<p>If my daughter wants to go to a very expensive college, I’ll say fine - on one condition. When your mom and I run out of retirement money because we spent all our money on your college, you have to agree to let us move in with you. And by the way, I’ll want the thermostat set 15 degrees warmer than everyone else.</p>
<p>Actually, to encourage my son to strike the most expensive college from his list, I told him he would have to work during the school year if he went there. If he picked any of the other colleges, he would only need to work during the summer. That helped him make a decision real fast.</p>
<p>Charlieschm: I loved your posting #41! We had those same conversations in our house. </p>
<p>In fact, as Mother’s Day/Father’s Day come up, I know that we will be at a brunch and the kids will laughingly play rock-paper-scissors or otherwise fight over who will get me eventually. They will debate over who may make me walk their dogs tied to my walker, who would let me live with them as long as I do the laundry and babysit grandkids, and which kid is more likely to pull the plug on me to get any life insurance. Some years they fight over who gets me, and other years the loser gets me. I’m listening carefully to it all …</p>
<p>Thank you all for your input. It was a good journey with my D in the past two months.
Case and U Miami both offer good merit scholarship, but they are simply too far away from home. U Miami is really charming. I told my D, she can go anywhere for graduate school. But for undergraduate, she’d better go to a school where I can drive her home within a day (round trip).
Georgetown, BC, NYU are all in great location. However, they are so expensive. $55,000-$62,000, it is really tough without any financial aid.</p>
<p>We attended the admitted student days at our state college, RU and TCNJ. Surprisingly, we found out their nursing programs are both very strong. </p>
<p>TCNJ is a hidden gem. 13:1 student:faculty ratio. All the online surveys praise the helpfulness and accessibility of the professors. The only complaint is its surrounding environment. It is located in a quiet neighborhood (not much you can do there). We will buy her a car at her sophomore year (clinical starts from spring of sophomore), which will solve the problem somehow.
We will save the money for her to go to graduate school.</p>
<p>I believe I read CNJ is building a commercial center next to their campus. In any case, jump on a Septa train from the Trenton area and you are in center city Phila in no time.</p>
<p>Another way of looking at that choice: is a Bachelors in Nursing from CNJ AND a Masters in Nursing from a school like Georgetown worth more than a Bachelors in Nursing from Georgetown - FOR THE SAME TOTAL PRICE? </p>
<p>When the question is framed that way, the answer becomes clearer.</p>
<p>I don’t know about nursing, but for many other majors (other than MBAs, Law and MD degrees), many major universities charge much less per year for graduate tuition than they do for undergrad tuition.</p>
<p>Congratulations wtuan on your D’s decision. TCNJ does have an excellent Nursing Program. I agree with charlieschm that if your D is planning on going to graduate school it makes sense to save money for it as long as you get into a quality BSN Program. However nursing MSN programs at most top quality universities are not cheap, but generally only take about 11/2 -2 years full time to complete. It will cost my D over 80K to get her MSN as Family NP at Penn. Granted other programs may be less expensive now but I doubt in 4-5 years you will be able to complete a MSN at a quality Program for less than 75K (probably even more).</p>
<p>Another issue you need to keep in mind is that there is a movement, spearheaded by the AANC, to require a Doctoral Level Nursing Degree to sit for the National NP certification exam. They have proposed initiating this requirement in 2015. I doubt this will happen in 2015 but I suspect it will eventually be put into place not far after this. This obviously will require additional money in order obtain the Doctoral Level Degree if one wants to become an NP. There is a big battle going on in the Nursing Community about this so we shall see what ultimately transpires. This certainly lends additional support to the idea of spending as little as possible for the BSN degree. Best of luck to your D at TCNJ. IMO she can get as good a nursing education there as you could get at any of the high price schools your D has decided not to attend, as long as she applies herself to the best of her abilities, which I am sure she will.</p>
<p>I cannot agree more. Another factor, our family doctor suggests us to stay local, for the reason of “local connection”. My D will volunteer as EMT, and also try to find any medical related jobs whenever she could. If she goes away for college, this kind of job/volunteer experience would not be continuous all year round.
Attend TCNJ, hopefully she can get higher GPA. Will that be helpful when she apply for graduate school?</p>
<p>“Connections” are very important (may be the most significant factor) in finding an initial nursing job post graduation and completion of the NCLEX exam. Hopefully in 4-5 years the job market will improve for new grads, but right now it remains tight. Obtaining positions at top notch academic hospitals are especially difficult to obtain. When my D graduated from UD she had interviews with nurse recruiters at Penn, NYU, and NYP/Cornell. She was told (informally) that they generally screen applicants initially by their college GPA. Applicants with GPA’s below 3.5 are rarely considered further. They then look at the program the applicant attended to ensure it was a quality program (they did not tell her how they rated the programs). Beyond these two factors they then look at a number of other factors (including if an applicant has been involved in additional healthcare [especially nursing] experiences beyond just that they received as part of their formal nursing education). My D was involved in several nursing externship programs at local hospitals near UD during her Jr. and Sr. years (she lived in an off campus apartment so could attend during college breaks). She feels that these experiences, coupled with the nursing clinical honors courses she took, were significant factors that helped her land the position at NYP/Cornell Medical Center. Just FYI one of new grads hired along with my D was a TCNJ grad, along with grads from Penn, BC, NYU, and UConn.</p>
<p>Just as nursing BSN Programs are becoming more attractive and competitive, Nursing Graduate Programs (NP, Nurse Anesthetist, Nurse Mid-Wife) are also becoming much more competitive to get into, especially the “top rated” Programs. Obviously one of the things they look at in evaluating applicants is the applicants undergrad GPA, so the higher the better. They also apparently look at many of the same things I noted above, including where an applicant has been working since graduating. My D is of the perspective that the fact she has been working at NYP/Cornell was one important factor in her being accepted into the Family Health NP Program at Penn.</p>
<p>Hope this info is helpful. Again best wishes to your D at TCNJ.</p>
<p>One other factor is whether a nursing program allows talented undergrad nursing students to complete grad nursing courses as an undergrad. De Sales University in PA is one that does - top students can get grad school credit for 3 courses that also count towards the undergrad degree. That can save much time and money.</p>
<p>Also, colleges vary greatly in their AP credit policies. Some give 2 courses of credit for certain AP results, while others don’t any credit for certain tests. Some less selective colleges give credit for a 3, while some very selective colleges require a 5. That can also save much time and money, and/or making college less stressful.</p>