think they take those into consideration, not just your GPA! So I would definitely give it a shot, you never know.

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1 minute ago, IsabellaU said:

My undergrad GPA was a 3.2 and my prerequisite GPA was a 3.6. def not the most impressive GPAs but I still got accepted! I did spend a lot of time on my essay and had great letters of recommendation so I think they take those into consideration, not just your GPA! So I would definitely give it a shot, you never know.

My undergrad GPA is only 2.7, nowhere near the minimum. A lot of my Chemistry classes screwed me over, and it would take a lot of money to retake them to boost my GPA. Did you have academic or professional recs? I think I would be able to have decent recs because I used to work in the OR and knew the nurses there....I’m not really sure how to even ask about your essay, except the classic “what did you write about?” 

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My overall GPA was a 3.5 and my prerequisite GPA was a 4.0. I had two professional recommendations and one academic. I spent a lot of time on my essay.

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45 minutes ago, Fnp1977 said:

My overall GPA was a 3.5 and my prerequisite GPA was a 4.0. I had two professional recommendations and one academic. I spent a lot of time on my essay.

 

2 hours ago, baobun said:

My undergrad GPA is only 2.7, nowhere near the minimum. A lot of my Chemistry classes screwed me over, and it would take a lot of money to retake them to boost my GPA. Did you have academic or professional recs? I think I would be able to have decent recs because I used to work in the OR and knew the nurses there....I’m not really sure how to even ask about your essay, except the classic “what did you write about?” 

The essay prompt was, “What is a professional nurse?” My essay was broken into three paragraphs. The first paragraph more or less answered that question. I explained what a nurse does and the qualities that a person must have in order to succeed as a nurse. My second paragraph explained how my background lined up with the qualities mentioned above, and my third paragraph described why I want to be a nurse. The big challenge of this essay is the fact that you need to fit all of this information into only ~500 words.

I would not despair about your undergrad grades. You might be able to retake some of those classes. It shows the admissions committee that you are dedicated.

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23 minutes ago, Fnp1977 said:

 

The essay prompt was, “What is a professional nurse?” My essay was broken into three paragraphs. The first paragraph more or less answered that question. I explained what a nurse does and the qualities that a person must have in order to succeed as a nurse. My second paragraph explained how my background lined up with the qualities mentioned above, and my third paragraph described why I want to be a nurse. The big challenge of this essay is the fact that you need to fit all of this information into only ~500 words.

I would not despair about your undergrad grades. You might be able to retake some of those classes. It shows the admissions committee that you are dedicated.

Congratulations on your acceptance! I am so happy for you! This does make me feel a little hopeful, thank you for your words. I messaged the woman in charge of the program, and she mentioned that undergrad GPAs are usually set in stone, and that there might not be a chance to change the GPA unless I reach out to my university and see. That’s going to be a lot of classes for me to retake, so I am relying on having a strong prereq GPA to show my academic strength now. 

 

Sorry, this is off topic, you didn’t have to take your TEAS right? Is it waived for only this year or indefinitely? The lady didn’t answer my questions about that. 

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I was accepted! I'm so sorry to those who were not. As someone else mentioned, the world needs more caring nurses so do not give up! To those heading to MGH's program - I have heard it is an excellent program and that you will basically be guaranteed a job at MGH, which is incredible experience!

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4 hours ago, baobun said:

Can everyone who did/did not get in tell me their GPAs? (If you are comfortable enough). My BS GPA doesn’t meet the minimum, and I’m wondering if people DO get accepted in if every other part of their application is “strong” except for that one small portion. 

I’d rather not take the remaining prereqs if I don’t even have a chance at all without at least the min GPA......

I was accepted. I had a 3.5 undergrad GPA and 3.9 prereq GPA. I think the essay and recommendation letters were really important in this application especially because the TEAS was not required. One thing that I did that I think also helped was took accelerated Summer courses at Umass Boston this Summer (4 of my prereqs). I did well in them so I was hoping this would convey to admissions that I could do well in accelerated science courses at umass. One of my recommendation letters came from one of those professors. I tried to really connect with her on a personal level throughout the class, reaching out to her twice during the 7 weeks term to set up a zoom call to get to know each other. My other recommendation letter came from a Child Life Coordinator at MGH in the pediatric unit where I volunteered. I didn't think this letter would be very strong because I did not know her well, but I wanted the admissions committee to know the level of exposure that I had to nursing while I was there. 

As for the essay, I focused on student objectives that they included in their information session slides and just talked about how professional nurses carry those qualities (image attached). I tried to explain some personal experiences in short too, but really tried to focus on the topic of what is a professional nurse. 

I hope this is helpful to anyone applying or reapplying in the future. 

Program Statements.png
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3.7undergrad GPA

3.7 grad GPA

3.7 pre req

I got in as well. My essay was completely about what a professional nurse is. I didn't talk about myself . I literally stuck to the question about what a professional nurse is.  Most of the best info about what a professional nurse can be found at CCNE  (the accreditation agency's website).  I would recommend 1 academic and 1 professional recommendation and I think from what I heard TEAS were only waived for this cycle and are now required moving on so if you score well there it will boost your application. 

 

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