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Meet Chris—a nurse who seemed to have it all: a 4.0 science GPA, strong ICU experience, and an impressive academic background.
Yet, despite these credentials, he faced rejection from CRNA schools not once, but twice before ultimately gaining admission.
If you’ve ever wondered how it’s possible to bounce back from rejection and keep pursuing your dream despite overwhelming challenges, Chris’s story will inspire you. He not only overcame the sting of CRNA school rejection but transformed it into an opportunity to reevaluate, refocus, and ultimately, succeed.
Whether you’re actively applying, reeling from a rejection, or just starting to explore the path to becoming a CRNA, Chris’s journey offers lessons, insights and inspiration that you won’t want to miss.
This episode is full of the strategies he used that got him into CRNA school. He also shares about the mindset shift he made that allowed him to turn fear and failure into resilience and resolve. Plus, you’ll learn how mentors along his path, including those inside the CSPA 12 Month Intensive, helped him find the clarity and confidence he needed to finally hear the words, “You’re accepted.”
Tune in to uncover how Chris’s story can provide a roadmap for your own success and remind you that, no matter the obstacles, your dream is always worth fighting for. Let’s dive in, Future CRNA!
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When a 4.0 Isn’t Enough: Overcoming Two CRNA School Rejections
Hello everyone. Welcome back to the CSPA podcast. I’m so excited for today’s show. We have a special guest episode for you that you do not want to miss, so make sure you tune in with your earbuds. Today we’re going to cover CRNA school rejection, and the mindset shift that Chris was able to make so that he could experience success. Welcome to the show, Chris.
Thank you very much for having me.
I’m so excited to share. This is a very unique spin on how to be successful in getting into CRNA school, as far as focusing on mindset. First, I would love to have you introduce yourself to everyone, share your nursing background and what made you pursue CRNA.
I’ve been a nurse for almost three years. I completed one year of med-surg remote telemetry unit, and then I went to an ICU. It’s a neurotrauma level one center, neurosurgical endovascular, and was there for about a year and a half by the time that I applied for CRNA school. Prior to nursing school, I had a music performance degree. My GPA was a 3.5; I didn’t really care about my GPA in schooling at that time.
But then when I decided to pursue nursing and the CRNA route, I took my sciences very seriously. I got a 4.0 science GPA, a 3.7 nursing GPA, and then completed a 12 month accelerated post-baccalaureate nursing program. There was a lot of content coming at you fast, and it was three semesters long, so it was intense. I felt like it was a good insight as to maybe the kind of intensity it would be like for a CRNA program.
The reason why I chose the CRNA route was because I got a job in patient registration working in the emergency department, and it was also a level one trauma center, so I witnessed all of the horrible things that happen in people’s lives, right? Things like strokes, cardiac arrests, motor vehicle collisions,; also, this was adult and pediatric too. So you would hear code blues, pediatrics, and you would assume that it’s a child drowning.
Why Become A CRNA?
I mean, the things that you see that are brought in by the paramedics really made an impact on me. So my initial intention with this patient registration job was to learn more about the healthcare management of things. I wanted to become a Chief Financial Officer of the hospital, but then as I was registering patients in the trauma base, I just felt this calling, this tug of, “Oh, I think I need to be at bedside.”
This just blew my mind because I did not want to do it. It was pulling me in two directions because I had already done schooling. I didn’t want to go back to school; or rather, I wanted to just get one more degree, maybe my MBA and be done. But I had no science background prior to this decision. I was just like, “No, dang it. I don’t want to do this, but I need to do this. I feel like I have to.”
So I started my science prerequisites, though I didn’t yet know specifically that CRNA is what I wanted to pursue. But then over time, I picked up on what good characteristics that an anesthesia provider would have, and then I eventually saw them in myself and my whole body would just light up like there was a fire lit under me.
There was one time in my OB rotation during nursing school where I witnessed a first time mother. She originally, in her birth plan, had basically wanted to give birth naturally, but 99 times out of a hundred that doesn’t work out, they’re just in so much pain. So the mother, she eventually succumbed to the epidural and she was absolutely devastated. This was her first time giving birth. She had this planned out and she had to ultimately give up that dream for herself.
She was in pain, totally distressed and distraught. Her whole world was crashing. I remember watching the CRNA come in and he did the most incredible job of soothing her, of maintaining sterility of the epidural, of administering with the ultrasound, finding the right spot within the spine. And I just remember getting chills up and down. My whole body just lit up with the excitement of okay, this is it for me.
I have to do this. I must do this. I want to do this. I need to do this. There was no doubt in my mind from that point forward because I really could see myself in him and how he was able to manage that whole situation. So ever since then, that’s been the goal and I worked really hard to get to this point.
I’m very grateful to be here and very honored actually for you to have me on the show because I’m kind of fangirling a little bit. Back when I was toying with the idea of going to CRNA school, I remember your YouTube videos would come up, and a few others as well. I would watch their stuff and I would just ingest it and be like, “Okay, I think I have an idea. I think I want to do this.”
But then your content kept coming up; I really internalized everything that was being presented, and I just kind of moved forward and it’s all worked out. I got accepted to CRNA school and I’m beside myself really.
Well, this is an amazing background, Chris. I appreciate you sharing, and I just love how your heart and your passion comes through and it’s really, really cool. I just love it, it’s really unique. It seems to me that, the characteristic you saw in that CRNA while on OB rotations, is being that person that can create relief, can soothe pain, can take away someone’s anxiety, can turn what can be a really ugly situation into a more enjoyable, relaxing, pain-free experience for the patient.
It sounds to me like that’s what really drew you into the anesthesia realm. You had that compassion for patients and wanted to ease their suffering. I think that’s amazing and I love that about you. I encourage those listening, who are just exploring this career path similar to what Chris did, just start exploring the medical realm. Maybe you don’t know exactly what you want to do, but the only way to really find out is to put yourself in those situations where you’re exposed. I think that’s step number one.
Am I Smart Enough To Become A CRNA?
