Daughter is a junior at a high rigor public school in the northeast. She is a two sport varsity athlete, could likely play D3, but has decided that she wants to focus on academic/social experiences in college, and will play club or intramural. She has a wide array of extra curricular activities, including running special needs sports leagues, reffing youth sports, school service clubs, and lots of babysitting gigs as well awards for athletics.
So, my questions are:
For a kid with a 3.6 unweighted average, 1300 sat, is nursing direct admit even a possibility?
If she is undecided about career path, would she be better off doing a bio/kinesiology pre-professional path (PA/PT)?
Are there any pre-nursing programs that people would recommend to get a taste for the profession (other than Grey’s anatomy and the Pit , which are her current frame of reference )?
I recommend not being a nursing major if she is unsure that she wants to be a nurse. Since she is open to the idea of grad school (PT, PA) then I would go the biology or kinesiology route- she can always do an accelerated nursing program later on if she wants (ABSN).
If she spends the year shadowing and interviewing nurses and decides she loves it, then choosing the major is fine.
I believe that the University of Scanton is direct admit.
What kind of schools is your daughter interested in? Large/medium/small? Urban/suburban/rural? Certain geographical locations? Direct admit nursing programs at state flagship universities and elite universities tend to be very competitive, but there are many direct entry programs which would be happy to admit your daughter, particularly if your daughter is open to smaller schools. Pennsylvania has over 50 direct admit nursing programs and New York and Ohio have quite a few, too. If your daughter is still undecided about a career path by next summer/fall but still considering nursing, it may be better to start in another major or as undecided but plan her coursework carefully to make sure she has taken the necessary prerequisites for an ABSN (or non-direct entry nursing program). There are many nursing or healthcare camps your daughter could attend next summer, but to really get a feel for the various healthcare professions, she might want to do some shadowing or get a CNA certification (if she is old enough in your state) and get a part-time job.
This is great advice, all of my friends who are nurses did CNA work during summers while in college. I think it helps you know pretty quickly how squeamish you are around patients/bodily fluids etc. I will look into it for our state and I will look into camps for next summer. Thx!
Thanks! This is where we are leaning. I know that Junior and senior year are very different for nursing majors because of clinicals, and I’m not sure she wants that or that we want that for her.
Yes, that’s actually partly why she is looking at these careers. Because she is an athlete with a very active personality a desk job would be torture. So she is looking for a career where she can be on her feet. But, my mom and my aunt were nurses, and there were lots of injuries to their colleagues on the job. Safety precautions are better in many places now, but it is still a very really concern.
Can she shadow (if allowed) or maybe spend some time speaking with a nurse at the pediatrician’s office? While this will not give her the whole picture, it might be a place to start.
Is she sure about healthcare and just trying to narrow it down? Note: it’s ok if she enters college and isn’t sure about a major or career.
So, it’s tricky. Our older kids knew the space they wanted to be in, but not specifically what they wanted to do. Oldest is a health science major with an eye on public health/healthcare consulting as an end goal. Middle is a business major with an eye on making as much money as possible, likely in corporate sales (their dad’s career track), this one is a little more tricky. I could see her on a boat in the Galapagos studying the environment and sea turtles, but she wants to continue living here in the northeast and where we live, to own a home you basically need two earners making 150k-200k to buy a starter home. So what I think she would do if we had independent wealth and what I can see her doing to pay the bills are different. The bio major would give her a lot of options to get a grad degree, work in consulting, work for a pharmaceutical company etc. So I think she is leaning that way. I hate that our kids even have to think this way, but they understand where we live and what it takes to survive here, so it makes the conversation take on a more practical tone.
If she likes biology that might be her best option, given she is open to graduate school. Once she is in college she will have time to explore.
I would focus on finding a school she likes at a price that works for your family. If she comes to the realization that she loves nursing, she/you can plan accordingly. Nurses can do well financially, but it is really a calling (imo) and is not for everybody.
One of my kids was a biology major - if you have any questions.
