UNF Summer 2009 Traditional Prelicensure Class - Introduce yourself! :-)

LouiseJakobsen · Mar 22, 2009

Well, I'm Louise... 21, female, living at the beaches (currently Jax Beach) for 17 years. I took my pre-reqs at FCCJ, so this will be my first semester at UNF. I am extatic to be a part of this nursing program. :yeah: I applied to UNF and FCCJ, haven't heard from FCCJ yet, but I am making my decision to be UNF either way. I guess I will go ahead and set up an appointment with my primary doc for a physical shortly after the RSVP deadline of April 3rd.

So I know this isn't that important, but does anyone know anything about parking at UNF? I guess I need to look into getting a parking pass... any tips?

I just wanted to do this so we could ask questions, answer questions and just to help one another out. Hopefully there are other applicants on this website that have chosen to attend UNF too! See ya May 7th!

mayam · Mar 31, 2009

Hey Louise87, do you know if community service is part of the clinical hours or do you have classes, clinicals and community service?

LouiseJakobsen · Mar 31, 2009

My understanding is they are all separate. Someone told me that in regards to community service that you are paired up with an organization such as American red cross or habijax etc and you pretty much work with them the entire two years. I do not think clinicals or classes are linked to community service... I could be wrong though :-)

mayam · Apr 1, 2009

I should call UNF. I wonder how much time is devoted to community service every week. BTW, I did as you said and pulled up the classes with my student number.

mayam · Apr 3, 2009

Well I declined the invite from UNF so hopefully some student is screaming their head off right now.

LouiseJakobsen · Apr 7, 2009

Well congrats on JU then :-) I had to decline some schools too. I felt bad about it lol

hope08281990 · Apr 19, 2009

Hello Louise,

I'm actually not part of the Summer 2009 UNF class, but I received my interview letter a couple of days ago from UNF for Fall. I am very nervous because I heard that the interview was very competitive and I'm not sure how to prepare/what kinds of questions will be answered. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hope

LouiseJakobsen · Apr 19, 2009

Hey Hope,

Congrats on the interview :-) So you didn't apply for the summer program, right? B/C I'll tell you the questions they asked me etc. So if you already went through a UNF interview already, you probably know most of what I will be telling you...

But so like 70 people have the same interview time. Mine was 8:30 in the morning. BTW get there early.. like 30 minutes prior.. you won't be the only one that is early. You walk up and give them your name and they tell you what group number you are (I was 8 lol). Then I walked into one of the rooms where groups 1-9 or so were meeting. We were all split up into our groups and waited for the rest of our group to show up. Each group had two current UNF nursing students talking to us. They were mainly there to try and calm us down in regards to the interview and just answer any questions we had. But in each group there was about 5 interviewees. The people being interviewed got to talk to each other too at this time. Try and remember their names so you can say "you agreed with what Louise said but in addition to that....." uknow? All the people in my group were super nice.

So then I think the director, dean and beth dibble come in and speak to all of us and tell us we are not competing against the other people in our one small group. So don't try and sound better than the people in your group, just be yourself and the best you can be etc. All 5 in your group can be accepted into the program, or maybe just 2 or maybe none. So don't compete with them directly..... What happens is, after all the interviews are done the interviewers fill out a scantron with your name on it and rank you on qualities etc. Then they rank you from highest scoring to lowest (against every other person who interviewed). The top 48 for the traditional are chosen and the top ranked 24 for the accelerated are chosen. So 72 people total were chosen and about 140 people got to the interview process. Of course there is a waiting list too of like 15 people. If someone declines to go to UNF, they go to #49 etc...

So after the dean and all the other people talked to us in the large group, we were taken by our current UNF students to our group rooms. We walked in and there was an oval table in the room with three interviewers sitting at it. They were just randomly sitting down, so it went interviewer, hopeful, int., hope, hope, intv, hope, hope. so it wasn't like you had three interviewers staring you down the whole time, they were next to you as well.. it kind of made it a more casual atmoshpere.

They introduced themselves to us and told us once again not to be competetitive and that there was no order in answering questions... like if you knew what you wanted to say, just speak up and go first. If you needed time to think of an answer, let a couple other people go first. But I would recommend not being the last person to answer EVERY time. So then they asked us to introduce ourselves... anything you want... name, where you work, where you are from, something you like to do... anything really. Then they asked us five questions. They vary every year... but ours were, in no particular order...