You mentioned fire more than once, and I can really relate to that. I’ll never forget my first experience in the OR; I was in high school. I had no idea what a CRNA was, but I always knew I liked the OR because I was that weird kid who watched Discovery Health and I watched surgeries. I used to think it was the coolest thing ever.
Not that I even knew what anesthesia was or anything, but I was just like, “Whoa, look at them. This person is cut open. They’re doing all this stuff and they don’t even know.” I just remember thinking it was so fascinating. I know my parents think I was weird, but I used to just watch surgery on TV. So when I was in high school, I thought it’d just be really cool to just go see what it’s like in the actual OR; I was geeking out because I was like, “Ooh, the OR!”

CRNA School Rejection: Like many people, there was a lot that initially held me back from the CRNA career path such as self-doubt; I really believed I was not smart enough.
I got to see a real surgery, and I remember there was a person behind the drapes and I’m just like “Wow, what are they doing? Oh, they’re the ones who are keeping the patient asleep so they can do the surgery.” You kind of spoke to that fire, that excitement. I was like, “That’s really cool. I wonder, what do you have to do to do that?”
When I found out it was a nurse behind that drape, I was like, “No way. Wow!”. It was just very enlightening and kind of that excitement piece that really kind of pushed me. That still wasn’t really when I decided to become a CRNA. I just knew that it was really interesting.
Like many people, there was a lot that held me back from this career path such as self-doubt; I went into nursing school not thinking CRNA was actually what I was going to do because I really wholeheartedly believed I was not smart enough. I was like, “Ah, I think that’s really cool, but Jenny, be realistic.” Which is really unfortunate that that’s the mindset I had back then.
It wasn’t until I was probably a sophomore in nursing school that I was like, “I’ve got to give this a shot because this passion’s not going away. It’s only being reinforced and I have to go for it.” That’s when I think I really hit the gas pedal where I was like, “I’m going to give it my all.” And luckily it worked out, not without failure, but yeah, I love that.
You mentioned a 4.0 science GPA, 3.7 accelerated BSN. That’s impressive, and very competitive. Great work, Chris, considering you were not a science background, and yet you still faced rejection from CRNA school with that 4.0 science GPA. Not that I want to make that seem like a disheartening statistic to everybody, but I equally want to reassure our readers- a lot of people think if they don’t have a strong GPA like that, or if they are starting behind the eight ball, they have less of a chance.
And really you guys, the interview is such a pivotal point of your CRNA school acceptance; even great candidates with great applications, GPAs with flying colors, you can still face rejection. So I guess I want to paint the picture of- don’t go into the interview feeling secure just because you have a great academic background, the interview is really challenging.
And what else? Oh, the characteristics. I was curious to ask you, were there any other specific characteristics that you identified with outside of the compassion for patients and really wanting to be that person to kind of care for them?
From BSN To CRNA
Yeah, absolutely. There were three primary things. For me, it was patient advocacy and the compassion portion. How do you win somebody over in such a short amount of time to gain their trust? I like people in general, so I knew that that was something that I could be good at. This person’s very vulnerable; for me, with my music performance background, when you’re on stage, you are the vulnerable one. I can recognize vulnerability very quickly because of my performance background. So I think there was an element of that, therefore patient advocacy and compassion for sure was the first characteristic.
Secondly, I’m fascinated by working with my hands. I picked up learning IV ultrasound in the ICU; I learned it very quickly and I actually attribute that to being a piano player for my entire life. By my third insertion, I was like a pro and everybody was asking me to start IVs. I think CRNAs are also very good with their hands. They have that mind-muscle connection, the fine motor technique that it takes to stabilize whatever intervention they’re doing.
Lastly, it was the clinical knowledge. It was them having the justifications in their mind of what they are doing, what drugs they were giving, all of it down to the cellular level of everything that’s going on. The pathophys. I was really fascinated by that. I mean watching anesthesia providers be calm, cool, collected under pressure, I was like, “Oh yeah.” I mean that was my life as a performer. I did that too. So I just saw too many connections where I thought “I have those characteristics within me,” and I just moved forward with that.
Oh, I love that. I love that. The performance pressure. Yeah, I mean I never thought about that way, but now that you mentioned, it makes perfect sense. There is a lot of performance pressure and you have to be able to handle that because you’re at the head of the bed, so you have to know what to do. You have to be the one willing to call the shots.
The interview is so pivotal to CRNA school acceptance; even great candidates with great applications, GPAs with flying colors, can still face rejection. Share on X
I love that you mentioned clinical knowledge. It’s funny, when I was asked why CRNA in my interview, that was one of the first things that came to mind, was that I loved pathophysiology, pharmacology and how that plays into surgery. I love hemodynamics and it’s almost like you get to be kind of a little bit of a scientist behind the drapes. You get to utilize your knowledge both with pharmacology, pathophysiology plus the surgical process and patient comorbidities, to really make the smoothest surgery and outcome for the patient.
It’s really gratifying. It’s like a puzzle and it’s different for every patient, even if it’s the same case, which I find very mentally stimulating in a good way. I also love the hands-on piece. You’re a hundred percent right. CRNAs are really hands-on. You don’t have to start off being good at IVs. I want to stress that.
It’s funny, I’ll never forget my very first IV in nursing school, you guys, I went to the ward unit, so we had inmates in our hospital system and this guy, this guy I was starting an IV on, I was so nervous. I was shaking. My hand was shaking; I remember him saying, “Should I not watch?” I was like, “Probably not.” And then after I got it, he was like, “Nice job. I was not expecting that.” I’m like, “Me neither.”
It was a very humbling skill to learn. I did get better at it. When I worked in the medical ICU, we would do central line holidays, which I know not all ICUs do, this MICU is obviously big on sepsis, all ICUs are. But what I would do is I would walk around, I’d get all my assignments done early, in the middle of the night, and then I would walk around and just start IVs for other nurses who are busy still doing their assessments. I’d say, “Hey, do you have any new IVs that you need to be put in? I’m happy to take a look.” These patients would’ve like three plus pitting edema, it’d be really hard IV starts. That’s how I got my practice, by kind of taking that role in the ICU.
