<p>On the Duquesne website, it says the deadline for Early Action is December 1 for Physician Assistant, Pharmacy and Physical Therapy ONLY. Does this mean that nursing major applicants (like myself) cannot apply EA?</p>
<p>I don’t recall whether Duq had EA when D applied. It definitely had rolling admissions, and she felt getting her application in early helped. She also got invited to the nursing open houses once her application was submitted, and got to meet some professors and nursing students. She was really impressed that they remembered her, when she later went to Duq’s admitted nursing students’ open house. The admitted students’ open house was really helpful to her final decision to attend Duq’s school of nursing. Existing nursing students and many of the professors sat at every table at lunch to talk to the admitted students, to answer qustions about the program.</p>
<p>Neonzeus - Does your D like Duquesne Nursing Program? My D was recently accepted with very generous merit aid and acceptance to honors college. How is it going for your D? Since we have no real favorite program and she already has 5 acceptance offers, this will be harder than I thought. Any insights into the program would be greatly appreciated. We are really looking for a program that actually cares about student success and has good preceptors for clinical rotations. We also liked our visit and met some nursing professors and still don’t know which direction to go. Thanks!</p>
<p>Maryb: I’ve sent you some info by PM. D is happy with the nursing program. </p>
<p>Positives: Extremely supportive environment among the students. Her portfolio is growing with good experiences, and she’s doing her clinicals at a nationally ranked teaching hospital. There’s a new dean who is reaching out to the students for suggestions, and students aren’t afraid to speak up if they don’t like something. </p>
<p>Negatives: As you noted, it’s expensive without scholarships. Some students struggle with the math requirement, but they can get tutoring to help meet the annual math test. (D says it’s pretty basic math.) D says that she’s prefer for pharmacology to be a year class instead of a semester. Freshman year was easy, sophomore year was tougher, and Junior year is a nightmare. We heard the same story at many other nursing schools though. If a student doesn’t pass or wants to drop a class on the nursing track, there is no provision for repeating just one class. The entire year would need to be repeated. If that is a concern, I’d suggest verifying this info with the school. D has found that she has to be proactive about her own scheduling of classes, since the counselors don’t seem very knowledgeable. D says she has had some fantastic clinical instructors, and some who just seem to go through the motions. She says that the nursing students who excel are the ones who work hard at getting the most out of every experience. She wishes they covered 100% more and had even more clinicals. Students don’t get to pick their own clinical experiences, but get assigned in groups. D complains bitterly that she can’t guarantee that she’ll have experiences in every possible rotation. If she gets oncology, she might miss OB/GYN. If she gets pediatrics, she might miss neurology. The more D learns about nursing, the more nervous she is about the stuff that she isn’t getting. </p>
<p>Positives about the school: D says that the students are incredibly friendly and supportive. She wasn’t that social in high school, but has lots of friends at Duq. She likes that she can walk to the Macy’s or the Civic Arena, and that the unsold tickets to Penguins games are available for college kids if they stand in line for them. She likes the athletic center (but she’s a morning person, and wishes it would open earlier on weekends). She’s noted that the students are getting smarter each year. She points to the library and says it was only lightly used a few years ago when she was a freshman. Now she says there’s a crowd waiting for it to open on weekends.</p>
<p>Possible Negatives: Not a large amount of shopping and food places around the campus, which is odd for a campus of its size next to a hospital. D complains the Barnes and Noble is too small. Downtown Pitt shuts down in the evenings, except for the cultural district. Parking is expensive if you want to send a car to school with your kid. Yes, there is drinking and the party bus takes kids to Oakland or the South Side. Duq students have to pay for transportation on city buses, which can taken them all over the area to large malls, etc. D wishes Duq students got free bus transportation like the Carnegie Mellon and Pitt students. Pitt students look down on Duq, which irritates D a lot since she actually chose Duq over Pitt for its size and friendliness.</p>
<p>That’s all I can think of right now. She loved Duq as a freshman, liked it as a sophomore, and is now a little more ambivalent. She feels that she’s outgrowing the campus, and wishes now that she had a really large university experience. I’ve reminded her that she didn’t want a larger university when she was coming out of high school. What someone wants at 17-18 is very different from what they choose at 21. However, she is still glad that she chose Duq’s nursing program.</p>
<p>Thank you for the PM. CC blocked out your email address suffix, so I could still not reply to you using regular email. I posted my email address in a message to you and CC blocked the suffix of my email! I then re-typed it with a space between every character, so it was readable. I sent you that information last night. I would like to PM you somehow, so if you can find that message, maybe we can email. I so appreciate the effort you have taken to help me. I will keep trying.</p>
<p>I also went to my in box and tried to reply to your message today (thinking maybe I would have enough posts to use PM function) and it actually told me I had to wait 60 seconds between PMs and i had 47 more seconds to wait! I waited and sent you another message, which I assume went nowhere, because it is not in my sent mail. CC seems a bit controlling, and not as user friendly for PMs (at least for me). I hope you know I have been trying to reach you.</p>
<p>Hi!
My son has applied to Duquesne (the envelope - a fat one!) is sitting on the table waiting for him to come home, which is what led me to this site tonight. I was so interested to find this chain on the Nursing School, because my son’s girlfriend also applied to Duquesne and has been accepted to the School of Nursing. Right now she says the school is her second choice, but she intends on going to the Admitted Students day to gather more information. Neonzues – would you mind PM’ing me the note you sent to marybee? I’m really interested in your thoughts and would love to be able to help provide her with insight from someone with experience. Thanks very much!</p>