You are correct about UConn’s direct admit being to their BSN program. And congratulation on that acceptance! Being in Connecticut, I have known of cases where UConn students had to apply for nursing as an internal transfer after they had proven themselves with coursework and grades at the college level. UConn must consider your daughter very well qualified.
You raise a very interesting question about the importance of academics in nursing. My perspective is as the father of a daughter who is an intensive care nurse at a top research hospital in NYC, who also worked at a top research hospital in Boston, and who is currently in a graduate NP program.
I expect that academic standing does matter when applying to graduate programs although graduate programs fall into 2 different categories. An NP program, while on the graduate level, is still a practitioner’s degree. In contrast, a PhD is a research degree, so I expect that academic credentials would be more important for that kind of program than for a practitioner’s degree. In all cases, grad schools vary in their selectivity and what factors they consider just as undergraduate colleges do.
Many flagship universities were established as “land grant” colleges and were therefore located in rural locations because educating students for agriculture was a priority for land grant colleges. UConn, for example, was once referred to derisively around here as a “cow college”. While the universities have grown into academic powerhouses for many things other than agriculture, their locations haven’t changed. For this reason, UConn, UMass, and Penn State have their medical schools located elsewhere so they can have access to research hospitals. Unfortunately the nursing schools are still located in the rural locations making it very inconvenient for these students to get to any sort of hospital that meets the needs for their clinical training. Penn State nursing students who are at their main campus spend junior year at the med school campus in Hershey, as I recall, because that’s where they can get the necessary clinicals which aren’t available in State College.
The schools from your list which are in cities where research hospitals are right nearby are Pitt, UVM, and Simmons. Since the demise of the steel industry, Pittsburgh recreated itself with health care as one of its primary industries and employment centers. I would imagine that’s a great place to get trained as a nurse. Burlington is not Boston, but it is the biggest city in that part of New England & Upstate NY AND it is the location of UVM’s med school, so I would think there are reasonably good clinicals right there.
To respond directly to your question about Simmons, I would think that it has a dream location for a nursing student as long as you’re okay with everything else that goes along with being a student at Simmons. Those kids are literally across the street from the cluster of world class hospitals which form the training center for Harvard Medical School. My limited understanding is that Simmons has a very good reputation in nursing and that it would be reputable for application to grad school. There are certain things that Simmons does extremely well. Training teachers and nurses are 2 of them. To the extent that grad school is a concern, I suggest that you ask Admissions to arrange for you to speak with a nursing faculty rep or alum about their experience with grad school admissions if that’s a Hugh priority for your daughter.
Best of luck with the process.