need advice on decision!

<p>OKAY! now that the first 2/3s of the admission process is over (whew that was long!) I need to make a final decision...dun dun dunnn</p>

<p>These are my choices: (I'm including w.s. in loans except for udel who for some reason didn't give me any work study...)</p>

<p>University of Delaware --> cost- 20k w/5.5k in loans
TCNJ--> cost- 17k (I forget what the loans/grants were for this one but I'm instate)
Widener--> cost- 16k w/6.6k in loans
Lynchburg--> cost- 10k w/7k in loans
University of Michigan--> cost- 22k w/11k in loans
University of Pittsburgh--> haven't recieved aid yet thanks to fafsa screw-ups
Villanova University--> cost-25k w/8.5k in loans
Case Western Reserve University--> 12k w/7.7k in loans</p>

<p>I'm going to be making hundreds of pro/con charts in the next 4 weeks.........
SO,
1. does anyone have any experience with any of the above nursing programs?
2. any help/advice on this would be extremely appreciated!!
3. any experience with any of the above schools/areas?</p>

<p>basically, I would like a good education in a fantastic area where there is plenty to do and not many opportunities for boredom coupled with a great college experience :)</p>

<p>Case Western is an amazing program. And that’s a sweet deal from them. Congratulations!</p>

<p>Are the numbers what you will have left to pay + the loans, or is the loan amount subtracted from the other, higher number?</p>

<p>the amounts are what we have to pay+loans</p>

<p>@cecilturtle
do you know anything about the area? I’ve heard Case’s nursing is great and I love the fact that they do a senior capstone all over the world…thats the kind’ve stuff I want to do.</p>

<p>Congratulations in your acceptences. I don’t know about Widener or Lynchberg but the rest of the colleges on your list all have excellant Nursing Programs. If you do well at any of them you would have no problem at all in getting into top rated Nursing Graduate Programs (if that is part of your career plans). If you give any creedence to ratings/rankings Mich., Case, Pitt would proably be highest rated (not in any specific order) followed by Villanova, UDel, TCNJ (again not in any specific order), and then I suspect Widener and Lynchberg. However, ratings are only one aspect of choosing a college, especially if the schools all have high quality programs. You really need to visit the colleges to get a feeling where you best “fit in”. I hope you have done this. As I’m sure you will find out each of these schools will have their respective pros and cons.</p>

<p>I can give you some specific information about UDel (UD) as my D graduated from there this past Summer. She did very well there, felt her educational experiences were excellant, and folllowing graduation was able to land a highly competitive (nearly a thousand applicants for only about 10 positions) at New York Presbyterian/Cornell Medical Center in NYC on Cornell’s Neurological ICU. Other nurses hired along with her included a second UD grad and graduates from Penn, BC, NYU, UVA, UConn, and TCNJ-not bad company to be hired along with. UD has a state-of-art Nursing Simulation Lab. Newark, Delaware is the archtype college small town. Main Street (with multiple eateries, shops,etc.) runs right thru the campus. UD is a large school but has a much smaller college feel to it. The social scene is excellant with multiple sports activities, clubs, sororities/frats, and many other activities too numerous to mention. If you are a social person UD would fit the bill along with its excellant academics. Philly, NYC, and Baltimore/DC are not far away. If you would like any more specific info about UD please feel free to PM me.</p>

<p>You are very lucky to have such a large number of excellant Nursing Schools to choose from. I wish you the best in making your decision.</p>

<p>Since you have other options, if I were you I would remove Widener from consideration – I was there last week for a track meet and the campus / surrounding area is not very pretty.</p>

<p>I would not want my daughter (assuming you are female) to go to college in Chester PA (Widener). Also, you will have higher quality fellow students in the other colleges.</p>

<p>I would try to go to a college where you do not need to do work study in order to afford it. Everyone says that nursing schedules are tougher than regular college schedules.</p>

<p>I’d scratch the two highest net cost colleges and two least prestigious/least selective colleges (Widener and Lynchburg), and pick one of your remaining excellent choices.</p>

<p>A reasonable goal is to try to finish your undergrad degree with less than $23K of subsidized federal loans. That is the maximum amount of subsidized Stafford loans that most people can receive.</p>