Eventually I did get very good at it and I was sought out for my IV skills. In CRNA school, I remember getting to the operating room early to get my case set up, and I mean like 5:30 in the morning early; I was that weird student who got there super early even though I didn’t have to because I wanted to get to the preoperative area. I wanted to go in early, not just to start my patient’s IV, but I wanted to go around to all the other patients and offer to start the IV for the nurse.
Usually the way it works in pre-op you guys, is the nurse is the one who starts the IV, it’s not always the CRNA. Now if you’re a proactive student, you can get there in time to beat the nurse to it, but if you don’t get there to beat the nurse to it, they’ll just get it done because it’s a task that has to be done. So that’s kind of how I got proficient at it in CRNA school.
Then, when the patient’s asleep, taking advantage of getting a second IV or always jumping in other ORs; I maybe have a lines or something of that nature. Even if my room didn’t, I would proactively seek out those opportunities. So yeah, I think that’s great.
You mentioned the advocacy part, so I want to back up a little bit, too. I think that’s really important. I love how you said you like people because there’s a common joke that in anesthesia, you don’t like people, right? So that’s funny because I have a t-shirt; I should have worn it today, but I didn’t. I wore my Ohio State one, even though they lost to Michigan, we won’t speak of that.
All that being said, I was asked in my very first CRNA interview, “Do you enjoy patient interaction?” or something along those lines. I was like, “Yes, I do.” And they replied, “Well, are you going to have a problem with being an anesthesia provider? They’re all intubated and sedated and asleep.”

CRNA School Rejection: As a CRNA provider, you have that unique ability to provide that warmness, that humanity to the patient.
I was kind of caught off guard because to me, I’m used to working in a medical ICU with intubated and sedated patients. It doesn’t change the fact that I like people; don’t get me wrong, just like everybody, people can annoy me too. I’m human, but I think it’s the genuine caring about patients’ outcomes. That is why I like people because human to human, we all have challenges, we all have struggles and we all have feelings and they’re all valid. I think that’s why I like people because, even though sometimes people can be outrageous or wrong or evil or cruel, at the end of the day, most people are inherently good.
That human connection that you have with someone else, to feel for them, is why I like people. Because when you feel for somebody else, when you have that empathy for somebody else, that connection you can make with someone is like nothing else in the world. That love, even if it’s for a perfect stranger, it’s so powerful. And in my opinion, it can warm up a cold room in an instant.
I think as a CRNA provider, you have that unique ability to provide that warmness, that really quick touch, even if it’s something as simple as throwing a warm blanket on the bed before they get on that bed. Or, I recently had a patient, she was a teenager, she came in crying. I was like, “What’s your favorite musician?” She picked out, I forget, it was a country singer and I’m not a country music listener, so I had to search it on Pandora, but I put on her favorite country song we sang together.
We kind of laughed eventually because I didn’t know all the words. Then she went to sleep, she was still nervous but at least happy. It’s just little things like that; you like people if you do things like that because you want to take those five minutes that you have to give humanity to the process. So I love that you mentioned that.
Is Guaranteed CRNA School Acceptance Possible?
I think that’s really important, as a CRNA and as the anesthesia provider in general, that that’s part of your mission, the patient advocacy. Chris, you have shared so much wonderful knowledge already. I’m excited for this episode. This is going to be chockful of goodness. So the next question I would love to share, and just so you guys know too, we didn’t mention this earlier, but Chris was a part of our 12 Month Intensive program. Just to kind of clarify, well, what is that, what is the 12 Month Intensive?
The CSPA 12 Month Intensive is based on data; we’ve been collecting data on CSPA students since day one. We’ve been asking them all kinds of questions to find out- what is the success pathway of a successful student, what are they doing? What’s their background, what’s their experience?
Through that knowledge, we created the Intensive program, which is our money back guarantee program. We’re saying to you, “Do our program, invest in yourself, invest in your growth, receive our coaching, follow our outlined curriculum, and if you don’t achieve success, it’s on us,” meaning we will give your money back if you don’t get into school after completing the curriculum.
But we do hold you accountable, right, Chris? We hold you accountable to do the work.
A hundred percent, yeah.
And that’s fair, right? You do the work, you show up for yourself, and if it doesn’t work, here you go. That has never happened, which I’m very humbled to say. I mean, I never expected that in the beginning. I was like, “Oh, I’m sure it won’t work all the time,” but so far, we have a one hundred percent acceptance rate amongst those who have done the program and we’ve been doing this for almost two years.
I think that that just shows the power of mentorship, the power of coaching. If you’re willing to pour into yourself, you really can achieve wonderful things. We’re going to get into this really interesting topic next because as we spoke to earlier, Chris did initially face rejection from CRNA school, and other 12 Month Intensive students have faced rejections, too. However, they have all gone on to get accepted.
Chris, what would you say was your biggest obstacle or challenge in your journey to become a CRNA?
That’s a great question. I have two really big obstacles and it sounds like I’m going to be rambling, but there are points to this. So the biggest obstacle for me in becoming a CRNA- after I finished my music performance endeavors, my degree and whatnot, and when I decided to pursue nursing and bedside and the CRNA route; before that, I had made some really silly financial choices.
Building Resilience Through Challenges
In my twenties, I basically had some debt that I did not realize would harm my financial future, until I saw the numbers and I was blown away. I was absolutely distraught by how much I had actually accumulated, and it was truly the gorilla that was on my back. It never went away. It is something that ate me alive every day and I couldn’t fathom how do I repay this? What do I do with it?
So there was that, and then the thought of going back to nursing school, why would I do that to myself? But again, it was that voice inside of me, that calling of “You need to do this. This is something that you have to do because patients’ lives are at stake.” It really felt like a calling to me in a sense. So starting my science prerequisites and then going back to nursing school.
The biggest obstacle first was the amount of debt that I had accumulated. Second obstacle was actually nursing school itself. Do not underestimate nursing school. I think that everybody thinks that it’s going to be a breeze and nursing is just not that challenging. You guys are so wrong. If you haven’t gone to nursing school, it is an entirely new way of thinking.
