UMDNJ here i come!

Congratulations!! I am in the OLLMC/UMDNJ program. Drop me a PM if you have any questions.

congrats your hard work and dedication paid off

Congrats on your entry

A little persistence and some hard work always pays off in the end

Well done! You just needed a few interviews to get your technique down!

Congratulations!!!

First of all CONGRATULATIONS!!

I am really interested in applying there for 9/06. Any tips on what helped you secure a placement? What was the interview like?

Any information you can provide would be much appreciated.

Good luck for the start of your career!

Is UMDNJ planning to close their program? Cause that's what I heard through the rumor mill.

There seem to be two programs in NJ (UMDNJ) one in Newark and the other in Camden. Camden's program is affilitated with Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center. This one according to AANA's wedsite is on probation. If this information is correct, how does this affect current and incoming students? I would strongly advise anyone who has applied or considering applying to the latter program to thoroughly research the status of the program.

The program in Stratford did not accept any students this year. Their new affiliate school i have been told will be Drexel.

The program at UMDNJ affiliated with University Hospital in Newark is a new program. This is the second class it has accepted.

Is UMDNJ planning to close their program? Cause that's what I heard through the rumor mill.

Our Lady of Lourdes program will be joining with Drexel for the new incoming class. Final details of the new program are being worked out. The program has had it's site visit from the Council of Accreditation and are awaiting a final decision. We have been told that things look good and they expect to be interviewing for a new class in the next couple of months. The Council will not meet again until May but if they give the nod to the school to start the interview process, then things look pretty good.

I will say that the probation has nothing to do with the quality of education at OLLMC. They had some administrative issues and a few disgruntled students that got them in trouble. The program has made all the changes that they needed to, has a new director, and will have a new university affiliate for the future classes. My classmates and I are getting an excellent education and great clinical experiences. I had the choice of 3 CRNA programs and even with all the issues going on, I am still glad I decided to go to this school.

There has been a lot of changes in the past year and it has created a lot of extra stress for us students.....like anesthesia school was not stressful enough already :chuckle

We have couple sayings that we live by:

"What does not kill us, makes us stronger!"

" Just keep swimming...just keep swimming!"

We have a couple more, but I'm tired and can't think of them.

erwersrt

The interview at Our Lady of Lourdes Anesthesia program is now in panel format. They bring in each candidate individually to meet with the panel that consists of the Director and Asst. Director of the program, the Medical Director, the Director of Drexel's program and sometimes a couple more CRNAs or MDAs. They ask typical admission questions " Why do you want to be a CRNA?" ect. and some clinical questions on hemodynamics ect.

Potential students then take an exam that is a mix of ICU type clinical questions. The exam is not really used in the decision unless they need a tie-breaker. The exam is really hard and most people do not do well.(which is expected)

Then, candidates spend some time with a couple of student reps to ask questions and get the "REAL" story about the program. I spent the past 2 years as a rep.

I think the program is as good as any. As with all programs, they have there weaknesses but also their strengths. You will get excellent clinical experience and become independant very early. THe CRNAs there are excellent and the Docs as well. They have added some new clinical sites which has improved the variety of experience and allowed them to accept more students.

In my opinion, the biggest weakness is lack of good pediatric experience. I met my numbers but not by much, so I'm not that comfortable with kids.

But overall, I felt I got an excellent education. I felt prepared for boards and passed without too much stress. There will always be people who love their program and others who hate it. If you keep a positive attitude and suck it up when things are going your way, you will do fine.

So far, my class has a 100% pass rate on the boards! I can't complain.

PM me if you have specific questions.