I am also realizing you really need to read the fine print. Penn State main campus checks all her boxes other than weather. They have a phenomenal nursing program, direct entry. BUT they have to live in Hershey, PA for all of either junior year or senior year for clinicals at Hershey Medical Center. A phenomenal experience I am sure, but it means being off campus and away from the campus culture she is so desperately looking for. So she won’t even consider it. We only discovered this last night reading through all their program information.
3 Likes
From what I’ve seen, by the time the nursing students are doing clinicals, they aren’t spending Thursday night-early Monday morning “partaking” of campus culture anyway. Game weekends are often like any other weekend. Studying, sleeping, some exercise to stay healthy, repeat.
So maybe have your D talk to some fourth year nursing students to get a handle on how important campus culture is by the time you’re at that stage? It’s fun and huge and a great way to meet people freshman year. And friendships solidify sophomore year. But if she’s serious about nursing- and it sounds like she is- being in a rah rah culture vs. getting fantastic training at Hershey may not be the trade-off it seems to be.
The daughter of a close friend was adamant that she wanted a “fun city” (didn’t care about the campus culture). It was indeed fun freshman and sophomore year. But by the time clinicals rolled around, she could have been anywhere (except her city had good public transportation so no need for a car to get to the hospital). She has her close friends, she had a demanding work schedule, there really wasn’t time to be waiting on lines to get discounted tickets for improv, theater, concerts, etc.
1 Like