There are questions like, “What does the nurse do first? What does the nurse do next? What is the best option for this answer?” Those are three entirely different answers. You think that it’s the same? No, you could be in a scenario with different questions and it’s three different answers or the “select all” that applies. The hardest exams I had in my entire life were from nursing school.
Plus, in nursing school itself, academically speaking, you’re keeping up with the exams, your clinicals, your labs, your simulations, your care plans, your medication cards, whatever your school’s focus is, there’s a lot to juggle. So you have to really manage your time and really pivot your focus in how you study. The way that you studied before, it is most likely not going to work in nursing school. Maybe it will. I don’t know. Some students, I guess, really did do a good job of pivoting with what worked for them.
I also had some big life circumstances that took place outside of my nursing program at that time. It first started out with food poisoning, and basically there was three days of me feeling ill and having to continue to study and go through that. I couldn’t push back any exams for that.
Then shortly after that, my close friend who I happened to be living with at the time, he passed away in a terrible car accident and there was grief; there was his family’s grief, having to deal with what do we do with this stuff? What’s the funeral? It was all of us living in this one house together, and my whole world was just upside down for that point. Then three weeks after that, my landlord decides to sell the house.
I lost my housing and this was like 2020, 2021 and Covid housing prices really affected my area. The housing prices skyrocketed, and the landlord decided he was just going to make a quick buck and sell the house. So I had to find new housing. Then shortly after that, as I was moving my stuff to my new place, I got in my own car accident where somebody came out in front of me and I t-boned them. I had the right of way, and it was a young 20 something year old, and he took fault for it, but it was the major inconvenience of now my car’s got to be in the shop and insurance and blah, blah, blah.
Then my tooth filling fell out shortly after that; I went to the dentist and it turns out I had an abscess that had developed on one of my teeth from a root canal done there previously. It was like I had some gum degeneration, so there were multiple dentist trips. Then my laptop died in the middle of class. Laptops were essential for taking exams, and we had to take them in person, but everybody had their own laptop that they provided.
The straw that broke the camel’s back for me was shortly after that, I went to Chick-fil-A and I got some fries and nuggets. When I went outside to eat, I had two fries, and then this big gush of wind knocked over all of my food and it all fell to the ground. And I just sat there. I was like, “Okay, this is a simulation. Somebody is messing with me. Well, what do I do?”
Then this Chick-fil-A employee comes up and he’s like, “Oh, let me get that for you.” So he cleans it up, throws it in the trash, and then walks inside. He says “Stay there just for a minute” so I’m thinking maybe he meant like “Oh, let me get you a new order,” to try to make it right or whatever. He never came back and I just accepted it. I surrendered a whole mind, body and spirit to like, “Okay, I’m done.”

CRNA School Rejection: Ultimately, I’m thankful for the opportunity to step up and to be my best self despite everything that had been going on in my life.
That was kind of it for me. I just remember leaving. I didn’t even go back in to get a second meal. I just laughed it off. There were just so many, a series of unfortunate events that took place; mind you, dealing with all of that outside of nursing school and then having to deal with nursing school itself. Every minute mattered. And I had incredible people along the way help me.
Mentoring Helped My Mindset
I had a professor. She was really the one who kind of turned my mindset and my attitude around when all of this was happening. She was somebody I could trust because I knew her background and she had a tough upbringing. So I wrote her an email; my original intention was to reach out to her to see if I could push back an exam because I think this was after my car accident or whatever.
Then she calls me and she asks me to tell her everything going on in my life. So I tell her everything. Then she said, “Okay, let’s look at all of these things that have happened and let’s think about the positives. What are the positives from every situation?” I was pretty perplexed by that because I didn’t think that that was the direction that she was going to go in.
I thought she was going to push back my exam, have some sympathy for me, but she was like, “No. Okay, let’s list it out. Tell me about your roommate. What were the positive things about him? Tell me about losing your housing. What do you like about your new place?” We went one by one through each situation, and I started to feel better and started to have this mindset shift in the attitude and the perspective that it took to move forward. She really changed it for me.
Ever since then, that’s kind of the mindset that I developed for facing all of my obstacles. She gave me that advice and then things continued to happen. Even towards the end of the nursing school, I started dating a girl and then that backfired. There were so many things that could have derailed me. I really thought I would’ve had to fail.
I thought I was going to have to push back another year, but she didn’t push back my exam. She said, “You can do this. You really can do this. Just move forward, come up with a plan.” I ended up getting an A on her exam, and this was truly just mind boggling to me.
It was a very challenging exam, and pediatrics is no joke. You have the different age ranges and all of the different vitals and lab values that you have to remember for each specific age and developmental stage, but I’m just, I’m so thankful for her, for giving me the opportunity to step up and to be my best self in the face of everything that had been going on in my life.
So I graduate from nursing school, get a job in the hospital, and now I have this big accumulation of debt. What do I do with that? I ended up moving into a buddy’s house. It was not a nice neighborhood, but it was cheap rent. My primary goal was just to pay off all my debt. I ended up getting a second job and worked five, six days a week; anything extra just went to all the debt.
Eventually, I paid it off. It took me about nineteen or twenty months, and it was the peace of mind. I felt like I gained my conscience back. That had been weighing on me for about seven or eight years, and to me, it was all worth it. I kept telling myself that my future self is going to thank my past self. Especially now that I’ve been accepted to a CRNA program, that is the truest thing in my life right now.
I would say if you have any obstacles that you are facing right now, just know that you can do it. Take it one day at a time and make a plan, stick to that plan and do what is right for you. I probably could have gone straight to the ICU and probably applied to CRNA schools earlier, but I had this debt that I wanted to get rid of. I wanted to take care of that first, and I wasn’t ready for the ICU. I just had all this crap that I went through in nursing school, and I wasn’t even in the frame of mind of how to be a nurse. That’s why I needed that med-surg telemetry experience.
I’m so grateful to get to this point in my life and so thankful for the 12 Month Intensive program because it really gave me a roadmap. It gave me kind of like a step-by-step process of these are things that you need to do. Here’s what to expect. Here’s how to be the shining applicant that you can be and move forward with that. Long story, I’m sorry; the two biggest obstacles were the accumulation of debt, paying that off, and then the nursing school fiascos, I don’t even know what to call it, but your future self will thank your past self.
