East Coast Nursing Search Completed Class of 2020 - For B+ Student

College Majors Nursing Major
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I am posting this most current Nursing major search to give hope to students with less than perfect stats and lower SAT/ACT scores. My D did will be graduating with 1 AP - Psychology & 2 Honors Classes - Anatomy& Physiology; Spanish V; academic level Statistics. No Physics or Pre-Calc/Trig. SAT: 550 CR;M 570 WR 540. ACT 24. OOS CT. These are the schools she applied to:

Direct Entry:

Case Western University, OH - applied EA; accepted $12,500 annual merit scholarship

University of Miami, FL - applied EA; rejected

University of Delaware, DE - applied EA; deferred then waitlisted

University of Vermont, VT - applied EA; did not meet qualifications for Nursing (no pre-calc/trig) considered for 2nd major choice =Nutrition - accepted

SUNY Binghamton University, NY – applied EA; rejected

Catholic University, DC - applied EA; accepted $14,000 annual merit scholarship

Seton Hall University, NJ - applied EA; accepted $17,000 annual merit scholarship

Adelphi University, NY - applied EA; accepted $16,000 annual merit scholarship

Widener University, PA - applied EA; accepted $24,000 4 year total merit scholarship

Florida Southern College, FL - applied EA; accepted $14,000 annual merit scholarship

Xavier University, OH - applied EA; accepted $17,000 annual merit scholarship

University of Scranton, PA - applied EA; deferred…interviewed 2/1…waitlisted

LeMoyne College, NY - applied EA; accepted $15,000 annual merit scholarship

Longwood University, VA - applied EA; accepted; $8,000 annual merit scholarship

Stevenson University, MD - applied EA; accepted; $8,000 annual merit scholarship

Fairleigh Dickinson University, NJ (Madison) - applied EA; accepted $17,000 annual merit scholarship

York College, PA - applied EA; accepted $8,000 annual merit scholarship

Mount St. Mary’s College, NY; applied EA; accepted $16,000 annual merit scholarship

Non-Direct Entry:

UNC-Charlotte, NC - applied EA; accepted

UNC-Wilmington - applied EA; accepted - optional essay “Why UNCW” key

James Madison University, VA; deferred then waitlisted…received admission call 4/25 for spot pre-nursing

Schools looked at but did apply:

Direct Entry: La Salle University, PA;Drexel University, PA; Pace University, NY; University of Rhode Island, RI; Queens University of Charlotte, NC

Non-Direct Entry: East Carolina University; Wingate University, NC

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That is helpful info to post. It shows that many private colleges (other than the most competitive colleges that mainly offer need-based aid) are emphasizing merit scholarships, and that those scholarships can sometimes bring the cost to level in the same ballpark as a flagship university that offers no aid.

I would note that York College PA does not offer as large a merit scholarship as some of the others, but their list price of tuition is half of many of the other private colleges that are listed.

U. Del would only accept my daughter as a bio major. That worked out OK, because it would have had the highest net price by far of all of her choices.

Are you willing to say where your daughter picked?

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congrats! Let us know where she decided…and best to her!

One thing to add in general for future students (and I did not know this till I got to child#3), but the private schools, in awarding merit aide, tend to look at the student as a whole and take into consideration their extracurr. activities (sports, volunteer, working, etc) rather than just the GPA/test score when giving out merit aid. (learned that on cc and seem to be true in my dd case). Another thing I also read on cc is that sometimes the schools will give more aide if they are trying to get more students from a certain state. In fact, one school who was giving dd good aide contacted us early in the week and offered even more (we didn’t even ask). Not sure the reason, but said they decided to re-evaluate what was first given, which was generous to start. (didn’t matter cause she’s not going there).

4

Many colleges like to brag in their admissions materials that they have “students from all 50 states” or at least 20 states. As a result, students from North Dakota can be in high demand. It may be possible to have a greater chance of admission and more aid if you are willing to travel long distances to go to college, particularly to a college that does not normally attract students from your state. However, the trade off can be extraordinarily high air fare at Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Some colleges may also be targeting students from certain states. For example, a college may be wanting to attract more students from a certain geographic growth area that currently supplies few of their students, and they hope that if they get the first few students, more will follow from the high schools of those students.

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There were also additional scholarships offered at many of the colleges listed with due dates prior to college admission decisions but since D wasn’t sure, she did not apply to them.

D sacrificed academic rigor in part because of her commitment to her sport & the type of student she is. The colleges she chose to apply to all compete in her sport and she was indifferent in the end if she could only do Club. She participated in 2 sport overnight recruit visits:

Catholic University - did not like dated campus and not a fan of DC. Did not get good vibe from sports team. Cafeteria food was meh.

