@DiotimaDM, a good friend works for a company that owns emergency department and anesthesia physican practices. He says that if it were his kid, he’d recommend the PA route. They get paid well and he sees their use increasing.
@mstomper I am a huge fan of the Finger Lakes, they will have such a blast 
but it’s definitely a party heavy place so you can be sure they will just be enjoying the lake and having a nice relaxing time together!
I want to add that my husband and I really did ADORE William & Mary…I would have been so happy if she had applied there.
@AmyBeth68 as my wife and I walked off campus we looked at each other and said we would go ED. The only problem is daughter said I am never going here… End of consideration…
Oops @mstomper THERE WAS A TYPO up in my response that I can’t fix haha. It is definitely NOT in any way a party heavy place haha. It’s a relaxing fun place, and perfect for young people to have a lot of outdoor hiking and lake time. Haha. Sorry for the confusion!!! Oops.
@amybeth68, I figured it was a typo. I’d never heard of anyone claiming that region was party central. The lake will probably be very, very cold. Not long after that his grandparents are taking him to London. We won’t be seeing much of him in June.
Funny reading about W&M. I loved it, but my d couldn’t get past colonial Williamsburg.
Applied EA to 9 schools, accepted at all.
Visited and applied:
Baylor
TCU
Texas A&M
Mississippi
Alabama
Texas Tech (not an official visit, but went for my niece’s graduation and saw parts of campus)
UTD (not an official visit, but stopped by impromptu when we were in the area…I went to grad school here so showed him some spots…a LOT has changed in 23 years!!)
Applied without visiting:
SMU
Clemson
Visited but did not apply:
UT-Austin (no merit)
Southwestern (too small)
Tulane (this was a favorite for DS early on but he saw the scholarship essay prompts and changed his mind)
LSU (DS didn’t like for some unknown reason)
Samford (too small)
Rice (it is a beautiful campus but we were NOT at all impressed with the tour, presentation, marketing, or the $25 parking fee) DS said it looked really boring 
I’m reposting because it’s too late to edit, I totally forgot about some schools, and I thought I would add some information about why my son didn’t apply to some of the schools we visited:
We visited:
University of Oregon
Lafayette
Muhlenberg
Swarthmore
Columbia
UCs: Cal, Irvine, UCLA, UCSB, UCSC
SDSU
Pitt
Lewis & Clark
Macalester
NYU
Stanford
Santa Clara
Fordham
Penn
Applied:
Columbia ED (Denied)
Pitt (Accepted, Honors, Merit)
SDSU: Pending
UC (Irvine, UCSD, Cal, UCLA): Pending
NYU RD: Pending
UMN - haven’t visited (Accepted, Honors, Merit)
University of Denver EA - haven’t visited (Accepted, Honors, Merit)
University of Puget Sound EA- haven’t visited (Accepted)
Willamette - haven’t visited (Accepted)
Northeastern EA - haven’t visited (Pending)
University of Maryland - haven’t visited (Pending)
WashU - haven’t visited (Pending)
George Washington - haven’t visited (Pending)
American - haven’t visited (Pending)
Did not apply:
University of Oregon (not enough OOS merit aid and too far from internship/job opportunities)
Lafayette (not enough merit aid expected, borderline too small of a town, although he liked it)
Muhlenberg (he didn’t like the feel of it, they sent a letter after the visit saying he should come out to do an interview without acknowledging he had visited and participated in an info session, definitely too suburban for him)
Swarthmore (not bustling enough, no merit aid)
Lewis & Clark (not bustling enough, too suburban, tour guide seemed very uninformed)
Macalester (this was a close call - a lot to like - but in the end decided he would not get enough merit aid and he did NOT like the freshman dorms)
Stanford (of course a huge reach, but he didn’t like the campus after doing a summer camp there)
Santa Clara (too close to home, not urban enough, prefers nonreligious)
UCSB (not urban enough, beach isn’t his thing)
UCSC (too close to home, too removed from the downtown area)
Fordham (I thought he would really like the LC location and merit aid looked probable, but he felt the info session was heavier on religion than he expected and the overall vibe was surprisingly blah for a NYC location)
Penn (loved the campus and location but big reach, no merit aid, and too Greek for his taste)
I think I got them all!
@DiotimaDM I can only speak to what we’ve found during this BSN search for DD.
To a big degree, it doesn’t matter where you get your BSN from (state school, private, it doesn’t matter). Pass that NCLEX and you are an RN. If you have a higher goal of going on to med school that will obviously change, but if your first goal is to be an RN, passing the NCLEX is key. From what I have read, the BSN is the wave of the future and many places are starting to hire/promote only those with a BSN degree.
Many if not all hospitals have a tuition program where they will pay for classes towards your MSN.
