2019 UPENN BSN/MSN

Nursing Students School Programs

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Hey everyone! I started this thread for this years application cycle.

hi everyone,I’m interested in applying to pmhnp track this year and just took my gre exam... I got an average gre score with 158 verbal and 166 quant. I’m currently a junior who double major in psych and biology, so I don’t have any formal work experience in the health field. But I have been volunteering in the hospital since freshman and have been working as an undergraduate research assistant in a neuroscience lab and a clinical psychology lab for 2 years. The only patient care experience I have is volunteering in the adapted fitness program and a behavioral treatment technician for children with autism. My overall gpa is 3.86 and I think my prerequisite should be higher. Because I just saw lots of people got really high gre scores, so I’m wondering should I retake it. Any advices would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

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@ACoolGoose
324 is a great composite score for the GRE! I scored a 318, applied to 8 PMHNP programs and have been accepted to 5 (including Penn) and waitlisted at 1... still waiting on decisions from the other 2. My background is a little different in that I hold a MA degree in counseling. Regardless, there are better uses for the time you could spend retaking the GRE... writing a really great personal statement, volunteering, etc. Good luck ?

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@ACoolGoose yes I agree! Great job on the GRE!

I have 8 years of experience working as a floor nurse in a surgical unit. My GRE scores are 158 quant and 161 verbal. My GPA was really lousy. 3.12/5 for my BSc but I was granted interviews to 2/3 schools that I applied to (Yale and Penn)

I have yet to find out if I will be granted admissions to these schools that interview me but I would say to you go for it! Despite me having such a lousy GPA, you may have something that they are looking for.

Skmilar to what @LMHC2NP said, focus on getting some experience working with NP or whatever to know what you are in for.

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10 hours ago, emilyb123 said:

How many hours of clinical experience do students gain during the ABSN and MSN, respectively? I can’t find that info anywhere on UPenn’s website

620 hours of direct clinical care.

This is from the slides that are sent prior to the interview with the assistant program director.

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2 hours ago, LMHC2NP said:

@ACoolGoose
324 is a great composite score for the GRE! I scored a 318, applied to 8 PMHNP programs and have been accepted to 5 (including Penn) and waitlisted at 1... still waiting on decisions from the other 2. My background is a little different in that I hold a MA degree in counseling. Regardless, there are better uses for the time you could spend retaking the GRE... writing a really great personal statement, volunteering, etc. Good luck ?

Thanks so much for your suggestion! That’s very helpful. Because I’m just deciding whether I should spend my summer doing internship in psychiatric hospital or retaking the gre test (which is expensive). I think you are definitely right.

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1 hour ago, Charsiewshuz said:

@ACoolGoose yes I agree! Great job on the GRE!

I have 8 years of experience working as a floor nurse in a surgical unit. My GRE scores are 158 quant and 161 verbal. My GPA was really lousy. 3.12/5 for my BSc but I was granted interviews to 2/3 schools that I applied to (Yale and Penn)

I have yet to find out if I will be granted admissions to these schools that interview me but I would say to you go for it! Despite me having such a lousy GPA, you may have something that they are looking for.

Skmilar to what @LMHC2NP said, focus on getting some experience working with NP or whatever to know what you are in for.

Thanks so much! I am going to shadow several psychiatric NPs during this semester and maybe upcoming summer and hope these could help.

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14 hours ago, ACoolGoose said:

hi everyone,I’m interested in applying to pmhnp track this year and just took my gre exam... I got an average gre score with 158 verbal and 166 quant. I’m currently a junior who double major in psych and biology, so I don’t have any formal work experience in the health field. But I have been volunteering in the hospital since freshman and have been working as an undergraduate research assistant in a neuroscience lab and a clinical psychology lab for 2 years. The only patient care experience I have is volunteering in the adapted fitness program and a behavioral treatment technician for children with autism. My overall gpa is 3.86 and I think my prerequisite should be higher. Because I just saw lots of people got really high gre scores, so I’m wondering should I retake it. Any advices would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Hey! I don't think you should worry about retaking the GRE--- I think it's more important to have those in-person clinical experiences and creating a great application. Your verbal is in the 80th percentile and quant is in the 90th-- those are great scores. I think my quant was in the 54th percentile and I've been admitted into at lease the ABSN (my verbal was 91st). I think essays and letters of recommendation are more important at this point.

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Has anyone been able to connect with current students? I have questions...

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21 minutes ago, eastwest said:

Has anyone been able to connect with current students? I have questions...

Yes, I have. What are your questions; maybe I've already asked the same?

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5 hours ago, i<3mybeagle said:

Hey! I don't think you should worry about retaking the GRE--- I think it's more important to have those in-person clinical experiences and creating a great application. Your verbal is in the 80th percentile and quant is in the 90th-- those are great scores. I think my quant was in the 54th percentile and I've been admitted into at lease the ABSN (my verbal was 91st). I think essays and letters of recommendation are more important at this point.

I think you’re right! Maybe I should get more clinical immersion. Thanks for your suggestion.

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I just had my interview last night. Questions asked were

1) Tell me about yourself

2) Why Penn and why now?

3) Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

4) Where do you see yourself when you graduate: hospital setting, outpatient etc

Questions application to international students like myself:

4) Do you foresee any problems coming all the way to the US for 15 months

5) Are you on self fund or sponsored

The grad admissions team will discuss this week and results will be out in these 2 weeks.

Good luck to everyone who have yet to do the interviews. You need to know how to answer these questions and do it with conviction.

I think I did ok, fingers crossed. But nothing is confirmed until I receive that acceptance letter!

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Would someone be able to update when they get their financial aid package?

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