We live in the Western US but may be moving East, so we aren’t shutting down too many areas except for the fact that she would not do well in extreme heat.
Yes, does sound similar! Seems like you will have some really good choices, definitely tour and just see what resonates. Your daughter should be fine. Thanks for the congrats! She’s so excited–and relieved.
Just throwing it out there as a nurse practitioner
She should go to a school that had the best NCLeX pass rate
I think most of the schools we’ve seen so far have above 90%!
As someone else noted, Creighton might be worth a look. It’s a very up and coming popular choice.
Marquette will have a brand new nursing building for her to learn in.
We saw some of the new building at Marquette when we toured, it was very nice!
I haven’t seen Loyola Chicago mentioned - friends have a daughter in the nursing program there. A second for University of San Francisco - both Jesuit, both direct entry BSN. Good luck to your daughter!
My youngest, HS Class of 22, applied to schools for nursing. If your daughter has high test scores and a high GPA, there are schools that she will almost certainly get in, and those are DE.
My youngest had an okay GPA of 3.5uw, 3.77w, and a solid SAT of 1480 (740V, 740M). She applied to and got into Pitt, Duquesne, Xavier, Drexel, and Temple. She then changed her mind on nursing, withdrew her Pitt acceptance to nursing and applied to Dietrich Arts & Sciences (long story, but decided nursing wasn’t for her, and doing a social science and a CS degree).
Any of the schools I mentioned would be an almost certain acceptance (just apply early in the process). Duquesne is a good one for an easy admit, in a city with great medical facilities. It is also a really neat campus that is in a city, but is somehow “tucked away” such that it doesn’t feel like you’re in a city when you’re on campus.
OP it appears (?) to me that UMass Amherst has DE nursing and your daughter would be a very competitive applicant (based on what you have written).
Since you have looked at OSU and Case, why not Cincinnati? Yes, my daughter is a BSN grad from there so I’m a little biased, lol. But it is a very good program that has most (all?) of its clinicals within a 20 minute drive of campus. It also has a very good co-op program that feeds into local hospitals for post-grad employment. It is a true direct admit program - admitted as a freshman, as long as you keep a decent GPA you stay in (I want to say it’s a 3.0, but doublecheck that).
Thanks! Do you have to have a car for the clinicals?
Some students do car pool. I guess you could walk to UCMC if your clinicals are there, but it’s tough after a 12-hour shift (and in the evening). My suggestion is, at least after sophomore year, get a car.
My daughter found it easier to have her own car, since she could get there as early as she wanted to (because, of course, if you are on time you are late).
I would plan on a car for every nursing major once they start clinical.
How realistic, for a family that can’t afford a car/insurance, to use Uber?
I mostly just don’t want to plan to send all of my kids to college with cars! My oldest has survived 3 years so far without one at his school, but he doesn’t have to go off campus much except to the store and airport, and we hire drivers for that…
My daughter also hates driving! After she got her license she declared she wouldn’t drive anymore!
My daughter at Charleston doesn’t have a car. Scares me at home when she drives. She spends $100-200 in warm months on Ubers…that’s fine to me. Less in cold months.
Perhaps (I don’t know) how often clinicals are but that’s a possible solution if there’s not a school vehicle to borrow or easy bus transport or other student going at the same time?
A school probably has "guidance’ on how students get to clinicals…I’d imagine…if you ask.
My older daughter had a car during her senior year because she needed it. I was a nervous wreck and was happy for the lack of snow that winter (upstate NY!). I had her pack a bag and leave it in the car in case she needed to go to a hotel.
My younger one did not have a car in college - she is now in grad school and still doesn’t need one. She will have rotations but can use public transportation and Ubers. She doesn’t want a car and we are fine with her taking Ubers 2x weekly.
I would ask the schools where the clinicals are etc, as noted above.
For the car question (which is a very interesting discussion!) I would take into consideration where the student lives and where the clinicals are. I know more about Cincinnati, obviously, but some clinicals are far away and public transport might not be feasible or safe. We never investigated ubers.
My daughter liked being able to leave for clinicals when she wanted, and then being able to get home to do those lovely care plans lol. She did not want to car pool with anyone, because the people she knew she did not trust to be on time for anything (and they were indeed late sometimes). She got a good used car (right before Covid) that I am currently driving since she upgraded and bought her own car recently.
I think in most schools you will know who is in your clinicals before they start, so there is the option for carpooling. But I would not count on that.
How sure is your daughter about nursing?
I think she is all in! She did a shadow and a lot of volunteering that I think could have changed her mind by now, and she doesn’t want to go to medical school, so she doesn’t see it as a stop along the way, she wants to be a nurse. I think she will probably go for an advanced degree later in nursing.