Duquesne University, York College of PA, or UMass Lowell for nursing

Nursing spots fill up quickly so I will be putting down a deposit within the next few weeks.

Duquesne is in Pittsburgh, a great college city and a great city for nursing. The school is known for great clinicals and job placement, and is known for their amazing simulation lab. I’m just concerned about their 19% minority (5% African American) population, but the student body seemed nice when I visited. The highest ranked for nursing out of all 3 of my schools. 6 hours away.

York College is in a small city in PA. The surrounding areas has my mother concerned about my safety, but I haven’t visited yet and may not be able to unless it’s for accepted student day and I committed to the school. It’s nursing program is respected and I’ve also heard great things about their clinicals and job placement. My LEAST expensive school. Not sure how much fun outside of class of have there, though. Is also not very diverse, but for some reason, I feel like I’d fit in there more than I would at Duquesne. 3 hours away

UMass Lowell
Right in the middle of my 3 schools in order of expenses, the MOST diverse, it’s in a large city, has the largest student body out of all 3, great dorms, impressive nursing lab, nursing program isn’t all that recognized, however, the school is known for its great science department. Has a slight commuter school reputation, but it’s improving. 4 hours away.

All have study abroad opportunities

My dad loves Duquesne, my mom likes UMass and Duqusne, neither are huge fans of York, which is odd to me. I like all 3 of them. Any opinions? I’m so torn.

Btw, money won’t be a huge issue.

I have a friend who’s in nursing at Duquesne and loves it. She said it’s very tight knit and the school is integrated well with the city. She said the academics are challenging, and she was a 4.0/32 student in high school. She went to Duquesne on an athletic scholarship.

@teiluuuj which one did you decide? My dd got accepted to Duquesne and we will go check it out next month. I haven’t heard of any schools requiring deposit before May 1st….hope we did not miss something with Duquesne.

@cali60 wow I am so late! I’m sorry, I’ve been busy lately with AP exams crawling closer.

You’re right, with most schools you’re usually fine until May 1st. York was really the only school that rushed me; their 4 year nursing track ABRUPTLY closed 2 days ago; I only got a 3 hour’s notice that they would not be accepting deposits for the 4 year track after that day. Now, they’re only accepting deposits for their 4.5 year track, which just didn’t appeal to me. So York was sadly crossed off. I was super annoyed that they did that.

Yesterday, I sent in my deposit for Duquesne. Although THEY weren’t rushing me, we didn’t wanna take anymore risks. Duquesne has always been my top choice

Keep in mind that York’s 4 year track closed BEFORE I even received my financial aid reward from them. It was just too risky to commit without knowing how much money I got from them, especially since I haven’t visited York and probably won’t be able to. I visited Duquesne, got to take a good walk around the campus so it just felt safe to commit there.

I wish everyone in c/o 2016 the best of luck in their search for a nursing school to commit to!