My dd has narrowed her choice of school to study nursing to Iowa, Purdue, and Saint Louis University. She has been admitted directly into Purdue and SLU. Assuming she is admitted to Iowa, I’m wondering what others thoughts are on each.
Each is about the same distance from our house. She has been accepted to the honors program at Iowa and could live in the honors dorm, which to me is a plus. Iowa and SLU also have quality medical centers close by, while Indianapolis is about an hour from Purdue. I think this is important – wondering if others agree. Iowa and SLU have thrown decent scholarship offers, while we are still waiting on Purdue.
I think she is leaning Purdue because she liked the campus better, but wondering what others think about these choices. Thanks.
She’s going to get a fine education at any of them, so my first piece of advice is follow the money. Starting salaries will be the same regardless of where the degree is from, so no point shelling out big bucks for the degree. Personally, I’d nix Purdue if there’s much travel time to clinicals. For Iowa, at least, I,d imagine most clinicals would be at UIHC, Mercy, and maybe the VA hospital. All are easily accessible using the campus bus system. The Iowa Ciy area is smallish, and getting around is quick. Go to SLU if the money is better, and a big city is a priority.
My daughter & I visited Purdue the summer of 2014 and as we were driving through miles and miles of corn fields, my daughter started yelling in the car “I am not going to any college that is in the middle of a corn field.” Needless to say she made it loud and clear that she intended to go to college in an urban area. But, I could definitely see the attraction that Purdue has. Even though clinicals aren’t close by they are still do-able if a student understands that it will mean getting up at 515 am to leave by 545 - 6 am to reach clinicals by 645 am and that would be twice a week and maybe one semester 3 times/ week. Clinical will get cancelled in inclement weather. If your kid is the roll out of bed last minute type then clinicals close by to the university would probably work better. If you are in-state for Indiana then Purdue may be the more economical choice even if clinicals are further away.