UTHSC Traditional BSN Spring 2014 Applicants

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I have seen many threads for previous applicants for past semesters to the UT Houston School of Nursing. I wanted to start one myself as I am applying for the spring 2014 traditional BSN and have yet to find a thread for it. Although I opened it for applicants, I would also encourage previous applicants, current/previous students, and applicants for other semesters at UTHSC to join in and share in this exciting time!

I'm just going to vent to you guys. I'm in chemistry and I am literally so worried. The class is terrible the professor doesn't curve and at UTA gen chem 1 is specific for premed majors. I'm struggling! I have a 4.0 science right now but I'm afraid this chem is gonna bring me down since it ends right before the deadline:( I'm so bummed! Chemistry has nothing to do with whether or not I will be a good nurse or not...right?[/quote']

Since chem was my major, I can't bash it on principle. However, I do not think a gen chem course is necessary for nursing school. I think an intro class should be sufficient enough for what we will study in nursing school. If you move on to an advanced nursing degree, especially CRNA, chem will be of utmost importance. I am pretty sure you will have to take organic chem I and II in addition to biochemistry if you want to be a CRNA and you can't take any of those courses without gen chem I and II.

Anyway, enough of my sticking up for chem, lol. What are you having trouble with? We all had to go through chem so I am sure people will be able to chip in and give you advice on study materials or help you figure something out! That includes me :-)

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Yeah no I don't plan on getting a masters degree at all! And when I looked at the "transfer prereq guide" on UTH's website for uta it was gen chem 1 or an intro to chem class however the intro class at uta no longer has a lab so it wouldn't count for my chem credit. I'm just having trouble with concepts. I'm good at the conversions and math, but there are so many random concept questions on our tests that are so detailed no one in the class knows them! He expects us to know the ins and outs because this class "is designed for people pursuing a chem or biology degree." All the stuff just doesn't click with me. I will study for hours and hours and get to the test and the concept questions literally go right over my head. I just want a B in this class and I'm currently at a C....

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I'm sorry flower. I didn't realize you were asking about the HESI. I don't recall there being any conversion questions on the HESI. Just familiarize yourself with how many ounces are in a Quart or pint or gallon. Stuff like that....like hallie said :-)

I don't know if you ever go onto Pinterest but, there is a drawing that shows the breakdown of cups, pints, quarts, and gallons. It really helped me on the HESI. I think I searched kitchen conversions on Pinterest. Its a giant "G" with the other conversions inside of the "G". The only think not on that picture is the ounces. There is 8 ounces in a cup. You can use the ounces to help with metric conversion. I was pleasantly surprised to find there were not as many conversions on the HESI that I expected there to be. For the military time, add or subtract 12 to the time. For example, for 2:00 pm, add 12 and you have 14:00. If you need to convert from military time, subtract 12. I currently work in a medical field and this is what I do. It sort of simplifies it. Good luck!

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Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.

Is anyone going to the info session today? My babysitter had to back out at the last minute so I will be unable to go =/ Any updates heard would be much appreciated!! =]

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Is anyone going to the info session today? My babysitter had to back out at the last minute so I will be unable to go =/ Any updates heard would be much appreciated!! =]

I will be there! Is there anything you guys would like me to ask about?

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HI o0fefe0o, can you make a list of the most important things they discussed at the info session? I'm in North Texas so I didn't have a chance to go.

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HI o0fefe0o can you make a list of the most important things they discussed at the info session? I'm in North Texas so I didn't have a chance to go.[/quote']

Sure!

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I will be there! Is there anything you guys would like me to ask about?

Hi!! I wasn't able to go to the info session today because of babysitting issues :-(

Did they mention anything about what GPAs they look at? I have gotten conflicting info on this website regarding if they look at your overall GPA or not. My overall is a 3.35 due to some bad grades on non nursing courses. My nursing prereq GPA is 3.88 and my science GPA is 3.83 so my fate really depends on if they don't look at the overall! please let me know if they mentioned anything about it. Thank you so much!!

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Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.

Wish I would have checked this out earlier!! I wanted to know if they mention when they are going to be sending out acceptance letters, if they have already begun choosing applicants for spring 2014, maybe even how many people applied for spring 2014 so far?

=]

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Hey guys! So I took tons of notes down at the information session today. Anything that I hadn't seen on the website, I jotted down. So here's what I've got:

- Recommended 3.3 nursing GPA to be competitive

- They expect to have about 600 applicants for Spring 2014 (800-900 for summer and fall)

- Nothing will be accepted late

- They will only take into consideration grades that were completed by the deadline

- 80% for each section and 790 in Critical Thinking on the Hesi to be competitive

- You can take the Hesi up until 8/15. They stressed very highly that you double check your Hesi because some locations (Lonestar college) do not include Critical Thinking in their test version. If you're missing any sections that they require, you won't be considered at all for admission.

- No time limit on prereqs, but they prefer your sciences to be less than 5 years old to be competitive

- They will look at your course load history and if you weren't taking at least 12 credit hours each semester, it could count against you

- ***This is an important one. They are currently in the final stages of deciding whether they want to only offer the Pacesetter program instead of the traditional. They said they will have a decision made before us Spring 2014 applicants get our acceptance letters, and they will let us know upon acceptance if the program is changing or not.

- Contrary to what I had heard, the 1st 2 semesters of the pacesetter program have 1 clinical each. 3rd semester has no clinical, and the final 4th semester is nothing but clinicals and an online critical thinking course. The traditional program has 2 clinicals each semester.

- There is a Hesi exam at the end of each course and you must make at least a 75 to pass. They'll allow you 3 tries to pass the Hesi. There is also an exit Hesi after completing the program and you will have 3 tries for that also.

- They will try to be accomodating when it comes to clinicals and assign you to a hospital near to your home, but she said there are no guarantees.

- Spring and Fall semesters are each 15 weeks and the Summer semester is 12 weeks.

- There is usually a 2 week break between each semester and they observe all major holidays.

- A typical class day is 8am-4pm with a break in between for lunch. Clinicals are typically 6:45am-7pm, but they will be 8 hours for the first semester.

- Last Fall they accepted 128 applicants, 50 of those were for the pacesetter program.

- The pacesetter program is literally random. She said there's no criteria, it's just luck of the draw and you can decline it if you're chosen, but you can't request to be in the pacesetter program.

- A typical class week is 2 days of lecture and you should have 1-2 days free, but she stressed that those free days would be needed for studying.

- She also talked about working while in the program and said she discourages it, but some students make it work, you just need to remember that your job/prior commitments will have to be flexible, because classes are not flexible.

- In the program, 75% on exams is considered passing. Anything lower is a failing grade.

- Transcript evaluations typically take about 3 weeks to arrive by mail to your home. They will only send out evaluations to people who they have Hesi scores on file for. Everyone that completes the application properly will eventually receive an eval.

Sorry it's so much, but I found all this info to be super helpful. Let me know if you guys have any questions or need clarification.

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Oh they did mention that acceptance letters will arrive no later than November 15, but most likely we will be informed via email sooner than that. The sooner the better! :)

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One more thing that I forgot, if you have more than the required 2 electives, they'll pick out 2 classes with the highest grades.

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