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