<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>If finances are not a factor, the University of Iowa, the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Although they are larger than 15,000, their Nursing programs are relatively small and excellent.</p>
<p>Ditto on Iowa – great, highly ranked medical programs, and the way the campus is organized, the medical campus is carved out separate from liberal arts, etc. so it seems smaller (and it it already the smallest Big Ten public university). </p>
<p>And the campus is really beautiful, with a river flowing right through it. The Univ of Iowa and Iowa City are also nicely integrated, and the terrain is gently rolling hills. The friendly, smaller-feeling Iowa campus was a key factor for my D in deciding to enroll there.</p>
<p>So I am assuming that Purdue and IU are considered too large. Have you considered University of Indianapolis and Idiana State University as safeties? Both have good nursing programs. I know that ISU doesn’t have a great rep overall, but it is considered top notch for nursing and teaching, and has a rural health pre-med program that could be a consideration.</p>
<p>Check out Hiram College–it is in Loren Pope’s book “Colleges that Change Lives”, it has a nursing program that is well-regarded from what I understand, and has a beautiful residential campus in Northern Ohio in a rural area, but only 40 miles from Cleveland.</p>
<p>Although it is 9 hours away, it perfectly fits your other criteria. It has a little over 3,000 students, I’ve heard it has a great nursing program, it has a gorgeous campus & architecture, and it was the only college I visited that gave me “that feeling” (not guaranteeing you’ll get the feeling too, but a ton of people I talked to did as well). And if you decide not to do nursing, it has a kick-butt science program (and amazing new science building). Oh, and no one commutes. It sits on a hill near a smallish town and is just a few minutes from Carleton College, which has a huge arboretum. Very woodsy, pretty, tight-knit community of nice sciencey/mathy/musical/religious people.</p>
<p>It may be 2.5 hours further away than you may like, but you may want to consider Georgetown University School of Nursing. It is comparable to ND in many ways, but not quite as wide open or flat and it does have a nursing school. It also has a pretty, self contained campus that overlooks the Potomac River. Of course it is in DC, but as far as American cities go, DC is probably one of the least urban feeling due to height restrictions on the buildings, lots of trees, the presence of the only urban national park in America, the national mall, the lack of an industrial area, and the fact that it is a planned city.</p>
<p>Just to add to gadad’s post, in addition to being a Fiske Best Buy, Iowa is also great about giving OOS students with strong test scores and gpa merit aid.</p>
<p>What are your stats? If your stats are high enough, you may qualify for some merit money.</p>
<p>I understand your desire for an attractive campus. I’ve been on ugly campuses, so-so campuses, and beautiful campuses, and I can tell you that my mood is better on the prettier campuses. :)</p>
<p>I also understand your desire for a campus that doesn’t have cars running thru the campus. I was happy that my kids’ campus has been closing “interior streets” and building outer parking structures for cars to be away from the center area of the campus. </p>
<p>Is money an issue? How much are your parents willing to pay each year? $30k per year? $40k per year? $50k+ per year???</p>
<p>Saint Louis University is a pretty campus now with new buildings and amazing flower gardens. Its in mid town St. Louis, but immediately adjacent to Forest Park, and on the other end of this gynormous park is WashU St. Louis.</p>
<p>Saint Louis University has a fabulous medical school and nursing program and the number one nutrition program in the nation. It will offer you excellent scholarship money if you have excellent stats. </p>
<p>Its got a huge gothic cathedral on one end of campus that is simply amazing.</p>
<p>When you visited Notre Dame, surely you walked across the street from the lakes and visited St Mary’s also I hope. Its KNOWN for its nursing program. I think it may be their most popular major. It has a beautiful campus also, is of course right next to ND so as a sister school you are part of the Notre Dame community (get football tix etc, dating, socials etc) and you can take some ND classes as well. Seems to me it would be exactly what you are looking for if an all girls school is okay with you.</p>
<p>St Louis University is a very urban campus. It is not what she said she was looking for, as it is in the middle of the city. It does have some green space, walking areas but by and large its separated by streets and is very urban. SLU is slightly less “urban” than schools like Marquette and Loyola of Chicago, which are very integrated into the city. Also, SLU is not right next to Forest Park (Wash U is).</p>
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