I love that. Your story is really beautiful. And honestly, that obstacle sounds like it’s also your savior. It’s funny how that works. Things that really at the time seem awful, unfair, unjust, just straight up painful sometimes tend to be the things in your life that will actually get you to that next level, that will actually get you to that mindset place that you need to now be strong, durable, resilient, determined.
And you never know. Had you not experienced all those struggles, who knows if you would’ve contacted that professor and would’ve gotten that advice that really changed your mindset. So as much as your story was just one thing after another, it ended up being a positive. It’s funny how she asked that, what’s the positives from this? I love that advice. You didn’t get the Chick-fil-A meal, which I mean, I love Chick-fil-A, don’t get me wrong, but is that the healthiest food to eat? So maybe that was a bonus. Maybe you saved your cholesterol a few points.
Mastering Emotional Intelligence for CRNA School
As silly as it sounds, that is such a great life lesson because CRNA school itself is going to be incredibly hard. I’ve talked to so many program directors and a lot of them say it’s really not about book smarts as much as it is about emotional intelligence and how durable you are.
These CRNA program directors say it’s really an emotional challenge, not just academically, but clinically, personally, even with your family life. And if anything, your story paints a picture that life does not stop just because you’re in nursing school or a stressful life phase. When I was in school, she’s still a good friend of mine, and became a best friend of mine in school, my friend’s father unexpectedly passed away. Now she was in Ohio, he lived in Alaska. That was incredibly heartbreaking.
She never got to say goodbye, and I didn’t even know how I could help, because it was so devastating and I physically couldn’t imagine having that happen. I’m getting emotional even thinking about it now because it was such a huge, huge life event for her. But she had to figure out how to get back on that horse and how to keep going forward with CRNA school, how to pass her exams, how to graduate, and she did, but it required a lot of support.
It sounds like that’s exactly what you had to do too- lean on your support systems through all of this to get through. Then at the end of the day, there’s always something to be grateful for, right? There’s always something to look forward to. Even if you’re currently in a hot mess, there’s always something. Maybe it’s just you have breath in your lungs, you’re breathing, you’re alive. You could be grateful for that.
Maybe you don’t have a house or maybe you don’t have a working car, but hey, you got your life, you have family, you have a dog, or whatever it is. You can find something in your life that you’re grateful for, even on a bad, bad day. Sometimes I really truly think the challenges you face, the obstacles you face, are what actually makes you stronger and more durable going forward. You just have to be able to get past those events.

CRNA School Rejection: I think the challenges you face, the obstacles you face, can actually make you stronger and more durable going forward.
I think a lot of times what happens is people face these obstacles or these challenges and they just don’t see that; they don’t get the mindset shift that they need to make to push through so they just stop or they turn away. It’s like that fear or that sense of insecurity makes them feel unsafe, so they turn and run the opposite way versus running towards it.
That was my biggest takeaway, is that you ran towards the pain and you continued to say, “You know what? I’m going to face this debt that’s painful, but let’s do it. Come on. My future self will thank me later.” Same with CRNA school. CRNA school is not going to be fun. It’s going to be three years of dedication, hard work, and you’re not going to get to watch a lot of movies or go to a lot of fun events. It’s going to be head in the books and you’re going to have to say no. It’s going to be hard adjusting to life with little to no income, since you typically can’t work while in CRNA school.
I remember the only breakdown I had in CRNA school was, ok well, I had multiple breakdowns, let’s just be real. I had multiple breakdowns, but one of the biggest ones I had was that my husband at the time, he was really involved in the local church and was always trying to encourage me to go and do these Sunday sessions. And I’m like, in an ideal world, I would love to or he’d invite me to go to these things and I’d always say no.
Eventually it was just like I snapped. I was like, “Stop. I hate saying no. It makes me feel bad to say no. So just stop asking.” Then I thought about it and realized he was just trying to be helpful, but it was that repetitive, like, no, no, no, no. I’ve got to study. It just eventually made me feel bad, and I thought, that’s my problem, right? Not his.
It was interesting that, if I could have had a more open dialogue about why I feel so bad about saying no, and maybe have more of an understanding that we should set a schedule on when I can do extra things. You learn from having moments like that. But yeah, I think all your shares were just so wonderful and it’s going to help so many of our listeners. So thank you, Chris. That was just really awesome.
I had a lot of people in my life at that time who knew that I was struggling, and my general advice is to be kind to everybody, no matter what stage you are in, just be kind. Because if you do go through stuff, people will step in, people will help. I had a classmate of mine, she loaned me an extra laptop that she happened to have. She’s like, “You can just have this one. It’s laying around in my house.” That was incredible.
My close classmates, there were nights that I didn’t sleep. I had to keep up with the books and whatnot along with dealing with all the other stuff. We would be at clinicals and then afterwards they would see that I would be so tired, and I was the one that had driven, but my classmates would say, “No, we’re going to drive, you sleep in the car.” I had another classmate who ended up buying Postmates for me one night. This was after my roommate’s passing.
Even after nursing school, there are so many times I look back and realize that people’s kindness, what you give out, will come back to you in return. I mean, that’s how I got my ICU job. It was because I made a friend who worked in the ICU and that point she didn’t know anything about me, but after five minutes of talking to her she said, “You should work with us. I’ll introduce you to the ICU director.”
Then five minutes later, the ICU director walks by so she said, “Mary, this is Chris. He should work with us.” And my ICU director’s like, “Okay, when can you start?” And that was it. So despite all of the obstacles, there were so many chances for me too, and opportunities that came forward. I think it’s because I happened to still be open and still just be kind to people, and it all ended up working out in my favor that way. So be kind. You can still be kind despite all of the challenges and circumstances that you might be in.
I love that advice. And you know what, that is excellent advice for the clinical realm too. Attitude matters over knowledge, every single day. Just smile. Just say, “Good morning.” Even if you mess up and it’s the afternoon, just say hello to people in the hallway, just smile. It’s those little things that people remember; you don’t have to be very chit chatty or talk a lot. I mean, I sure as heck don’t.
