My daughter is looking to go a College with a direct entry nursing program. She attends a Catholic College Prep HS on LI.
GPA-3.8
SAT 550V/550M.
EC’s when done
Cross Country-4 yr
Indoor Track-4 yr
Outdoor Track 4yr
Student Leaders Team 2yr
Religious Retreat guild 2yr
Special Needs Camp Councellor-4Yr
Bible Camp Councellor-4yr
150 hours volunteer @ Hospital
She is looking at for a small to mid sized Catholic school.
Sacred Heart, St. Anselm’s Salve Regina, Le Moyne, U of Scranton, Villanova, BC, Georgetown, Faifield, Desalles, Misericordia. Also SUNY Binghamton and SUNY Plattburgh.
Any of these truly a reach?
What do you think her chances are at each?
With her current SAT scores I suspect Georgetown, BC, Villanova, and Binghamton would be reach schools (in that order starting with most difficult). Borderline for Scranton, Plattsburgh and St Anselms. Probably decent chances at the others. Good luck.
Alvernia is a small Catholic university with a pleasant campus on the edge of Reading PA. It is near a very large hospital complex - the Reading Hospital.
Other people have had good things to say about Duquesne’s nursing program. It is a Catholic University near downtown Pittsburgh, which actually is a great place to go to college. The whole city is full of hospitals.
A large amount of new housing is supposed to be built next to DeSales, along with expanded athletic facilities. Their nursing program is in a new building.
Duquesne is on list, except was a little further from Long Island. She was trying to keep under 300miles. Will look into Alvernia.
She is rising Junior. Her stats assume she will continue at her present grade levels. Her test scores are her PSAT so she has some time. Thanks for the info.
Duquesne has the advantage of being on Amtrak, which is a great way for a student to do most of their travel from Long Island. A person would need to go through Phila. You might look at some options in western NY, which is also served by Amtrak (and Megabus) from Manhattan.
Students should take both the ACT and the SAT. A student who is better in science than math (which describes most nursing students) will usually do much better on the ACT. Colleges will use whichever score is better.
I think St. Anselm and Salve Regina are both matches–I have friends at each and their scores were mid-500’s…Sacred heart and Fairfield are also good choices–Fairfield is now SAT optional and has a nice campus.
St. Anselm was real nice and nursing program has a great reputation. She felt comfortable there…
Salve campus is beautiful but she didn’t like the fact that there tour buses riding through the campus and there were a lot of tourists all over the schools ground and surrounding neighborhood.
She liked Le Moyne and it has a great dual BSN program with nearby St Josephs School of Nursing. The nursing facilities at St.Josephs are amazing and the school is in a hosptial. One downside to that school is she’d have to travel 3 miles to St. Joe’s from Le Moyne for classes.
She thought Binghamton was nice but way too big for her liking. She is looking for a smaller school.
She liked Misirecordia, not loved.
She liked Scranton a lot as well and said she could see herself there.
She’ll be visiting Sacred Heart and Fairfield open houses this month. They are very similar to majority of which she has seen so I am guessing she’ll like them. Good thing is they are much closer to home.
Time for her to prep for tests and get scores up and hope for some merit aid.
Salve owns a couple of the historic Newport mansions, which attracts visitors. I’m guessing that there would be fewer tourists coming through during the school year than during the summer.
Yes, the main building on campus is the second largest mansion on the island, aside from The Breakers, which happens to be next door. The tourism is definately busier in summer months but we’ve been told there is a steady stream in fall through the holidays and then starts up again early spring. It is a beautiful campus and I recomend going to see it if you have the chance. It’s very easy to make a weekend out of a trip to Newport, RI.
Would your daughter consider an all girls’ school? I graduated from University of St. Joseph in West Hartford with a med. tech. degree. Very nice school. Maybe you can fit it in when touring Sacred Heart and Fairfield (my husband’s alma matter). Might be worth a look.
LeMoyne is in the middle of nowhere and there is nothing to do on weekends and Syracuse is COLD. Scranton is a better choice and much prettier campus and attracts lots of students from the tri state area. We loved the campus when we toured there, but it was farther than we wanted to travel. It will depend on whether your student wants to be in a city or a suburban campus. The advantage of city campuses is there is more to do and more diverse medical facilities for clinical rotations. Duquesne is a great nursing school and in the middle of Pittsburgh. Their nursing program has always been good and they are adding/changing many things to help students including using examsoft electronic testing which mirrors the NCLEX in format and style and measures content and critical thinking. All of your textbooks are electronic for nursing and included in tuition. The new dean is implementing lots of improvements designed to help students succeed. Plan to work hard, and study all the time as nursing is a very challenging area of study. Lots of clinical choices and exposure to different health care systems in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh is a huge medical city. Your student may also want to take a look at Hartwick College in Oneonta. It is rural, but has a well respected nursing program. Truthfully, I would choose a nursing program based on where your student eventually wants to live, as many hospitals hire nursing students who have participated in clinicals at their hospitals/facilities during college. Hospitals also tend to hire local nursing students for the summer months, who can then work part time while attending school. This leads to employment after graduation in many cases. I think there are many great nursing schools closer to you which might be an easier commute. Good luck!
As for Duquesne and Long Island, shuttle flights are $220 round trip to Laguardia, 1:15 flight or Megabus is like $60 round trip to Manhatten, 7.5 hours
Duquesne is on her list, albeit a little lower than some of the other schools she is considering solely because of its location. She is looking to stay a little closer to home on LI. Not that NH or Syracuse are next door, but they are somewhat closer than Pittsburgh. $60 Megabus is a deal, but I havent seen $220 for R/T flights. When we looked, flights were in $400 range R/T to NYC airports.