University of Scranton - all new construction; food great; liked team/coach. Location ok - run down city. 2 Hospitals (and mall) within walking distance. Did not like Jesuit prerequisites.

Her #1’s were UNC - Wilmington - loved the campus, new nursing building & close to the beach! But not Direct Entry. University of Scranton was her 1st choice for Direct Entry but waitlisted.

Her decision ultimately was to go to a Direct Entry nursing school after hearing former classmate did not get into the Nursing program at JMU in the spring of her sophomore year & cousin of another was told end of freshmen year to change her major with no chance of getting in. Much easier to maintain a GPA for both the program and merit scholarships without the added stress of worrying about getting accepted into a program. Friend is going to try again in the fall but in the interim has to have a back up plan. For UNCW & JMU stats show you need close to 4.0 overall & high science GPA.

She chose Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) which coincidentally was the highest academic school she was admitted to. Case is an urban campus with a busy road right down the middle but D loved that they start nursing classes/clinical hours her freshmen year. University/Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital right in the middle of campus and Cleveland Clinic, Metrohealth, and Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center within walking or public transportation. Strong police presence on “open campus” but did not bother her. Uptown Cleveland felt very safe and clean. Plenty to do on weekends and many different dining options also within walking distance (Panera Bread, Chipotle, Dunkin etc.)

Yes CT is underrepresented at Case and Case has a higher acceptance rate then the same competitive schools in the northeast. Case likes to include on acceptance letter a reference to student’s application and D’s did include sport reference. So did she get in because of home state or sport ,etc… anyone’s guess. She also had a very well rounded application with plenty of hospital volunteer hours, shadowing experience, and other community service.

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20+ applications … omg … why so many? Congrats on CWRU. Great nursing school. My D wants big and further from home, so mostly Midwest schools (Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio St, Ohio U, Indiana, etc.) and some in Phily (Penn, Drexel). She is a jr, so we are in heavy campus visit mode.

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Happy National Decision, first of all :slight_smile:

I’m also a B+ student, 1730 PSAT/1600 DAT/24 ACT.

I’ve actually taken 5 APs, psychology (5 on exam), language and comp (3), currently taking literature and comp (predicting I’ll get a 3), biology (predicting a 3 or 4), and statistics (I’ll be lucky if I get a 3. i struggle with this for some reason)

I applied to: Qunnipiac (9k scholarship a year), York College of PA (6k scholarship per year, but the school is VERY cheap. I almost committed here), Scranton (deferred then wait listed), UMass Lowell (accepted with 14k a year), Temple (accepted, but not for nursing. They put me in public health. No money offer from them), and Duquesne (17k a year. I’ll be apart of their class of 2020!)

I’m really happy with Duquesne because it’s in a medium sized school with a close knit and highly respected nursing program and it’s in a GREAT city. Pittsburgh is a great college town.

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That is another reason to look at colleges that are not extremely competitive for admission. The most competitive colleges usually require a 4 and sometimes a 5 in order to get AP credit. The less competitive colleges typically accept a 3. That can make a big difference, in easing your schedule during some of the worst semesters.

My daughter needed 128 credits to graduate. One semester they needed to take two intense science classes, each with labs. Fortunately, she had some AP credit so she was able to take 13 credits that semester, instead of 17.

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congrats…i heard CaseW had a very good program…

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Do you know anything about West Chester University and amount of students accepted in those colleges? What was your daughters GPA.

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WCU is very selective for nursing, because it is in such a popular location and receives many applicants. You don’t need superhuman credentials to be admitted, but I imagine many applicants are not accepted. Bloomsburg is another PA. State owned university that is supposed to have a very good nursing program and that is 10 minutes from a large hospital complex.

12

We toured West Chester in April and the stats for their nursing program were a shock- a 5% admittance rate! 60 spots for 1200 applicants. We loved the campus, but for at least the next two years, nursing students have to get to Exton about 20 minutes away for classes! They didn’t even have shuttles for that, but students “work it out.”

At our Bloomsburg tour, the presenter also said nursing was competitive and they got a lot of applicants, but no specific numbers.

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Actually, that would not be a 5% admit rate for WCU. To yield 60 students out of 1,200 applicants, they would probably accept at least 10% of the applicants, because probably half or more of the accepted students would pick another college. If their yield rate was 33%, they would need to accept 180 students, which would be about a 15% acceptance rate. Today, students often apply to 8 or 10 colleges at a time for nursing.

At WCU, the nursing program had been operating out of rooms attached to the gym complex on the south campus. I believe they are planning on moving nursing students back to the main campus. Maybe the Exton location is temporary until new facilities are done.

There also are direct entry PA. public university direct entry BSN programs at Penn State-Altoona, Clarion, Indiana U. of PA, and E. Stroudsburg U., among others.