During my interview the catholic/christian values of the university wasn't addressed at ALL. And to be honest, i think that a lot of the christian universities find it to be a little phony when people talk about what a good catholic they are and so forth (i overheard a committee addressing a student who interviewed before me at PBA and they just felt she wasn't sincere by continuously saying how devoted she is to church)... instead, the best approach is to go for maybe the fact that their catholic or christian values makes you feel they make patient care more of a priority than the other schools. Also the 3 year aspect, and the fact that their nursing program has a good reputation - those were my 3 reasons why st. joes.
I had very good feedback from my interview (the assistant dean told me lol). It was very humble on both sides. They asked basic questions as to why i wanted to attend their school, why should they accept me, and asked about my extracurricular blah blah. I was just totally honest with every question they asked (very blunt)... and i think they respected me for it. They told me that they want mature candidates, who have no problems working with people (a lot of the things they are going to have you do are in group-type settings), and people who are simply driven ... they really emphasized the mature attitude aspect though. It all makes sense because they are starting as a new school so they need students who are willing to go out there and make good names for their school.
Also during my interview (which was 2 men grilling me), they brought blueprints... so the cool part about this interview is that you are interviewing them just as much as they are interviewing you. They give you a rundown of the program (so its expected that you don't know much about it when you go in for the interview). They show you what the classrooms will look like (since they cant yet give you a tour, i believe the building should be ready for the beginning of the fall).
the block schedule is actually very cool! and the way their exams work is that you will be tested every week (or every other week i forget) on the material from all your classes... you are tested on a friday by yourself (you have to get an 80% to pass), then you take the test again that friday right afterward with the "group" you are assigned to (they have these cool breakout rooms surrounding the class) and there you can earn extra points toward your grade... now, if you didn't pass your test (on your own) the first time, they give you one more chance to take the exam the following monday... and finally at the end of each year you have one major exam.
... they will explain all of this to you at your interview (a lot better than i am lol) so don't expect to know this for your interview. I think this system is fabulous though because it really forces you to be on top of your ****, and if you do slack off and mess up 1 test, you have a chance to redeem yourself over the weekend.
The technology is also pretty cool, they are going to have a bunch of flat screens (no blackboards/whiteboards) in the room and will make the class be interactive, i think everyone has the ability to interact with the monitor, like polling the audience in who wants to be a millionaire type stuff (they explain better). And you also use those breakout rooms to go with your groups during classes to address case studies and so forth... overall they keep you pretty involved during class.
but yea i am 99.99% confident they will get their pre-accred, and thus accredited (again because once you get that pre-accred acpe wont let the school fail out)
and yes, unfortunately you will have to get the new recommendation letters... however i believe (don't quote me) but i think if you tell your professors or whoever that they can just access pharmcas and reprint them... otherwise they may have them still saved on their comp. They really don't take most people too long to type up though, none of my professors had a problem redoing it.
