Feeling the weight of the waitlist

The University of Alaska Anchorage nursing program is biased. Two students from the School of Nursing admitted this when asked about the admission process. The term “biased” was the perfect description they came up with when conveying their experiences of applying and getting into the program.

Whether a student aims for the associate’s or bachelor’s degree in nursing, applying to this program may be one challenge. The second hurdle to overcome is highly talked about waiting list. What used to be a 12-month waiting period in the past to start the program has grown to a complete two-year halt in the degree plan.

Mary Grace Villasin, who considers herself to be in junior standing, applied to the nursing program in the summer of 2010. This is several months prior to the October 1 deadline for the fall semester. It wasn’t until the end of December 2010 when she finally received an acceptance letter. Evoked with joy to see “Congratulations” being the first word she read—her heart sunk when her eyes rolled over her start date: spring semester of year 2013.

The nursing program is highly competitive and accepts about 40 students per year for the bachelor’s option and 32 students a year for the associate’s plan. Because of this standstill in the degree program, students become waitlisted until they can start. This is due to the insufficient number of available nursing educators. There are very few instructors available, and they all teach year-round for both degree programs.

The admission process is strict. Kathy Smith, one of the program assistants for the nursing department recommends students to meet one-on-one with Marie Samson, the program’s Student Affairs Coordinator. Students may discuss with her what their options are after applying to the program and waiting for an answer.

All students are considered pre-nursing majors until being formerly accepted. All pre-major students must follow a specific course plan and obtain an exceptional grade point average to be set apart from other applicants.

Villasin explains how a student’s GPA plays a significant role when determining whether a student will rank high enough to be admitted into the program faster. Students can get “bumped up” into the program and can start a semester or two earlier if their GPA in their nursing prerequisite courses is good enough.

Villasin shares why she thinks the program is biased: she believes they tend to accept men that apply faster than others.

Carlo Sipin is a male nursing student who is in his third semester of the program. He agrees that the program is biased but not because he is a male.

During his first few semesters attending UAA, Sipin heavily stacked his nursing prerequisites of chemistry and biology courses and achieved a solid 3.5 GPA. He applied for the program in May 2009 while finishing up his last requirements. He received his acceptance letter in December 2009 and was able to start the program right away in January 2010.

Sipin doesn’t think it’s because he’s a male that got him in so quick, but because he was determined to get his pre-requisites completed fast and also got good grades. If anything, he believes the nursing program is biased because of the acceptance rate between a bachelor’s degree and an associate’s degree.

To Sipin, anyone can be accepted into the bachelor’s track and will eventually start the program—no matter what the wait may be. It upsets him that the associate’s track is more competitive and strict. He says they will deny students admission if they don’t meet the requirements. Sipin thinks this should be switched around.

Villasin added that students could apply for both the bachelors and associate’s track. She recalls a friend who applied for both and was accepted into the bachelor’s program, but was denied acceptance for the associate’s program.

Although Sipin didn’t experience the harsh reality of the waiting list like most students do, he sympathizes for the department saying that the wait is inevitable. With the limited number of teachers available, there’s not much that can be done to alleviate the delay for students.

Villasin, on the other hand, is angry about this waiting period she must endure. She thinks it’s tolerable for people that want to take the time off, but it’s unfair for determined students that just want to go and get their degree already.

As Sipin looks forward to obtaining his Bachelors of Science degree in Nursing in the next semester, Villasin is looking at what options she has available during her wait. She is looking at possibly doing a double major or earning a certificate in phlebotomy. She is also looking into other nursing programs out of state and may apply for admission at those schools because they don’t have a waiting list.

She hopes all of this wait will eventually pay off in the end, but she will unfortunately have to anticipate that feeling of accomplishment until August 2014—her expected graduation date.

Priority registration: yay or nay for UA students?

Starting on April 1st for the 2011 fall semester, the University of Alaska is implementing a priority registration system. This new process will permit students to register for their courses depending on their class standing. This will let graduate students and seniors take priority in picking their classes first.

With a new priority registration system, students can expect less traffic on the UA server when attempting to register for classes. This is especially useful for upperclassmen that are looking to fulfill those last few credits to complete their degree.

Crystal Shaw, a senior majoring in natural sciences, couldn’t feel any more positive about this change. She thinks it’s a good idea since upperclassmen are in more of a time-crunch trying to get into the classes they need to graduate.

A student’s worst nightmare on registration night is finally gaining access to UAOnline after many failed attempts, only to find that the class he or she needed is now full.

Of course there are several alternatives such as seeking approval from the instructor to be added to the waiting list. However, that’s just more of a hassle busy students do not have the patience to go through.

Most of the time students may just wait until the semester starts to be waitlisted in the course. Alternatively, they end up waiting to see if a student will drop and a spot to open up. That’s a big if.

Still, this is more run around that occurs for the student. For upperclassmen, it’s a heavy weight being placed on their shoulders if there’s a chance the class they need is unavailable. This priority registration system should help clear that inconvenience.

Shaw adds that most lowerclassmen are indecisive and are still trying to figure out what they want to do.

Zlata Sushchik, a senior majoring in business management, agrees. She thinks as a senior, it’s important to get first pick for classes to graduate. Some 100-level courses are full within the first five minutes. Sometimes, freshmen register for several classes and drop half of them within the first week. This is not fair to those striving to be in these classes.

Sharon Kim, a double-major in nursing and history, thinks otherwise. She doesn’t think it’s fair to implement what she thinks is “restrictive education” when every student at the university is equally paying for it.

For the most part—upperclassmen like what they see. There have been some suggestions to make an exception list for the lowerclassmen that want to register outside of their class standing. Some students are very determined and want to get ahead. This process would be similar to making exceptions on the maximum credits a student can take by filling out the credit-overload form.

Shaw adds that she feels for students who know what they want and are trying to take large loads to finish early. She believes most students wouldn’t put in the effort to turn in these types of documents to the Registrar if they weren’t serious about getting ahead.

A more detailed schedule and frequently asked questions can be found on the Registrar’s web page.