Chance Me – Match Me Thread Nursing Major [3.897 unweighted GPA, 4.68 weighted, Top 8%, 1310 SAT, HS CNA program]

College Majors Nursing Majors
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D will graduate from a Richmond, VA area public school in 2027. As a senior, she will spend half her school days at the County tech center in a nurse’s aide program working toward her CNA. Other half in her home high school. As a junior, D had A+ grades in all of her classes (except an A in College Pre-Calc), including in AP Bio, Honors Anatomy & Physiology, and College Psychology. She is trying to get into a local EMT program as well. (She would have taken that at the tech center instead of CNA but the County did not have funding for its EMT program this year.) She has other extracurricular activities and interests, including as 2-sport varsity athlete.

She will apply Early Decision to UVA and will go if admitted. VCU has a great nursing program but it is in D’s hometown. Also, D prefers a 4 year direct admit BSN program, so she doesn’t have to apply separately to the nursing program in her 2d year. She has spent a lot of time over the years in Boston and Cape Cod where we have family, so she is comfortable with New England. My read is that she also wants to be (at most) a short plane road from home.

For a variety of reasons, including a twin brother in college at the same time, we are looking for reasonably affordable colleges with direct admit BSN programs that would be a good fit and give her a good college experience. I don’t expect that we will receive need-based aid.

Some possible targets identified so far include UMass, UConn, and Pitt, but we are looking for other suggestions.

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Look at Marshall U and WVU for low cost. FAU is another - less than two hours plane ride.

I’m not sure being half in class and half not gets you into a school like UVA - where you need several years in each core subject, unless you’ve already done four years of all the core classes.

What is College Pre Calc. Even AP Pre Calc isn’t…hmmmmm…Calc is where you get to the next level.

AP Bio is great. Did she have physics? What is College Psych vs. AP. And Anatomy, while great, is not needed.

Does she have four years in English, math (no), foreign language, lab science, and social science? It could be three years of foreign language, lab science and social science. but four is better.

I have a co worker who chose CNU (for nursing) but got into UVA. CNU is not direct admit - the school was a better fit for the student. But they didn’t think there’d be an issue transferring in.

Good luck.

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Here is a link to a list of Direct Admit Nursing Programs, since you are interested in exploring potential alternatives to U.Va & VCU.

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It looks like ETSU has a direct pathway to BSN for high achieving students starting this fall. You may look into it.

You noted the NE and I don’t know the budget but those you mentioned are $40-60k plus.

Likely less $ but I thought you wanted New England but Bloomsburg, Carlow, E Stroudsburg, Hartwick, TCNJ, And Maine with UNH possible in the high 30s.

Reasonably affordable means different things to different people. Do you have a # in mind. The ones I gave b4 - Marshall, WVU and now ETSU are for proximity to Richmond. FAU is a short flight (2 hrs is to Fort Lauderdale).

Good luck.

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Wheaton College in MA has a direct admit nursing program and I’ve heard they are generous with aid. There is one full scholarship (tuition, room, board) for nursing students,as well.

You could go to EasternConneticut for about 1/2 the price of UConn and they have an excellent nursing program.

Other New England schools with direct admit are Quinnipiac, Merrimack, Salve Regina, and Fairfield. They are all pricey, but she has excellent stats so you can check merit.

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Have students from this program had success at getting into low admit rate direct admit programs like UVA?

Is UVA affordable? Have your run the NPC just to make sure you wouldn’t get any need based aid?

What is your annual budget?

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West Virginia has a comprehensive hospital right on campus for clinicals!

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The hospital which Eastern Connecticut uses for clinicals and where it has some of its simulation labs is only a few blocks away, a short walk from campus.

Southern Connecticut is another cheap option and with the support of state funding, signed a partnership agreement with Yale New Haven Hospital a few years ago, giving them access to one of the best hospitals in New England for clinical placements. Quinnipiac and Fairfield were part of this same partnership agreement.

UConn and UMass Nursing are both highly competitive with UConn Nursing looking for SAT scores over 1400 and typical SAT scores at UMass Nursing being around 1440. It would be advisable to apply test optional at both of these schools.

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Can you be more specific about what “reasonably affordable” means? What is your budget?

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Does this mean all A+/A grades from 9th-11th grade?

Weighted GPA is usually meaningless outside of the high school.

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I’ll do my best to respond in omnibus fashion to the comments and questions.

Classes/Grades: A+ in all classes taken by D in her junior year with the one A in pre-calculus (what we used to call Trig & Elementary Analysis in my day). I don’t know D’s unweighted GPA because it doesn’t show on the report card. For some dumb reason, just the weighted, but she’s currently 32/415 in terms of class rank. She took dual enrollment (DE) classes–meaning community college level taken at her high school–in pre-calculus, US History, and Psychology (Intro & Developmental). Previously took AP Human Geography & AP World History. She has four years of HS Spanish already (started in Middle School) but did not take AP Spanish. Per her school, she has 4 years of Lab Science (but that does include Anatomy), 4 years of Math, and will have 4 years of English & Social Studies after this year. As a senior, I believe she is taking AP Stat, DE US Government, and either AP or DE English Lit (her schedule is not out at the moment). Don’t remember what else she may be taking but I don’t think Physics is currently on the list.

Financial Aid: I don’t expect to receive any. Nonetheless, our finances are constrained by: (1) one just graduating; (2) twins in school at the some time; and (3) us (the parents) nearing retirement age. It is what it is.

