I can’t recall the class size. Clinicals were all around town including childrens, the VA, CHI health, methodist system. I can’t speak for averages but my student was test-optional with WGPA 4.1 and unweighted 3.84 and she was accepted early on. Admissions are rolling and she applied in early Oct and heard back the second week of Nov with good merit aid which was really nice.
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My older son just finished his sophomore year in nursing at Catholic University. They have an amazing rugby team! They went to nationals last year in Huston and the elite 8 this year in the southern conference. They are now a premier D3 team and no longer a club. The coaches are incredible and the families we’ve met through the team tailgating are so much fun! CUA opened a new nursing facility last year and it’s a gorgeous building! My son is so happy there and it great to visit. I’m not sure what son2 is going to do but he’s also looking for nursing/rugby combo.
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Do you know where Fairfield and SHU do their clinicals? When my cousin did nursing at Fairfield many years ago, her clinicals were in Stamford and she needed a car or car pool. Things may have changed.
St. Joe’s in West Hartford is very small (800) but they have a lovely suburban campus and a direct admit nursing program.
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Bridgeport, Yale, St Vincents, Stamford, etc…all over. There are many Nursing schools in the area so they do travel
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Do Fairfield and SHU really use Yale for clinicals? I wasn’t aware that they did. That would be great!
I know that UConn also uses Yale for clinicals – but it is quite a long drive!
Yes, it’s on Fairfield’s list and mentioned when we visited. Bpt Hospital is also Yale New Haven Health (YNHH).
I believe URI and Brown also share a nursing building outside Providence.
Hi! We are from NC too. Where did she choose to attend?
She chose USC - Columbia. She got into the Honors College / Smart Start program which is a direct admit. Since North Carolina public universities don’t have DA programs, it was a safer bet and she loves the university.
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How does she like the Smart Start program? USC is on my kid’s list (she has relatively high stats – 1410 SAT and 33 ACT (35 science/35 math), 3.79 UW GPA / 4.9 W GPA, 10 AP classes with 4-5 scores, etc.) – but there were a few things that gave pause. First, are the honors requirements (on top of the BSN requirements) difficult to meet? My kid might get overwhelmed with the double requirements. Second, does it impact the college experience having the nursing building off campus? Finally, wondering how far clinicials are from campus? TIA for the info. Also curious which other schools she looked at/considered… Again, thanks.
The Smart Start program has a very detailed path to ensure that all students can easily meet both the Honors and BSN requirements. It is much more rigid than other majors, primarily due to the fact that by junior year all of your classes are within the nursing program. Smart Start has made some of the nursing classes honors level which was really nice and many of the other pre-reqs for nursing outside of the department also have honors versions. She particularly liked that with chemistry and anatomy and physiology I where the class size was <20 vs. 80-250 in the general versions. Like your child, my daughter came in with a lot of credits (I think 45 or 48) that pretty much checked off all of the USC gen ed requirements so that left only the honors and nursing requirements. All lower level nursing classes are on the main campus so their first two years are just like all the other students. She has been to the upper level nursing building to tour it when she was taking the honors genetics class because the Smart Start kids got to work in the labs of the hospital that is on the same campus.
Nursing students will need a car once they start upper division. My daughter doesn’t know where she’ll choose to live junior year. Right now she thinks she’ll try to find another nursing student to share an apartment closer to the Upper Division Nursing building. It’s across the river so rent is definitely cheaper than living on or near the main campus. Plus, parking is free at the nursing building (unlike main campus). So far, she’s only heard good things from the upper division students about the move to the new building. Clinicals are typically around Columbia but can be up to 45 minutes away, I think. Most are within the Lexington and Prisma hospital systems though.
As for other schools she considered: she got into many but the top contenders were USC, Pitt, Clemson, UNC-CH (but it is not direct admit), Marquette, and Miami University of Ohio (by far the cheapest option due to merit).
She really loved her freshman year at USC. She has met some wonderful students while there both within and outside of the honors college.
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For BSN 2030 candidates interested in Pitt: my daughter will be starting there this Fall for BSN/Honors (class of 2029). She was told by Pitt staff they had a record number of applicants this year - well over 4,000. More students accepted offers than expected so while the goal was 250 her class is around 295. Admit rate about 12% for class of 2029. (It was 18% the year before according to a Pitt presentation). Honors might be around 2% of all applicants but that’s an estimate based on number attending.
If you are interested in Pitt, apply as early as you can since they are rolling admission. Demonstrated interest is important to Pitt.
Sharing as it was hard to find info when she was working on her college list and applying last year. Good luck!
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Daughter with GPA 3.5, SAT will likely be 1100-1200.
For anyone with stats in this range, which DA BSN schools are you looking at?
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where are you located and what geographical area does she want? Small? Medium? Large?
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Have you looked at Creighton, St. Louis University, and Marquette?
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It’s always fascinating to see the variation in what different students get. Mine also was admitted to some of the ones on your list as well as others that are DA. But what caught my eye was you saying that Miami Ohio was the cheapest option. It wasn’t for mine. There were about 5 less expensive and USC (with Smart Start program) was by far the least expensive.
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Did you end up at USC Smart Start? This was high on my D’s list initially, but she has some concerns regarding the additional Honors requirement and off-campus nursing facility. Thoughts?