2018 UPenn BSN/MSN

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Greetings fellow 2018 UPenn BSN/MSN applicants! Just thought I could start a thread for the incoming applicants so we can help each other out through the application process.

Does anyone know if we need to submit separate transcripts for study abroad programs if it's already clearly stated on our official undergraduate transcript? Thanks! : )

@Midwifelife So you're going for the BSN/MSN cohort? I heard after I interviewed back in November they were going to tell the MSN only before the December Holidays. I'm wondering if this is still the case. Makes me really nervous! I know they're accepting 18 students for the MSN only portion, seems like the majority are going to the direct-entry students.

Yes, I'm going for the BSN/MSN track. So I'm not sure when they will let you know. Sorry!

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Specializes in Midwife, OBGYN.

Since my interview went on for so long I received some more information about the program. Once I consolidate my notes will post so all the NM applicants can read as well.

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Specializes in Midwife, OBGYN.

Okay folks this is going to be a long post so bear with me. The interviewer and I talked for an hour so a lot of different topics were covered. I am sure a lot of this was covered at the in person interview so for those of you that went to the in person interview, you can probably skip my post as well.

1) Admissions Process

I got a pretty extensive overview of their admissions process, this is specific to NM so for those that are not NM, this might not be of interest to you so feel free to skip this post as this post will be almost exclusively NM focused.

The NM faculty have no say in whether or not those of us in the ABSN/MSN portion get accepted to the ABSN portion of the program. That is the domain of the undergraduate admissions office and graduate faculty doesn't get to decide on whether we get accepted to the ABSN. Their focus is the MSN and the graduate portion of the program. So that being said, if we are denied entry into the ABSN then that is it, even if the faculty want us to join their program without being granted acceptance into the ABSN program and being able to obtain RN licensure, we will not be granted admission.

For those of us granted admission to ABSN then the NM/WH faculty will decide who will be admitted under the midwifery/women's health specialty. But again there are caveats. Since UPenn accepts applicants from multiple entry streams admission is highly competitive (which we all already knew) because you are getting applicants from not only ABSN/MSN but MSN Direct Entry as well as post master applicants.

For those of us in our ABSN year, we are immediately assigned a midwifery faculty advisor who will get to know us throughout our ABSN year and will help to make recommendations for us on our behalf. This can encompass placement in clinicals, areas of aptitude, areas of weakness, where we have our integration in our final year etc. But we will also get to ask them for advice, get introduced to the faculty through our advisor, attend functions, and basically help us network throughout our first year and to meet other students who might be in the program but are doing the program part time. They emphasized heavily to me that it is a community and they want to make sure the midwifery community is tight knit and that everyone knows everyone and supports each other.

But if you are granted admission only to ABSN but not the MSN, do not lose hope! There is a very good chance you can reapply during the end of your first year to MSN and get in and you will have had your advisor with you that year so you will still have the benefit of the interaction with the midwifery specialty and faculty. So if you are accepted to ABSN, you can still accept and then try to get into the midwifery specialty through that route.

2) Number of Applicant Invited to Interview and Number Accepted for Admission

So this is where the numbers get a bit murky even my interviewer wasn't entirely sure on the numbers but this is what was relayed to me. My interview told me that around 30ish people were invited to interview since I didn't ask if it was in person or by phone I think in this case she meant phone interview which I think jives with what MidwifeLife said in her post about there being 30 people for the in person interview for a total of approx 60 people. From experience with other universities, schools will normally invite twice the number of interviewees they are planning on accepting so those of us that received an invitation to interview should already be proud of yourselves since my interviewer told me that we were already selected out of a much larger pool of applicants. I didn't ask how big that pool was this year but my impression was the pool was very large.

The NM/WH faculty will select then 16 for NM and 16 for WHNP for a total cohort of 32 candidates between NM and WH. Which means that out of 60 interviewees, only 16 spots are available for NM applicants. The interviewer I think said the ratios change each year but that is the approx number.

3) Clinical Sites and Placement

I can confirm that Penn will provide our clinical placement sites for us and yes they will ask our input and preferences. For the majority of clinical sites, they have a very long standing relationship with those sites and I believe that some of the faculty also work at these locations which is why the sites themselves are well vetted. So the quality of what we will learn at those sites will not be in doubt.

Some of the sites can be as far away as 2 hours outside of Philadelphia so we will all need to have driver's licenses (if you are currently not licensed to drive, start getting that process started now) and have access to a car either renting, using Zipcar, or bring your own car to campus. I asked about carpooling and she said that it is rare as most sites will only have 1 student midwife per site.

Once we are licensed there will be additional costs. I will elaborate on those costs in the next section but for now since our clinical placements can be 2 hours outside of Philadelphia we might end up in Delaware or New Jersey which means that we will have to apply for licensure in those two additional states if we want to be able to practice at the clinical placement sites in those two states if we are so assigned. Delaware is a compact state but my interviewer couldn't explain to me why we couldn't go through that route to have our licenses recognized. But there is a reason. We will have to find out when we get into the program.