UVA & VCU Costs: Since our eldest is graduating from UVA next spring with a BSN, we have know the cost well: about $25k in-state for tuition and fees, and about $15-20k for housing and food, depending on where you live. Most upper-classmen in Charlottesville live in apartments after first year. VCU would be 10-20% less than UVA but is not direct entry (and it’s not leaving home).

Nurse’s Aide program: D will attend her home high school on odd-numbered days. She will attend the tech center on even-numbered days and will have her CNA at the end. Had the EMT program still existed, she likely what have been doing that one instead.

Goal: to identify direct admit nursing programs on the East Coast that are in the realm of $60-65k/year (or no more than $20k per year than UVA). My assumption is that state schools with reasonable OOS tuition are the most likely options. I know D has expressed interest in UMass and UConn. We have also discussed, in passing, Pitt, Clemson, South Carolina, and Delaware. I well understand that OOS many of these may be a reach, but I’m hoping the information will help D in making a good list of schools. Thus, the post in this thread.

Appreciate all of the responses already provided and any further views offered.

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Are you able to comment on relative access to clinicals from the various Conn & Mass schools? My eldest who is graduating from UVA Nursing has told me that UVA students often get better clinical choices, as compared to other area nursing schools, many of which are community college programs. I can see that Quinnipiac and Southern CT are right in the New Haven area. I have also seen several other Boston-area nursing programs mentioned on the boards, and I know Boston has a ton of hospitals.

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Does she have any non-A grades in 9th-10th grades?

You can calculate the unweighted GPA yourself by adding grade points (A=4, B=3, C=2, D=1, F=0) for all academic (English, math, history / social studies, science, foreign language, arts) courses and dividing by the number of grades.

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Yes, I can. Can you tell me some hospitals you’re interested in?

I’m not crazy about either the UConn or UMass locations for clinicals. Both have community hospitals nearby but not top hospitals. Of the two, I prefer UConn because Hartford does have some teaching/research hospitals 25 miles from campus and the university runs hourly shuttles to & from Hartford daily.

My daughter went tob. for nursing and Boston is really the best for nursing because it has so many top hospitals and the T makes it relatively easy to get around. BC, Northeastern, UMass Boston, MCPHS, Simmons, Emmanuel - they’re all good.

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This is not necessarily true. Many of my D26’s cheapest options were private with good merit awards, and some of her most expensive were OOS publics. (She was accepted to 10 direct admit BSN programs; her least expensive options were Creighton, Marquette, UTK, and Iowa, and her most expensive were Pitt, UMiami, and UMich.)

A few other random thoughts:

Pitt was very high on my D’s list. It’s a great urban program, but Pitt doesn’t offer much merit for OOS students. My D had pretty high stats (good grades, lots of AP classes, math through AP Calc, 33 ACT, etc.) and she only received a $5k/year merit award.

We visited UConn, but my D did not apply. Clinicals are a long drive—and Storrs, CT is very rural. It just didn’t vibe with my D.

We also looked at the University of South Carolina. It is only direct admit for nursing if your child is accepted to their highly competitive Honors program. The average test scores for applicants admitted to the Honors program are SAT 1430-1530 and ACT 32-35. I think they have like 35 seats or something like that.

Clemson is another one we considered, and it is also becoming more of a reach for nursing. It is also worth noting that part of the Clemson nursing cohort (half??) have to move to Greenville for their last two years for clinical rotations.

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3 Bs. 1 in 9th and 2 in 8th (HS classes taken in middle school). Rest were As. Looks like unweighted GPA might be 3.897.

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Great question. Might have to speak with D first. However, given her interest in emergency medicine, level 1 trauma centers might feature. I know we have 2 in Richmond (VCU & HCA Chippenham).

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In Connecticut, Hartford Hospital, St. Francis Hospital, and Yale New Haven Hospital anre all Level I trauma centers. The Hartford Hospital complex includes the excellent Connecticut Children’s Hospital. Yale New Haven Hospital also includes a children’s hospital.

Massachusetts has 8 Level One trauma centers. The closest to UMass Amherst is Baystate Medical Center in Springfield 25 miles from campus. Boston is loaded with them. The UMass Med School is actually in Worcester and their teaching hospital is also a Level One trauma center.

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I think it $60-65K a year - you have many - from UMASS and UCONN to Delaware although that’s closer to Richmond. Clemson - ehhhh - you’re getting right there today so that might be a bit too far - especially in four years and add the non tuition, room and board - i’d probably drop that. U of SC though - sure. The other thing is you’ve got more rural (Clemson, UCONN) but then in city U of SC. Is there a preference?

Bing, UNH, Hartwick (full pay will be 40s), Seton Hall, TCNJ will hit. And if looking at U of SC, why not UTK?

I think your budget is big enough to include many from the direct admit list. Getting in, I don’t know as I know many are tough for nursing. Clemson I’d let go budget wise and Pitt - you’d need aid help. But many get. But if going that direction which you didn’t mention earlier, then Case Western is another to look at - you’d need aid but it’s another in city school - if that’s what she wants.

Good luck.

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Thanks for this list. I’ll have to ask her about Case Western (and Cleveland). I think someone from her HS soccer team has an older sister there in the nursing program. What about Chicago-area schools? There’s direct flights from Richmond that about 2.5 hours.