UNF {University of North Florida} Preparing for the interview

juliesnow · Mar 13, 2013

How to get into UNF Brooks School of Nursing:

Complete your pre-reqs and strive for all A’s. This counts for 400 points which is simply the GPA x 100. So if you have a 3.85 GPA on your pre-reqs, you get 385 points. [Overall GPA mearly qualifies you for the program but is not considered beyond that. Overall should be a minimum of 2.90]
Take the TEAS V. It is very important to make the highest score possible. This counts for the second 400 points towards an invitation. You total the scores on each sub-section by just dropping the decimal and adding. So if you got 96.5%, 90.3%, 78.8%, and 83.2% your score would be 348.8 out of a possible 400 points.
To get an invite for the interview you should strive to score over 700, but it can be as low as 680. The interview now becomes 50% of your evaluation. TEAS V is 35%, GPA is 14%, and having an associates for your general education gives you the last 1%. Dress professionally and practice your interview skills.

juliesnow · Mar 13, 2013

This was posted in another forum by a current UNF nursing student (at the time)
Her information was really helpful.
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.

I think a lot of people found this post helpful

juliesnow · Mar 14, 2013

Admission Stats from Summer 2012

Copied from Nursing Admissions Facebook:
Accelerated track admission offers: 27; 26 females, 1 male Avg prereq GPA 3.76; max 4.00; min 3.30
Avg TEAS 356; max 392; min 330
Avg interview score 394 (out of 400)
Regular track admission offers: 45; 32 females, 13 males
Avg prereq GPA 3.77; max 4.00; min 3.42
Avg TEAS 334; max 366; min 302
Avg interview score 393 (out of 400)
Waiting list offers (good through start of classes on 5/9/12): 31 ACPL and RPL mixed (no, we don't reveal rank)
Avg prereq GPA 3.77; max 4.00; min 3.39
Avg TEAS 326; max 367; min 287
Avg interview score 365 (out of 400)
Denials: 46
Avg prereq GPA 3.74; max 4.00; min 3.34
Avg TEAS 323; max 370; min 276
Avg interview score 235 (out of 400; affected by outlier of "0" score)

NurseAMK · May 13, 2013

Best of luck everyone! Looking at applying here!