4) Additional Costs

We are required to have a car which I mentioned above but we will also need to budget for the following. RN licensure fees for both NJ and Deleware in addition to Pennsylvania. It will run us a few hundred dollars especially for the NJ license. We also need to have a laptop, a tablet will NOT suffice. We will also need to budget to pay for admission to the ACNM. This is required as we will attend the ACNM annual conference where we will network with the other midwives from around the country. Not only that the conference lasts a few days so we will also need to budget for travel and accommodation as well and they have held the ACNM as far away as Alaska and as close to Philadelphia itself so plan accordingly. It is at a different city each year for a total of 5 days. During that time all lectures and clinicals are suspended for all NM students.

5) Nurse Residency Program

Yes, they have them but my interviewer didn't know much about them so we will have to find out more once we are admitted.

6) International Nursing Opportunities

There are two official programs. One to Guatemala to work with the local midwives and one to Thailand for educational purposes and specialty knowledge exchange. We can find out more once we are admitted. They have also sent students to NZ, Saipan, and the Caribbean.

7) Skills Learned

The reason I applied to Penn was because they weren't just going to teach us nursing theory but we will also get to learn practical skills to better serve our patient populations. So we will learn how to read sonograms, IUD insertions, Nexplanon implantation, pap smears. I also asked about abortion and we will learn about aspiration abortions but we will NOT be trained how to do them. If we are interested there are many groups and faculty on campus that can tell us more about them but it will be outside the scope of our training. I think we can be asked to be placed in an abortion clinic but there is just too much in my notes that we went over so I can't remember if my interviewer said yes or no to that.

8) Integration

For our last semester of our specialty year, we don't have to spend it in Philadelphia. We are allowed to spend those 9-10 weeks outside of Philadelphia working with the various group or populations that are of interest to us. But if we will need to have good grades, good clinicals, and basically be in good academic standing before they will allow us to go.

I am sure I missed a few things but we covered so much in our interview that I am sure I missed a lot of things so feel free to add to the thread if I said something wrong, or mis-remembered something, or you have more insights to add.

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Thanks for sharing, this is certainly helpful. :)

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Hello everyone,

I also interviewed in person on the 11th for the midwifery specialty.

During the information session Filomena gave some stats about the application pool. So about 650 ppl applied in all for the 2018 cycle. And they are only accepting about 85-90 accelerated students. So the cohort is very small. I know someone in the program now for midwifery and I spoke to her during lunch. She said there are only about 8-10 in the cohort for midwifery (very very competitive) and I think it was at least 20 of us who interviewed for midwifery in person. And who knows how many were invited for phone interviews.

Decisions will be posted on February 11th. Fin aid packages usually go out at the same time or a week after. Admitted students day is at the end of February and deposits are due mid-March.

Penn finds all of your clinical sites for you which is amazing. For the BSN portion, all clinicals will be local and they said you don't need a car. For the MSN portion you will need a car because clinicals may be as far as NJ or Delaware.

Filomena also said its possible to have a part-time job during the BSN portion (not the first summer though because that will be the most intense). About 5-8 hours a week and she said most students do research as their job.

Those were all the interesting bits. If you have any other questions let me know!

Good luck to everyone!

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I believe they will be posted on OR before February 11th. Correct me if I am wrong!

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I believe Filomena told us the 2nd Monday in February.

If anyone else caught the decision date, please add.

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Is this post for the post BSN-MSN track for fall 2018?

I am currently looking at schools to apply for fall 2018 and I really like UPenn... but did I miss the deadline? Most other schools give you until February or March, and I can't seem to find anything on the website :(

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Is this post for the post BSN-MSN track for fall 2018?

I am currently looking at schools to apply for fall 2018 and I really like UPenn... but did I miss the deadline? Most other schools give you until February or March, and I can't seem to find anything on the website :(

At Penn, the BSN+ MSN program only starts in the summer. So you did miss the deadline :(

But I believe there are other programs that have fall start dates

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Why is Penn requesting parent income and tax returns? I have been independent for the last 3 years. Do they use parent income information to determine aid? If so, that sounds quite stingy to me...

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Some points on finishing the financial aid stuff (sorry if this is redundant/not applicable to you):

It was pretty quick if you did the FAFSA for this school year - just add UPenn to it and submit again. Then you need to do the 2018/19 FAFSA, but that doesn't take long if you use the Retriever Tool since it's from the 2016 tax forms. The longest part was scanning all the tax forms and supporting docs and submitting them through the financial aid website (FM sent us an email with the link)!

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Oncology.
At Penn, the BSN+ MSN program only starts in the summer. So you did miss the deadline :(

But I believe there are other programs that have fall start dates

Actually no, you did not miss the post BSN-MSN deadline. The applications don't open up until January 2018. This thread is for people who don't have their BSN yet and their applications deadline already passed.

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