Looking for more colleges to visit...(sort of picky)

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I'm a junior attending a small private school in Indianapolis, Indiana. I have relatively excellent grades, gpa, ACT & SAT scores, participation in extra-curriculars, and service projects. I have visited a numerous amount of colleges, but still have not experieced the feeling of "this is the one". I am basically looking for more places to visit in the coming months based upon:
1. a nursing program (I am interested in health care in general, but have not decided if I want to expand this to a pre-med major, so I plan on starting as a nursing major).
2. School size: Greater than 1,000 but not much larger than 15,000 students
3. Avoid schools categorized as Commuter Schools
4. Lastly, (and this is the picky part), and I know this should not be the overall deciding factor when choosing a college, but I am looking for a school campus that is, well, beautiful. I need a place that is green, with some land, and nature. Notre Dame, for instance, would be my type of campus, where everyone parks their cars outside the grounds and there are hardly any roads running through. I want to avoid the grid-road city setting.
I'm willing to look a maximum 6-8 hours a way from Indianapolis.
Here are the colleges I have visited:
Notre Dame (no nursing program)
Hanover College (absolutely gorgeous, no nursing program, and under 1000 students)
Xavier
Bellarmine University (pretty, but commuter school)
Miami of Ohio (beautiful, but the nursing program is not offered on the Oxford Campus)
University of Evansville
Aurora University
Butler University</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

2

<p>The general impression that I’ve gotten is that most of the best schools don’t have nursing programs per se, though I may be mistaken in that assumption</p>

3

<p>Illinois Wesleyan University is a good LAC, that has one of the nation’s best nursing programs. I would check that school out.</p>

4

<p>you are aiming very low if you have great grades and scores. Is money an issue?</p>

5

<p>The geographic limits you impose really hamper your options, IMO</p>

6

<p>Redroses, if you mean by my choice of a college major, I am not sure right now if I really want to look into graduate school. I am assumming that it is a decision I will make into my freshman/sophomore year. I have been told it’s easier to start as a nursing major and then switch to a pre-med/chem/physics major, just because nursing involves getting students involved in clinicals earlier than the other majors. So switching from a pre-med major to nursing would in some cases delay my graduation. I feel if anything I will probably start with a nursing major and then move on to nurse practitioning or physician’s assistant. </p>

<p>Tradster, I know, the midwest is really… well…bleak. That is why I was hoping maybe someone would know of a hidden gem I have not found.</p>

7

<p>Search around on the nursing major forum…</p>

<p>[Nursing</a> Major - College Confidential](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/nursing-major/]Nursing”>Nursing Major - College Confidential Forums)</p>

8

<p>Don’t know much about the midwest…sorry. But I know Boston College has an excellent nursing program.</p>

9

<p>Ohio Northern U (I didn’t realize you had multiple identical threads).</p>

10

<p>Yes, I’m going to delete the other. Thank you.</p>

11

<p>I teach at James Madison University… Not in a health science related field. I honestly don’t know exactly how far JMU is from Indianapolis… My guess is a bit over 8 hours. JMU is just over 16000, so a bit bigger than your larger target number, has a strong nursing program, pre-med, and a beautiful campus. </p>

<p>Illinois W. seems like an excellent suggestion to explore.</p>

12

<p>What I meant is that the colleges you list are not top, and given great stats you may as well attend the best school you can get into. Top schools also offer much more financial aid if you qualify.</p>

13

<p>Go to the website below, and you can search by state…</p>

<p>[NLNAC</a> Accredited Nursing Programs](<a href=“http://www.nlnac.org/Forms/directory_search.htm]NLNAC”>http://www.nlnac.org/Forms/directory_search.htm)</p>

14

<p>Another approach is to START in pre-med. If that isn’t turn out to be Plan A, Plan B could be the Physician’s Assistant route. There is nothing wrong per se with the nursing approach … but keep in mind:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Pre-med will dramatically increase the colleges to consider </p></li>
<li><p>Kids change their minds (and for good reason) on majors all the time. So more specialized programs can be somewhat limiting and options moving out of more specialized programs can be somewhat limiting</p></li>
</ol>

15

<p>Why not consider the top LACs? Grinnell, in Iowa, is about 7 hours away and Oberlin, in Ohio, is about 5-6 hours. Both have outstanding sciences, nice campuses, and all the other benefits that LACs have to offer (lots of personal attention from faculty, small class sizes, intellectual vibrancy, etc…) Both have pre-med-and other medical professional advising. Grinnell offers merit aid.</p>

16

<p>Check out Georgetown University’s nursing school. It’s urban, but the campus itself is green and attractive.</p>

17

<p>I don’t think I’d personally categorize either school as beautiful, but DS visited Evansville during his search, and Bradley (which has a good nursing school) seemed similar in appearance and feel.</p>