I expect one can get an outstanding education in nursing at any of the schools being considered by the OP. And there is a tremendous demand for nurses right now.
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Consider the following:
- Net price and debt.
- Direct admit or not?
- If direct admit, what are the progression grade and GPA requirements?
- If not direct admit, what are the secondary admission criteria and competitiveness?
That can be said about many schools and professions.
OP is looking at substantial debt to attend Pitt. I’m just reassuring the OP that it’s not necessary to attend a top ranked program to be a successful nurse.
Another example is a cousin who graduated from the same, small nursing school as my wife. Her first job was at Massachusetts General. Nursing is a very portable career and what you do after graduation will matter more than the school you attended. Good luck.
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all true, I agree.
just saying if the cost is not so different- being in the medical community at Pitt is exciting. I know this firsthand.
Each family’s financial situation is unique and will look at costs differently.
We don’t know OP’s family’s financial situation, so let’s not spend their money. If that extra $80K would all be financed with loans, or paying that money would impact the parents’ retirement savings…probably doesn’t make sense to attend Pitt. Lots of college communities are ‘exciting’. Fundamentally, if one has financial constraints, like most undergrads do, ‘exciting’ isn’t one of the main factors to consider.
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I agree. I got the sense from OP’s original posts that they were already looking beyond their most affordable options.
I do not believe in taking on much debt, if any. And certainly these schools are all good. I wouldn’t add financial stress, either.
Wow.
The OP is not going to be working on cutting edge research/clinical trials of AI powered robotic arms. The OP is not going to be part of a transplant team using titanium organs developed in a lab. The OP is not going to be developing new clinical trial protocols for lung cancer based on data analysis of huge long term survival rates from around the world going back 20 years.
The OP is going to be training as a nurse. Working hard on being the best possible professional and meeting all licensing requirements. And the OP has budgetary concerns.
Let’s be sensitive to the OP’s actual situation- and not pretend that the OP is a doctoral candidate in bio-engineering wondering Pitt vs. a university nobody has ever heard of.
OP- all of these are fine programs. Do a deep dive with your parents and figure out- at a granular level- what the four year financing plan looks like. What gets cut from the family budget and is everyone on board. What will your loan repayment schedule look like, and are you prepared to live in a tight budget for the years and years and years required to make those payments?
Good luck! Great options.
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One more important thing to consider are clinical opportunities and location. Not all schools have clinical opportunities nearby. You might have to account for transportation.
This is one of the big draws for Pitt. They have just about everything on or near campus.
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Yeah that is definitely a perk that Pitt has over umass and udel.
Most of the schools I got into are all around the same price. There isn’t a school less than 34,000 for nursing if I don’t commute. I found that a lot of the schools have a higher tuition for nursing majors.
Just dropping into to say UMASS-Amherst is a rural location. Great small town with some smaller regional hospitals in the area (one affiliated with MGH). You can catch AMTRAK a 1/2 hour away, but Logan Airport is Boston is 2.5 hours away. My STEM kid loves it at UMASS, but I am sure UDEL is equally strong.
Attend the admitted students programs at TCNJ and Rutgers as well as the others.
Paging @2plustrio
Thoughts:
Direct admit over indirect always.
I would not take out more than 40k of debt total over the 4 years.
Many colleges will require a car for clinicals but do have to consider that as well.
Where you go will not matter for jobs. You do not have to work in the state you go to nursing school at. You can take your boards/NCLEX at any state of your choosing after graduating with your BSN.
Yes you can drop to biology or biomed if you don’t want to do nursing. You will NOT be able to transfer into nursing at most direct admit nursing programs.
I know a few PAs who were able to fit those special prereqs into their nursing program and worked as nurses while getting their hours in before applying to PA school.
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UDel is in a small college town but not far from Christiana or Wilmington, both of which have hospitals – In fact Wilmington is the home of Nemours Childrens, an excellent hospital that draws patients from around the country. UDel also a short train ride/commute to Philadelphia, where you can walk from the train station to CHOP or Penn Medicine hospitals - both systems are top notch world famous hospitals. There’s an Amtrak station on the UDel campus. If UDel is your cheapest option, I’d go with it - you won’t have hospitals walking distance from campus as you do with Pitt, but you’ll have plenty of choices for clinicals.
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Thank you! And by any chance do you know what undergrad schools the people who you said became PAs went to?
Most PA programs are post bacc programs. The few I know who went RN to PA all did so at different universities between the 2. I would expect someone to be able to switch into any direct type healthcare specialty as numbers are often capped due to clinical site and lab space.
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Pursuing a path to nurse practitioner is a better route to go down for several reasons:
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Nurse Practitioner builds on your nursing training. With a BSN/RN, you can get employment immediately out of college, enabling you to work part time while pursuing your NP and full time during summer and intercession. Even after 2 years of college, nursing students can obtain better paying part time jobs during college. Or you can work full time as a nurse and go back to grad school later for your NP. With your college degree after 4 years in an undergrad pre-PA program, you have no marketable skills which are in any way comparable to the earning power of a BSN/RN. You are not eligible for any special certification in health care whereas a BSN graduate becomes an RN as soon as s/he passes NCLEX.
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A PA and a NP are seen as comparable levels of training. There is nothing that a PA can do that a NP can’t also do. Both can treat patients and both can write scripts. BUT an NP can do things that a PA can not do. An NP can open her/his own practice and work independently. A PA is restricted to working under the supervision of an MD. Big difference.
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The highest paying nursing specialty by far is nurse anesthetist. This specialization is acquired as part of the nurse practitioner training. There is a comparable certification for PAs, but this is obtained after completion of PA certification. This means more years of training after 3 years of PA grad school as well as the accompanying expense before gaining the anesthesia certification.
Bottom line is that nursing training is more versatile, has earlier opportunities for employability, and brings greater return on investment sooner than a PA does. If you have any interest in nursing, I see no benefit in transferring into a PA program.
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If I got a dollar for every student who tells me they want to be a crna I would be rich already!
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“Cost is a big factor” and “Large debt is not worth it.” Case closed.
Yes, I have thoughts on all of your options, but you said it yourself, none of them are worth increased debt. My daughter is a nurse practitioner at a top ranked NYC hospital and she tells me that there is no benefit in hiring to be applying as a graduate of one nursing school over another. They hire nurses who graduate from a wide variety of colleges. My GS is in nursing school right now is a state school which was the most affordable option for their family.
Keep in mind that college is not a destination. It is a bridge to your adult life, which is the real destination. College will be over before you know it. It is an investment in your future, but it is not worth going into any more debt than you have to.
The nursing school which costs $34,000 is your best option. I certainly would not go above the $43,000 at UMass. Amherst is a great place to go to college. I have a GS who is there right now, out of state in Honors at a similar cost to what you’ve been offered, and he loves it. Any nursing school will provide the foundational skills which you will need to start your career in a well paying, in-demand profession.
My daughter enhanced her undergraduate nursing training by becoming a traveling nurse after college, a very well paying option. She worked in LA, Palo Alto (Stanford), Chicago, and New York. She eventually opted to stay in NYC. So, you are not limited by your undergraduate training.
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Thank you! That was really helpful!
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