Just checking in with this group. Hopefully, everyone survived November 1st!
We traveled back-to-back weekends to look at nursing programs. First was Case Western. We got a private tour of nursing, which is in the relatively new Health Education Campus building. It’s about 0.60 miles from campus, right across the street from the Cleveland Clinic. We walked it (nice day), but there are frequent shuttles. The facility is pretty amazing. It houses the CWRU med school and dental school too, and there are some unique interdisciplinary labs/simulations (nursing and med students together). Clinical time starts freshman year. My D liked everything about the nursing program there.
Next was an admitted student day at Pitt. This was also a good visit (and D’s second time there). They ran a very well-organized and fun program – with lots of swag, energy, and school spirit. We got our nursing questions answered and really liked the overall campus/student vibe a lot. [My D didn’t say this explicitly, but I think she would love to be able to combine the facilities at CWRU with the school spirit and overall vibe at Pitt…]
At this point, D is ready for a mental health break from college applications! No more college visits until the spring, and very little left to do on the application side of things. She ended up applying EA to the following nursing programs: Pitt (admitted with GAP and Honors), Iowa (admitted with nursing supplement still to do), Marquette, Creighton, TCU, Miami, Tennessee, Michigan, Villanova, Case Western, and USF-CA. She also threw an application at our state flagship (non-nursing), and might do one or two RD applications TBD.
How is everyone else doing? Please post your updates and results here. I have heard that Creighton’s decisions started rolling out last Friday (we have not heard personally yet).
Hi all! I’ve followed the nursing threads in past years and they were very helpful in building a list for my Class of 2030 daughter. She just finished submitting all her applications for the Nov. 1 deadline, so I thought I would contribute her list.
Boston College (reach and we probably can’t afford it, but she wanted one dream school on her list!)
Catholic Univ of America
Creighton Univ
Gonzaga Univ
Hope College
Loyola Univ Chicago
Marquette Univ
Mount Saint Mary’s Univ
Point Loma Nazarene Univ
Sacred Heart Univ
Salve Regina Univ
St. Olaf College
Univ of Portland
Univ of San Francisco
Villanova Univ
She’s looking for a smaller, friendly campus that feels like a community, with genuinely kind students. She’d like an established BSN program at a school with solid academics. Religious schools are fine, as you can probably tell by her list, as long as that doesn’t mean strongly politically conservative. We’re looking at direct-admit almost exclusively. (Hope College is not, but it seems like a pretty straightforward entry process sophomore year). As we visit or hear from schools, I’ll be sure to update!
This is a great list. We have a lot of overlapping schools, so I am excited to see how this plays out for our kids. Keep us posted. (Also, once acceptances start rolling in, would you be willing to post stats? Thanks!)
Our good news is a little merit from Pitt this week!
Just an update on my S26. Was also accepted to Binghamton and West Virginia (safety). Still waiting on his top choices as previously mentioned, 19 schools all together. Pitt was big. Just going to wait and see what makes sense financially after all decisions are in.
Any more decisions? My kid checked their Loyola Chicago portal last night and found an acceptance! They had not received an email, so maybe worth checking if your student applied there too. Also received an acceptance from University of Portland last week. They’re feeling better with those first two in their pocket!
Same for my daughter! It’s great to have some acceptances rolling in direct and non-direct! I feel like she’ll have a better idea once we get through the next month of decisions! It’s a lot!
For those who already applied to Creighton – time for a portal check! My D was accepted tonight with $31k/year (and an invitation to apply for $40k/yr Harper Nursing Scholars). It is officially our cheapest option so far….
I have a question for all. Is prestige worth the price of admission? Yes, our kids may be accepted to a Top 5, or Top 20 school for BSN….but does it justify the price tag? For example, s26 was accepted to Pitt, arguably one of the best programs in the nation, but it pretty expensive (68k, still hasnt been notified of any merit). He also may get accepted to Rutgers Honors College which is top 45 and can graduate debt free.
We are thinking maybe its a best option to attend a school where i can get him through college debt free, then we break the piggy bank when he gets into CRNA DNP graduate school for best education.
Any inputs would be great. Good, bad or indiffrent. lol
For nursing it doesn’t matter what school. I would save the money for grad school. My daughter got her BSN via a DA program and loved it - she has thanked us numerous times that we ensured she had no debt. She even bought a condo, 2 years after graduation while many of her friends are paying struggling to pay their loans back.
Pitt is my kid’s #1 right now too – we have visited twice, and loved it both times!
In response to your second question, personal finances will play a huge factor in whether a particular school is “worth it” or not (i.e., what stretches one family might not impact another). I have heard that college prestige does not matter much for nursing, but there are certainly other factors that might tip the scale towards a more expensive option. That being said, I think the conventional wisdom is to try to avoid college debt whenever possible (regardless of major, honestly)
We did a tour early last year and when school came to visit his HS he sat down for the seminar. Other than opening emails and researching the school, not too much more than that.
@aewlmom Yes, we have visited once during the summer and will go again in February for thier accepted “nursing” tour. Lets see how that goes. He already loves the school, this may put him over the top. lol We are looking forward to it.
As far as the finances…i totally agree. I just want him not to be overlooked when applying for CNRA, as UPMC is one of the best, if not the best for clinicals in the nation. There is still hope to see if he receives any merit. We will way all of our options for sure.
Did he get the GAP acceptance at Pitt by chance? My D (who may also be interested in a CRNA or other DNP program) was accepted to GAP and Honors at Pitt, which makes it even more enticing. However, she only received $5k/year merit, so there’s that too….
We didnt apply for GAP, since he isnt interested in PA or NP at the moment. Pre-requisites are working in ICU for 1-2 years before applying to CRNA school, so we skipped that. As for Honors, and Merit. We havent received any information as of yet, signs dont look good if you already have..lol No merit at UPitt doesnt exactly leave it at the top of the list for us.
He may change his mind about graduate school, but hes been dead set on becaoming an Anesthesiologist for a while now. Taking the CNRA route for less schooling/college debt and no residency persay….only made his choice that much clearer for him.
Now for CNRA degree, we can break the piggy bank on that for sure.
For Seton Hall….she got the ol’ “you haven’t demonstrated interest but you are a good candidate” letter. I hear this is very important there. We are scheduled to tour and she will now interview there Dec 8.
BUT, great news she got accepted to St John’s (Honors program too) with close to 50k/year in scholarship money. This is what she needed….that first acceptance! It helps her breathe a bit going into the next month when they will all start coming in. We haven’t toured or been to St JOhn’s so if she thinks it’s somewhere she wants to be, we will set that up soon.
Congratulations!! Thats awesome. The first one is definitely a relief knowing your accepted to a direct admit. Good luck to the rest coming out very shortly. Sounds like your from Tri-State area? We are in Jersey. Didnt apply to Rutgers?
I didnt know Seton Hall was so heavy on the “show interest”. He doesnt have Seton Hall high on his list due to Nursing Campus being 30 min away from main campus.