Im applying to college in the fall and i plan on being a Nursing major. I don’t really know how many colleges i should apply to. Whats your suggestion?
I don’t know if i should apply to private universities just because they’re more expensive than public universities. I don’t know if i could afford it. Should i not be paying attention to the cost and location right now and just apply to as many as i want?
Each school’s website will have a Net Price Calculator. Plug your parents information and see what kind of estimate you get. There is no point in applying to schools that are unaffordable. Find out how much your parents can pay, if you are eligible for need-based financial aid or if you qualify for merit aid based on your stats. The CSU’s and commuting from home will be the most cost effective schools.
Here is the NPC link for USF: https://www.usfca.edu/admission/financial-aid/net-price-calculator
Here is the NPC link for APU: http://www.apu.edu/onestop/finances/cost/calculator/
Due to the competitiveness of nursing school admission, I would apply to at least 10 schools as long as application costs are not an issue.
To add to the above comments, apply to a couple reaches, a few matches and a few safeties. At least one of your admissions safeties should also be a financial safety. For nursing you should apply to more colleges than the average student because the admissions are more competitive than for most majors. My daughter applied to 10 colleges. That was not only useful to make sure she had choices, but to also compare net costs. The Net Price Calculators are helpful, but they are not 100% accurate. The fewer questions that are asked on a Net Price Calculator, the less likely they are to be accurate.
If you believe you would be eligible for a substantial college grant from your state, check to see where the money could be used. Some grants from states can only be used at colleges within that state.
Rule of thumb regardless of major. 2 reaches, 2 matches and 2 safeties. You can apply to more but make sure you have these 6 in the list.
A safety also means that it is a financial safety like your instate school or even a CC that has a direct relationship with another 4 year school. Not sure if any have nursing type relationship but you should see if they do. So you would take your basics core classes and hopefully any math and science at the cc and transfer.