<p>Hi newdawn6 - I've enjoyed reading through your thread. This is all going to work out well in the end, I can tell!</p>
<p>I tend to agree with The Dad. The schools you have listed as too small range from well under a thousand students (which is really quite tiny) to over two thousand. When you're talking about 650 students in your class (e.g., Gettysburg), that's actually quite a lot of scope for finding compatible friends and having a nice social life. What is the size of your daughter's high school class? I know that a lot of kids come from huge high schools and LACs do seem really small to them, but for many kids, even an average sized LAC can be a relatively "big" school. </p>
<p>In addition to all of the great advice that you've received, I'd also just mention that it's so important to let your daughter determine for herself what type and size of school she wants to attend. When it seems "too small" to you but "just right" to her, you really need to let her go with her gut--she's the one who will be living the experience. I see that Washington has a student body of about 1300, and while that is on the small side, it's likely your daughter would find her niche.</p>
<p>I'm a huge fan of liberal arts colleges, particularly of the medium size. Two of my kids have attended schools in the 2200 to 2800 student range, and they were perfect for them, coming from a small high school. My youngest will be attending an LAC that's slightly smaller, but generally similar in attributes. I think that for the well matched kid a small college can provide a really wonderful four-year residential experience. </p>
<p>And as others have pointed out, for the sake of long term familial peace, these kinds of details need to be her choice--in no small part because if things go wrong, you don't want her mad at you for "making her" do something--or influencing her to do something--that she didn't think she wanted to do in the first place! </p>
<p>Good luck with this--it's clear that she's a great kid, you're a great mom, and it's all going to be fine in the end!</p>
<p>I think Washington College or any of those small schools will give her more of a taste of college life than Johns Hopkins' nursing program. Unless things have changed, the program is pretty much at the Med School which means that nursing students are not integrated on the Homewood campus. Those smaller schools have programs that are fully integrated as do many programs at the state universities. </p>
<p>Mombot, in our area, many of the nursing students do have programs of their own that are not the same as the ones that Newdawn has described which are integrated with the college. They use hospital and community college resources rather than being part of a college. The College of New Rochelle which is a college in its own right, is nearly all nursing, and is not a traditional university or college. All of these programs are very competitive, and I know many students in them. Two close friends of mine who are from this area as students (as I am not), and are nurses, said that such programs were not for them as they wanted, got, and savored their college years, both at LACs. I know another person well who was not initially a nursing major, but was taking natural science courses who ended up switching to nursing at Penn State. I believe it took more than 4 years for her to get her degree, but she did have a traditional college experience she loved. The girls I know who are at the Westchester Med College program and College of New Rochelle, are equally happy with their choices, as they live at home, and have an active life with other friends from the area, enjoy NYC and look upon their nursing education more as a job or as a tech school type of experience, and this is the way they wanted to do this.</p>
<p>Since I have never looked into nursing programs, I can only speak for the ones I have noted in the areas where I lived or people I know who have gone to them, I cannot say how the programs are constructed overall. It could be something that is just here and not on a national basis. I also cannot assess any nursing programs nor can I tell you how they are integrated at any of the mentioned colleges, nor do I know but a handful of schools that have nursing available as a major. I am familiar with the colleges on Newdawn's daughter's list, but could not have told you that they had nursing as a major. </p>
<p>As to those schools, I have visited all but one of them, and like them all. One of my boys appled to St Mary's, another to Wheaton,and several of those schools are on my list to check out with my third one. Have you also checked some larger state unis that have nursing programs, so that she could see the difference in atmosphere? I know with my third son, the smaller college scene would most likely be the better environment for him. She may feel the same way.</p>