<p>My daughter is a senior and looking for direct admit BSN programs. She prefers a smaller school and wants to stay fairly close to home. Her GPA is 3.6 and SAT CR+M is 1200, EC's are not stellar. She's been accepted to Indiana university of PA and York, and has applications pending at West Chester, Widener, Penn State Altoona and Carlow. She also is thinking about applying to Cedar Crest. Finances are a huge concern, we won't qualify for much if any need based aid, yet things are tight due to past unemployment. So far, it seems like IUP or West Chester would be the most affordable. Are there any other schools we should be considering, for which it's not too late and are reasonably priced?</p>
<p>I don’t know about deadlines but have you looked at any of the following?</p>
<p>Penn State Abingdon $13,334
Pennsylannia College of Technology $12,060
Mercyhurst North East- $14,900
Wilmington University Delaware $9,700</p>
<p>As of last year, I don’t believe Penn State Abington had a BSN program. I believe I read that if you are accepted to Penn State Main’s BSN program, you have the option of doing the first year at a branch. </p>
<p>If you take a look at the RN exam results for PA, you will see the colleges that have BSN programs in each state. Another person posted that on this part of the website.</p>
<p>There are also some hospital based programs, some of which offer BSN degrees, such as the PA. College of Health Sciences in Lancaster, which is affiliated with Lancaster General Hospital. Last year, they were still advertising for applicants in the spring. They have a new building in a nice historic part of Lancster. I understand the students take some of their courses at Millersville U., which is about 15 minutes away. </p>
<p>There are a couple other Pa state universities with programs, but Indiana, West Chester and Bloomsburg are probably the best. As of last year, Bloomsburg didn’t accept nursing applicants after November.</p>
<p>York offers automatic merit aid for either a good SAT or a good ACT score. Students who are better in science than math do much better with the ACT. If a student takes the ACT and does well, some colleges will offer increased merit aid, even months after they are admitted. I don’t know York’s policy on that matter of post-admission test results - you would have to ask.</p>
<p>Cedar Crest’s enrollments have been shrinking. You would be close to a coed college (Muhlenberg), but it still may be unbalanced to go to a college that is women only during the day classes.</p>
<p>Many PA middle class students are eligible for PHEAA grants. You can look up the amounts of the grants on a table on the PHEAA website. That can provide a major benefit to attending a college inside PA. If a PA resident attends a college in NY, NJ or MD, they get nothing. If they attend a college in Del, DC or Va, they get a maximum of about $400 to $500 a year.</p>
<p>I’d be hesitant to attend college in Chester PA. While there are some good things happening in the city and near the Widener campus, there are way too many gangmembers murdering each other over the last few years.</p>
<p>Binghamton University, part of the State U. of NY system, has a BSN program. Binghamton is close to the PA border, off Rte. 81.</p>
<p>For out of state students, tuition is less than $20k.</p>
<p>For Fall 2014 and beyond, for the BSN program at Penn State, you have to start/finish at the same campus. When you apply, you have to pick an ending campus and then that pre-fills in the starting campus, and there are only 4 choices. We didn’t know this earlier and toured the PSU Berks campus, which my daughter LOVED, then found out she can’t go there for nursing. Several of their campuses previously only had the RN-BSN program, and are now converting to offer the entire 4 year program. So she picked Altoona since it seems most similar to Berks in size and feel. If she gets accepted there, then we will go visit and see how good a fit it is. She definitely did not want to go to University Park, way too huge for her. Thanks for the other suggestions!</p>
<p>That proves the importance of looking up current information yourself on each college’s official website or talking to the college’s staff, and not relying too much on what some schmuck says on another website, because their information may be out of date (smile).</p>
<p>Altoona has a nice campus, and you are close to a major hospital. You also are within a reasonable driving distance of activities at State College. I understand some of the off-campus housing at Altoona is not the best.</p>
<p>Just an update that D got her official acceptance letter from York and they are including some decent merit aid, which brings the total price to less than PSU and not much more than either West Chester or IUP. I feel like there is pressure to commit so she won’t be forced into their 4.5 year track but it’s definitely not her first choice.</p>
<p>As of last year, there was a $400 deposit to save your spot in the 4 year nursing program at York. Half was refundable if you let them know before May 1 that you would not attend. $200 is a small price to pay to avoid an extra semester of college, or to lose your spot entirely.</p>