1. Why do you want to be a nurse?

2. How do you handle stress?

3. If we asked your former boss or teacher your best three characteristics, what would they say?

4. What is the hardest thing you have had to do in your life and how did you get through/overcome it?

5. I forgot the last one!!!!!! sorry :-/ if it comes to me I'll post it.

So we all answered questions #1, then went on... once we finished the questions they asked US if we had any questions. HAVE A QUESTION READY!!!!!!! AND GO FIRST WITH YOUR QUESTION!!! In case someone asks the same question LOL. I didn't have one ready, everyone else had asked a question and then everyone's heads turned towards me. I was like OH CRAP and thankfully I am quick on my toes and asked a question. Don't let your question be a silly one, make it count. Research the UNF nursing site and see what they are about etc. My favorite question asked in my group was something like this, "So you asked us how we handle stress, does UNF have any programs or clubs in place to help us learn to deal with the stresses associated with nursing school in a better manner?". I asked a question about community service involvement, a guy asked how many people who finish the program go on to become a more specialized nurse (NP, CRNA etc) and if UNF supported that.

Overall, you should practice answers to possible questions. Even if they word the question a little differently, you should be able to mold your answer for the question. Have 4-5 characteristics of yourself in mind to use during the interview and examples to go with them but mix them up too... you may be a good multi-tasker like at work when you have to [insert here what you do] but also compassionate when you [insert answer here] etc.. Definently have ONE weakness in mind, but if you use one that is an actual serious weakness, back it up by telling them how you have fixed it or are working on fixing it. But don't do a weakness like "I care too much for my own good" my dad was VP of a division of Johnson & Johnson so he always did interviews and he never hired someone who tried to make themselves have a good characteristic as their weakness. So because of that I didn't practice a good characteristic as my answer, that is up to you though... Or you could do a funny weakness, like your weakness is your handwriting because it is so sloppy that no one can read it but then again that may not be good because then doctors can't read it lol

Just be genuine, honest, and most importantly YOURSELF. Show them you are genuinely interested in the program and that it is your goal to become a nurse.

And dress in nice attire. Business casual uknow? I wore a light brown pant with off white pin stripes and an off white top. Try not to bring a purse, you don't need it... maybe a small one for your keys. I didn't bring anything. I was dropped off because I flew in from Colorado for the interview so obviously my car was still in Colorado.

Here is a link from a forum on here... it has a bunch of interview questions

https://allnurses.com/general-nursing-student/can-we-make-88629.html

or google "nursing school interview questions" or something like that.

Hope this helps, let me know any other questions you may have.

hope08281990 · May 7, 2009

Sorry I haven't been responding, I've been busy busy busy with finals and stuff recently. Thanks so much Louise. I appreciate you helping me with this. It is so nerve racking especially since the interview is in like exactly 2 weeks. I was wondering how I could wear my hair professionally. My hair is fairly long and I was wondering how I could make it look like I wasn't still in H.S. lol

If I do get accepted, I would love to meet you and thank you for all your help

Hope.

LouiseJakobsen · May 7, 2009

Understandable, you have to do well in your current classes too! :-)

So like you, I have long hair as well (least people tell me that... my hair is like to the xiphoid process on your ribs). Honestly, I just wore my hair my normal way... blow dried it straight and then I decided to take my "side-way" bangs and clip them up into one of those very discrete "bumps"... not big at all.

I dont know about you, but I feel with long hair it is harder to wear it up and look professional... Most girls I saw there just had their hair down BUT their bangs out of their face, so it wasn't like they were trying to hide behind them lol.

Yeah, that would be great to meet you! Like I said, at your interview there are current UNF students... I got an e-mail asking if I wanted to be there but I have a class at that time :-( If you need anything else just let me know... we actually have our summer orientation TODAY!!! So I am just a few steps ahead of you, trust me, I wish I had someone to ask a 1,000 questions to right about now! lol. Good luck at the interview and let me know how it goes :-) You'll do great. Just stay relaxed, smile and answer honestly