Is Penn State worth it?

Yeah, you probably won’t be able to get residency after the first year even if your parent lives in PA. The best you could do is move to PA and start next year, which might work - but might not, as that might even be defined as moving there primarily for education purposes since if you defer admissions it’ll be pretty obvious what you’re doing. I’d check on that before making any decisions, but if you attend starting in Fall 2015, you’ll be OOS for tuition purposes.

And for that, I wouldn’t pay PSU prices. Nursing isn’t really that much of a prestige-focused industry unless you want to go into leadership or research or something. Also note that if you are going to the main campus (University Park), you have to spend one year at the medical center campus in Hershey, which is about 2 hours away down near Harrisburg.

Nurses make good money, but not crazy money. How much would you, personally, have to borrow? Remember that undergraduates can only borrow $5,500-7,500 per year (depending on which year it is), and that anything over around $30,000 you’d have to borrow from a private bank with a co-signer - which isn’t a great idea.