I’m usually very quiet, but I smile and I say hello to people every time I walk by them. Even if they don’t always hear me and they keep walking, I’m like, “That’s okay. They didn’t hear me. It’s cool. I’ll just keep saying hi.” So I think that’s great advice. Be kind. You never know what impact it’s going to make on someone else’s day. I think that’s great, and people will always lend a helping hand to someone who’s been kind to them. Really great advice.
I know we already talked a little about the 12 Month Intensive, so we’re not going to go into that in detail, but I’m just curious- what motivated you to join the program, and what do you feel its biggest benefits were?
Overcoming Two CRNA School Rejections
I joined because, overall, I just felt like I needed some guidance and a general direction of what to do. How do I have all of this experience now? What do I do with it?
I actually had a friend who went through your program as well, and he’s now in a CRNA program himself. So he saw success after completing the 12 Month Intensive program too.
The way that your Intensive is set up, it’s kind of just like that- a roadmap. It’s like, “Here’s everything you need to know.” So really there were a couple of big program benefits for me. The one I felt first was that I gained a ton of confidence after I applied because you have to apply to the Intensive. You’re not just letting anybody in.
For me, it was one of those things where I just wanted to dip my toe in the water and go, “I’m going to see if I can get into this Intensive, why not?” And then I got accepted and I thought, “Oh, okay. So if they think that I can get in, then I think I could get in, too.” So that was the first biggest step for me, it was the confidence boost of, okay, let’s move forward. Let’s go. Let’s do this. That was the biggest advantage for me.
Second is the community that’s involved there. I mean, I don’t know how many people are in it, but people are constantly throwing out questions within the forums and they’re all in the same steps as you. Even if not necessarily in the same part of the journey, but we’re all in this vulnerable place of like, “Okay, we want to get to our destination, and how do we all get through it together?”
So there is a sense of unity and oneness that I feel that the community really provides. So you can really lean on each other for extra support and confidence and any advice or guidance that you need. There’s so many resources available within the Intensive from how to build your resume, getting advice on personal statements, how to pick the right school, thinking about finances, questions you should ask your CRNAs when you’re shadowing them.

CRNA School Rejection: “Your application is what gets you an interview, but your interview is what gets you accepted.” Had I not heard that, I don’t think I would’ve taken the CRNA interview process as seriously.
I mean, talk about your Interview Prep Workshop Library. There are tons of resources in there. I remember just watching those and it helped me gain insight as to what admission committees could be potentially looking for. I remember, it was Dr. Wilson who said that one of the things that he does not like candidates doing in an interview is, when a question is asked, the candidate says, “That’s a great question.” But then they say that with every answer.
I remember just laughing thinking, “Oh, I did that in my first interview with every question.” But you’re practically stalling at that point. You’re getting your mind to process, but instead you can just say, “Give me a minute to think on that,” whatever your approach may be.
There are so many insights within the Intensive that shifted my mindset over time, probably subconsciously too. Little things like your GPA, your experience, your application is what gets you an interview, but your interview is what gets you into school. Had I not heard that, I don’t think I would’ve taken my interviewing process as seriously.
And I will tell you, the interviews were intense. Oh my gosh. The schools that I applied to, the interviews were just grueling. And you have to be prepared. You have to be ready. Like you said, you cannot just rely on a GPA and your nursing experience. I don’t care if you have three years, five years, ten years of ICU experience. You have to interview. Well, you have to be able to tell your story and tell your truth.
Advice For Preparing For Your CRNA School Interview
One piece of advice that I’ve given to some members within the forum of the Intensive is that eventually, you have to speak what is true to you and not look for what the admission committees are looking for. Because it’s very easy to get caught up in like, “Oh, did I say the right thing? Did I do the right thing?” But then over time you just kind of say, “You know what? If it’s true to me, then it’s going to be true.”
And it’s going to come out that way. People can pick up on truth versus scripted or rehearsed answers of what you think that they want to hear you say.
Yep. One last thing, your Five Day Interview Prep Course- that was a game changer too. I wish I would’ve dived deeper into that, but man, the value that comes from the 12 Month Intensive, I wholeheartedly believe that I got into the program that I did because of the Intensive.
I’m really just, I’m so thankful for you and your program and how much it has given me to move forward with fulfilling my dreams as a CRNA. I have spent three and a half weeks, four weeks ever since my admissions acceptance; I’ve just been crying just with tears of joy, the mind blowing disbelief of, “Okay, I really did it.” I really think that the way the program is set up, it really lets your students succeed. So thank you. I’m so grateful.
Well, you said it, Chris, you did it. And I mean, I am so honored and grateful to be part of that process, but as you mentioned, I gave you the tools and the roadmap, you did the work. That’s the biggest takeaway you guys, your acceptance is because you earned it. You do all the hard things. You have the mental struggles. I mean, the interview process yes, is really hard.
What breaks my heart is oftentimes I see students wait too late in the game to prepare for the interview. You cannot bring superficial knowledge. You have to develop understanding. And that understanding does not happen in a week or two or a month. It happens over a period of six or seven or eight months of really thinking about how you understand your knowledge as it relates to being an ICU nurse. So I love that you shared that. That’s real honest feedback to just not wait, not delay.
I know it’s overwhelming, right? Because you’re doing a lot of things at once, and that is no joke. I feel for everybody who tells me “I’m taking a class, I’m taking this.” I know, but you still need to be studying for your interview. And it’s not that you spend hours every day with your head in a book, it’s just learning something new on your unit that day. Wikipedia something, learn a new drug, learn a new pathophysiology process, just one thing, and that one thing will compound over time.
That’s the best way. I am so grateful that our tools have really helped. And you learn some interesting nuggets in the Intensive. It’s funny, I was talking to another one of our students and he said, “It’s the little things that can really make you stand out, things that you don’t even think about.” Look at what not to say, for example. That could be just as important as how you should portray yourself.
It could be some red flags that you don’t think of where you’re like, “Oh, I never thought about the fact that it could be annoying to say, ‘That’s a great question.'” But for an interview panel who’s interviewing a hundred applicants in a season, it’s like they’re human too. I think that’s really cool that you picked up on that and were able to take that and use it to your advantage.
