<p>I've been interested in going to school for nursing and working for about 2-3 years before applying to Physician Assistant school.</p>
<p>Does it matter where I get my BSN?</p>
<p>I can go to Prairie View on a full ride and get my BSN, BUT Prairie View is seen as a party school. My other less expensive options are Texas Woman's University or HBU, but the atmosphere is so boring and I know I'd be miserable.</p>
<p>There are also other more prestigious schools which I'm not positive I'll be accepted into, but I'm worried about the debt.</p>
<p>Mainly, my question is would I have a harder time finding a nursing job if I go to a less prestigious school? My goal is to finish undergrad without debt so that I can work in order to gain clinical experience and funds for PA School.</p>
<p>I would say, go for the free ride. Then again, I don’t know of any gossip about Prairie View. Still, if you graduate with a good GPA and pass the NCLEX and work for a while (getting good experience and recommendations), it shouldn’t matter at all where you got that BSN. For medical fields in particular, your experience is more important than where you got your education.</p>
<p>Thanks for the input! The gossip is that Prairie View isn’t an academically serious school because the students are more focused on partying. Anywho, I hope you’re right!</p>
<p>I’ll also agree with Greenwitch; take the money and forget about the debt provided you have a reasonable expectation of being able to find an entry level nursing job after graduation/NCLEX. One of the advantages of going to school in one of the more well known programs is that they usually have one or more hospitals that often recruit the students that they see during clinicals. Also many of these better known nursing programs have equally well known graduate nursing programs and it certainly doesn’t hurt your admission chances if they know you came and you received your BSN from their own quality undergrad program. </p>
<p>That said, after a couple of years experience any hospital that needs nurses with your area of experience will very likely be interested in hiring you. Not carrying a large undergrad student debt will also help you pay for post grad schooling.</p>
<p>There are many party colleges where the nursing students stand out because they have to work harder than anyone else. If you hang out much of the time with the nursing majors, you may serve as good role models for each other.</p>
<p>Also, if you decide to go to a less selective college, see if you can get into a honors program. The quality and extent of honors programs vary greatly, but most allow you to live in a dorm with other honors students. That helps provide good role models and academic support vs. being mixed in the people who want to get wasted on Monday and Tuesday nights.</p>
<p>Also, many honors programs offer some smaller classes with higher quality discussions.</p>