Back to your first question and there’s time before the student chooses a career but yes, Kinesiology may open more doors later - but with a 3.6 and 1300 SAT, can she get in somewhere direct admit? I’m guessing yes - there will be a wide variety of schools. Some, like ASU, show minimums that she meets but may be harder. I suspect schools like Belmont, Marhsall, FAU which requires a 3.6 and 25, Carlow where she’s well above.
I think the bigger question is figuring out if she wants to be a nurse - while it seems like maybe it’s not the right path, there is time to explore and validate.
Maybe this thread will give some other ideas for further exploration. It literally popped the other day.
My daughter just got her DPT at BU, undergrad in exercise science at UDel (they have a top DPT program too). She was a 3 sport varsity athlete (xc/winter track/spring track), a competitive Irish dancer, and spent a ton of time in PT herself. She shadowed PT in high school. She could never have a desk job, very into fitness (running a marathon next month). She really didn’t want the bodily fluids of nursing (although obviously she deals with some - works at a hospital which she found she loved during clinicals). She got into a couple of direct admit 3 x 3 programs but decided against it just in case she wanted to change paths (she didn’t but wanted to go to a different university for grad school in a city). She graduated with a 3.9 gpa and was accepted at every DPT program she applied to. After graduation she had job offers the next week (pretty nice salary). She’s very happy with how things worked out. Keep in mind that early lab science courses tend to be weed-outs, my daughter had only one B in HS and freaked out a bit before realizing they were all on the chemistry struggle bus and she just needed to dedicate most of her time to studying it.
I get it, we live in northeast NJ, lots of my kids friends are living in Hoboken, manhattan, Brooklyn, homes in our town are expensive, a few this month sold for over a million. My daughter’s boyfriend of 6+ years who she met freshman year, same major, just got his doctorate in chiropractic medicine (he’s from Long Island). Hopefully they’ll make enough to stay.
If she goes the biology/kinesiology route I would look carefully at the courses and decide which one she prefers. She can get to a career in healthcare from either, but there are differences between the two degrees and she may prefer one over the other.
I have been a nurse for 30 years and been teaching it for almost 10 years. Physical assaults do happen but not enough to turn me away from working in healthcare (and yes, I have been hit, kicked, scratched, and spit on). The risk of injury varies based on specialty and patient population you deal with most.
Grey’s Anatomy is nothing like actually working in healthcare. The Pitt does an excellent job of showing what its like in a busy ER/Trauma Center but people need to realize that even at those top level 1 academic medical centers that 80% of the nurses working hours are spent with non emergent “not exciting” cases (and I worked at a level 1 trauma center as a staff nurse over 20 years).
If she isn’t sure about nursing, do not do a direct admit nursing program. If she thinks she might want nursing though, do not go to a college that has direct admit nursing with the plan that you will be able to transfer in later. In my almost 10 years I think we have had maybe 2 or 3 students be able to transfer into our highly ranked direct admit nursing program.
If she does do a more general healthcare or science degree and then decides later she wants to go into nursing, there are accelerated BSN or ABSN and even direct admin MSN-RN programs (they do NOT become an NP in those programs but do get grad school loan options).
Other healthcare careers (that can be earned or started on a traditional 4 year campus): there are a few 4 year sonagraphy degrees now. Radiation therapist/Nuclear med tech. Optometrist. PA. Dietician. Pathologist Assistant. Medical dosimetrist. Anesthesia Assistant (limited states). Perfusionist. Audiologist. Speech therapist.
Many of my students want to be NP or CRNA. NP schools are very easy to get into. Basically you can find any online NP school that will accept you as long as you are willing to pay (and yes I hate that there are degree mills out there and hate this about the nursing profession). In my almost 10 years I have had so many students say they want to do CRNA and I think I’ve had maybe 2 students succeed at getting into a school and completing it. Some schools are expanding their CRNA programs but they are competitive, costly, and students typically need to be willing to move.
Social media can glamorize nursing a bit. It is a job, not a personality. I wish I got paid more but overall I love my career choice and have no regrets.
, which are her current frame of reference )?