Chris, you had this kind of mental breakthrough of, “I just need to relax and be myself.” I would love for you to briefly talk about, because you got rejected, correct me if I’m wrong, twice. Then on your third attempt, you kind of had that mental shift where you’re like, “You know what? I need to let go of this control, stop putting so much pressure on myself to get in.” That was really what you needed to kind of relax. Is that kind of how you felt?
Yes, to all of that. I had applied to five schools, I interviewed with three and then got accepted to one. My general advice when applying is to actually cast a wide net, because I know people who got rejected from my program, but got accepted to the programs that I got rejected from. I also know people who got accepted to programs that I didn’t get interviews for, but then they didn’t get interviews for the program that I got accepted to. So the right school that is right for you will pick you, and that I think will be evident in the interview process to you. Anyways, I went off on that tangent. What was your question again?
Oh, it’s okay. I think it was just kind of that mental shift you had on the third interview that you think really made a difference.
The Mindset Shift That Changed Everything
Well, the first interview, I had a lot of butterflies, a lot of nerves. I was initially told that it was going to be a personality fit interview, but instead it turned out to be a strictly clinical question kind of interview. I was prepared. That is actually great advice that I can give you as well, if you think that you have an idea of what your school’s interview style is going to be, still go in prepared with emotional intelligence, personality questions, clinical questions, be prepared for anything.
So that first interview was totally opposite of what I had been told to expect. Ultimately, you have to respect the way that they interview. My first interview went well, though. I felt like I performed well, but there were some things that I felt like I knew I could improve on and critique.
This is also a helpful background insight; I think I did three mock interviews total. So in between each interview, I would do a mock interview, then CRNA interview, another mock interview, and then interview with the program, if that makes sense. So that was my first interview. It was strictly clinical. I felt I did a great job, but there’s more that I could improve on.
Second interview, it was more personality fit questions, but there was a clinical portion as well. I feel that things taught within your Five Day Interview Prep course really helped. Then other things; I could see that there were gaps in my knowledge from the clinical portion. Like you had mentioned earlier, you’ve got to start six months, nine months ahead with interview prep because they could just ask you anything. Overall I did well in the second interview as well.
But it was everything that was happening outside of my life that was kind of beating me alive. The stakes for me were just like, “Ah, if I don’t get in, then my life is over and nothing good is going to happen after this,” or whatever. If I had to reflect back on the first two interviews, I think that the admissions council can see how you are handling your nerves.

CRNA School Rejection: “I was told it was going to be personality questions, but it turned out to be strictly clinical questions. Be prepared for anything in your CRNA School interview.”
I think that they are able to gauge whether you are ready for CRNA school or not, because you think about it, you’re going to be in the OR, you’re going to be in high stakes, high stress situations. How do you keep your composure and how is your fight flight, flirt, freeze response? If I had to reflect back on my first two interviews, I would say that I felt I was composed, but I think I still gave off a sense of nerves and not presenting my best foot forward, if that makes sense.
I don’t feel like I gave the best impression overall, but I was so glad that I went through those two interviews because then I had this kind of mind shift breakthrough of, “Okay, this is consuming my life.” It’s that balance where you have to study and have to prepare, but at what point do you let go of all of that and go, “I am right. I am ready. I am prepared.”
That was kind of the breakthrough for me of, “Okay, you’re going to become CRNA. You’re going to do it. It’s just a matter of when.” Each time that you interview, you get better. You just get better. So that kind of took off all of the pressure for me, and I started to ask myself why I wanted it so bad? And I really didn’t have an answer other than, I just want it.
It’s the shiny object and I’ve got to have it. I think that’s very human to feel that way, but I didn’t have a good answer. So it was like, “Okay, well, you basically need to have things to look forward to in your life. You need to go live your life. What are some things that you can look forward to if you don’t get accepted?”
In a way, that actually also helped me too, because I started to plan my life like, “Okay, what are you going to do next year? What trips are you going to go on? What are you going to do with your friends? What places are you going to go see? What skills are you going to improve on? What new music can I play with my piano?” And that actually got me excited. I’m like, “Maybe I’m not supposed to be in CRNA school right now.”
And that would be okay. My life would be exciting and fulfilling without it. I don’t know why, but I think that was the mind shift that really helped me in my third interview, because I just kind of surrendered and I said, “Whatever is meant to be for me is going to be meant to be for me. And this pressure that I’m feeling is a privilege.” I actually stole that from Billie King Jing, she’s a tennis legend.
She kind of coined that term of when two tennis stars are battling it out at the US Open, Australian Open, a lot of tennis players reference that. So I kind of just went in with that mindset of pressure is a privilege. Whatever is meant to be for me, is meant to be for me. And that made all the difference. The way that I interviewed, I was able to speak my truth and speak what was true to me.
Even if my answers weren’t 100%, I didn’t nail every single answer, I still walked away feeling like they got the essence of me, of my character, of my resilience, my grit. I will also say that with this third interview, they asked me all the right questions that pertained to me. My first two interviews, they didn’t ask questions about my obstacles, right? My personal life but the third school did.
That was a great opportunity for me to say, “Well, this is what happened in nursing school. Oh, this is what happened with all of my debt that I had previously. Let me tell you about my musical performance background.” So they asked the right questions that were right for me on paper. I think it’s very easy to say, “Okay, you have a 4.0 science GPA, you have a year and a half of neurotrauma. You were nominated for nurse of the year, you’ve been on these committees,” blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
But that’s pretty much every candidate, honestly. Everybody has stellar numbers and so everything else in between, that’s what they’re trying to figure out. With this third school, they had asked all the right questions, and those questions ultimately led me to shine. “Let me tell you about what happened to me in nursing school,” and I broke down everything. Then there was this sense of, “Wow, this kid has been through a lot. CRNA school is going to be tough and he probably will be able to handle it and cope with it better than somebody who didn’t go through stuff like that.” What you had alluded to earlier, those obstacles that you face in your life end up being your treasures later on. That was that for me.