Most places we have looked at do not recommend a dual major. Some allow a minor, if there is enough overlap. But between heavy science and time-consuming clinicals it can be a challenge.
If he is not going direct-admit as a freshman, there is competition to advance in the nursing major. Most schools rank their non-DA students based on science GPA, and those students get to advance to sophomore year classes and clinicals. That’s why my DD was so focused on direct admit programs.
@mstomper I am from the Finger Lakes. Feel free to PM me with where they are going and any questions you have.
@DiotimaDM my D is planning on going the PA route. Was originally going to BSN to nurse practitioner which is what I thought was the better route, but she really had no desire to do nursing to start. She would really like to be an MD but we all agreed it’s just not worth the time and money to get there. She is hoping to do a residency in surgery as a PA.
In other news, D16 leaves for a semester in Italy today. I’m so happy she gets to have this great experience. I’m only a little nervous
@DiotimaDM lots of nurses in my family and I am married to one. Can’t go wrong with a BSN. I am also in healthcare and where I work PA and NP are same level. BSN to NP doesn’t appear to be that big a jump.
Good luck! I would have been thrilled if D wanted to do anything in healthcare. Couldn’t br further from who she is. Oh well. We’ve learned to embrace our artsy kid
My D’s friend is doing a 5yr PA program. She is taking a lot of classes that would work for premed as well.
I wonder if he could combine BS EMS with the prerequisites for PA.
Then his patient hours could be from working as an EMT.
@DiotimaDM I haven’t really posted much in here, but I saw your comment re: your DS and nursing. My S16 was a nursing major until recently (3 semesters). I think it would have been impossible for him to even consider a double major where he is due to the different requirements between the schools (School of Nursing and Arts & Sciences). There also seems to be only a little overlap between the nursing classes, which seemed to be specific to the nursing school, and the pre-med requirements - eg nursing majors don’t need to take organic chemistry, etc. I would strongly suggest shadowing as much as possible. Although my S16 was an EMT and volunteered with our local ambulance squad for 2 years before college, he realized when his clinicals started last fall that nursing (or any other healthcare profession) was not for him.
@katstat1, my older D leaves today for study abroad too! I’m so excited for her. Here’s to a smooth travel day for them both!
S’18 started second semester today. Grades are locked for ranking. Seniors don’t take finals. Not sure where the motivation for this semester will come from. Fortunately, he has his own internal drive to do well.
DD2018 starts 2md semester classes today too. She is off first period and doesn’t have to be at school until 8:15, so gets to sleep in a bit. I told her this is what her life will be like in college: 8am class, 4 or 5 classes that count a lot and are heavily dependent on the finals.
Grades are locked as well. No finals if you miss less than 3 classes (we will spend this semester praying she does not get sick!) She still has 3 AP exams so there is still a need to be diligent about studying.
State cheer competition this weekend and Nationals are the last weekend of January, then she is done with cheer after 12 years. Cheer has been a huge time manager over the years. It will be interesting to see how she handles the glut of time on her hands!
I’m going to post on this, not trying to offend anyone! I’m a doctor. I could not be a nurse. I’m way too bossy and opinionated. I like to be in charge. The way healthcare is going, nurses have less and less autonomy. (So do doctors by the way—insurance companies are actually running much of the show these days.) I could be a CRNA or NP I guess, but I wouldn’t want the bother of getting through nursing school to get there.
I would be thrilled if one of my kids wanted to be a physician. (They don’t want to at this time.) I have 2 siblings who are also physicians and they also would like their kids to do it! I would probably recommend specializing unless, like me, you are too ADHD to make a choice. I would say my surgeon sister is the most satisfied of us all.
Nursing is totally essential and I love and respect the nurses I work with, but it’s just not my personality. I strongly recommend shadowing all different types of healthcare providers before making any decisions. Although people do switch from nursing to medicine, it is not easy. A lot of times the nursing courses won’t count towards the medical school prerequisites, so be careful.
Both my kids applied to 6/7 schools.
We’ve toured:
USCw
SLO
UCSB
UCI
UCSD
If S doesn’t get into SLO we’re probably going to go tour Colorado St. and Mines (he also was accepted to Mt. St., WSU, and Wyoming but has probably eliminated them, though he just got WUE to Mt. St. so that may be back on as possible).
Personally I hated the college tours. Maybe because we toured similar schools, but I though they were a waste of time and didn’t really tell me anything about the school.
I am a UCI grad and didn’t think the tour said anything meaningful about the school.
During the USC tour DH and I went to a bar across the street and had a beer while the kids toured. I’m glad we didn’t do too many tours.
@SC Anteater - I live in Fort Collins and have toured Wyoming and Mines if you have any questions. My son was accepted to Mt. State as well but we never visited.