Oh my gosh, Chris, such good information. I love everything you shared. I mean, this is gold. I think this should be played on repeat for everybody listening. I love the pressure as a privilege. And again, no, doesn’t mean never. I love how you started thinking about “What would I do if I don’t get in? My life’s not over, and there’s still things to enjoy about the gift that I have, which is life.”
That is an amazing mindset shift because again, it kind of takes the pressure off of having this outcome be “do or die”, right? There’s always tomorrow. There’s always next year, there’s always next month. There’s other things in life, like you said, that make you who you are as a person outside of becoming a CRNA. So that is a hundred percent; I hope everyone can relate to that.
I wholeheartedly understand why they selected you, being able to hear your background. I remember thinking at the beginning of this episode like,”Wow, if you’ve been able to overcome that and get through the way you did, there would be way less concerns of you getting through CRNA school,” because as I kind of shared too, life will not stop.
You will have challenges in CRNA school. Things will happen, things that you don’t want to happen, your car will breakdown. Someone will get sick. Your dog will get sick. I mean, life will still happen, and you have to be able to handle the stress of school on top of life. So I think that’s great. As you spoke to before, the right school will pick you and don’t let one rejection make you feel that you’re not worthy or capable of that acceptance.
Trusting the Process: Advice for Aspiring CRNAs
As you spoke to- schools where you were accepted, others were rejected, and vice versa. So who’s right? There’s no such thing as that. It does not matter. It just matters that you move forward. I truly believe there’s a reason, and maybe this is just me being fluffy, I don’t know, but personally, I was rejected once too, and I think it was the best thing that ever happened to me. I’m glad I didn’t go to that program. I’m glad I went to the school I went to. I think it was the right fit and it worked out. So I think you just have to trust the process.
I was speaking to some other students too; people get really hung up on, “Oh no, my school had bad board passing rates,” or, “Oh no, I’ve heard some negative things, am I going to be okay?” People are worried, right? They get accepted and they’re like, “But this is not the school I really wanted.” Well, here’s kind of what I have to say to that. There’s no such thing as perfection. Even the schools who do all the PR, the US News report kind of thing, even those schools struggle.

CRNA School Rejection: Your success is in your hands at the end of the day, which means you have to be willing to seek help if and when you need it.
Even those schools have bad cohorts or bad experiences in their cohorts for their students sometimes. New programs struggle, experienced programs struggle. You’re not going to miss that. But what I think you have to believe in is yourself and your ability to overcome, even if you do face challenges in clinical, even if you do face academic challenges, be proactive in your learning. Seek out help early and often, and don’t wait for a mistake to happen before you reach out. That is the best piece of advice I could give you.
Trust the process if you are committed; this is the time, before you start your program, to really dig into what you think you need both emotionally, mentally, to get through. I had a classmate who ended up taking a beta blocker because she had such bad test anxiety that it would make her underperform. So that’s okay. Some people go on antidepressants. No shame in that, it’s better than abusing alcohol. So just be open as you can in the process and accept help when you need it.
Be vocal when you need the help. Don’t be afraid to reach out to your program director and share that you’re emotionally or physically struggling right now with whatever it is. Maybe it’s a family thing, they have to know so they can help you through that and give you the tools you need to navigate those challenges. It’s a team process. Lean on your coworkers. I mean, be resourceful.
Your success is in your hands at the end of the day, which means you have to be willing to seek help if and when you need it. So I think your shares are just so helpful, Chris, and I appreciate you doing this episode. So wonderful. I don’t think I really even need to ask you the next question because the next question was regarding the steps you took to stand out. I mean, you can always tell me what you think you did, but I personally believe what made you stand out is just you and your background, your story, your resilience.
Again, the fact that you were rejected yet you’re a great academic student, it’s not just academics. They pick you, the person. And so to me, worrying about getting extra certifications or shadow experience, it’s not important if you don’t focus on you, because they’re picking you. They’re not necessarily always picking all the things you’ve done academically or clinically. But yeah, I mean, that is the next question. So I don’t know how you had planned on tackling that one.
I think the only thing I’ll say to that is, when you begin your interview prep, you need to practice. You’ve got to practice, practice, practice. I approached it like learning a piano piece that I am dissecting, measure by measure, and what I’m going to perform. It was this balance of picking a script but without sounding scripted. Right? And for me, it is really easy for me to ramble.
You only have 20 minutes with them, and when they ask a question, you can’t spend five minutes rambling about something. You have to be concise. You need to get your point across; you’ll be surprised because you think you have an idea of what you’re going to say. But then five minutes goes by and they’re already tuned out.
My advice is to practice recording yourself and do mock interviews. You’ll get the direct feedback as to what you need to do, but practice just get in the rhythm of realizing what’s true to you. You have an idea of what it is in your head, but unless you get it out, it won’t shine through. So that would really be my only thing is you just need to practice, and you need to trust that process of practicing.
Yes, I often relate to it as, you can rehearse it in your mind all you want, but if you don’t have that muscle memory, you’ll get like that cat got your tongue kind of sensation where you’re like, it looks so clearly in my brain.
That’s where you trust your training, where the letting go occurs, where you’re in that state of flow of, “Oh, okay, I know how to handle this situation and this is what I’m going to say.”
Awesome. Well, this has been wonderful. Thank you so very much for your time, Chris. It’s been an honor and a privilege to have you on the show today. And I know our listeners feel the same, so we are excited and rooting for you on your CRNA journey. I look forward to staying in touch.
Thank you so much for having me. Your Intensive is wonderful, and I wholeheartedly believe that I wouldn’t have gotten into my program without it. So thank you. Thank you so much for everything.
I appreciate you.
Important Links
Learn More about the CSPA 12-Month Intensive: https://www.cspaedu.com/meblfkto
Join the Free CSPA Community! Connect with a network of Aspiring CRNAs, Nurse Anesthesia Residents, practicing CRNAs and CRNA Program Faculty Mentors here: https://www.cspaedu.com/community
Get access to application & interview preparation resources plus ICU Educational Workshops that have helped thousands of nurses accelerate their CRNA success. Become a member of CRNA School Prep Academy: https://cspaedu.com/join
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