Nursing Class of 2027 (Direct Admit BSN)

Does anyone have experience with Binghamton, Decker school of Nursing or U of SC honors college with direct admit to their College of Nursing.
My DD got into both of these schools and a few others but leaning towards these 2 since price is comparable.

Hello,
I would love to hear your feedback. My DS23 Nursing major-has been accepted into several colleges-

Direct

Creighton
Fairfield
Marquette
Catholic University of America
Duquesne
Sacred Heart

Pre-Nursing
Baylor

Deferred
TCU
We are in SoCal so all of these are distant which he wanted. He also wants a real campus experience at at school that is medium sized. Much smaller than public schools in CA. He has merit scholarships so COA manageable. Weary of weed-em out programs and schools that empty on the weekend since thats not an option.
Any insight is appreciated.

Baylor has a great program. The biggest downside is that the first 2 years are in Waco and the last are in Dallas ( 1 1/2 hours away). We live in Texas and my daughter loved Baylor but her friends that are ahead of her really discouraged her from going to Baylor, They hated the fact that they left main campus after just 2 years. She wanted more of a traditional college experience. We have several friends at TCU. Great program, all in Fort Worth. Downside is cost, Its pricy.

Thanks for sharing. Baylor’s split campus experience so far apart is a consideration. Visiting both next month… he’s not yet into TCU but hoping he gets accepted. Any advice for deferred candidates?

TCU loves demonstrated interest. Visit the school and talk with your Admissions Counselor. Let them know if it is your 1st choice & will attend if accepted (if true).

Baylor is a great school. I truly loved it. I got my BSN from there years ago. But leaving to go to Dallas after year 2 is pretty much like leaving the university. It is not a traditional 4 year experience when you leave and go to Dallas.

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In general, I would also say that no one (employer) has ever cared where I went to school. My experience is what got me the jobs I wanted.

I started out as a nurses aide in a nursing home my first 2 years in college just part time in summers & over breaks. At the time that was the only job I could get with no experience. Once I started nursing school (years 3 & 4), I got a job as a Recovery Room Tech in a Dallas hospital. I did not necessarily want to work in the RR, but I took that job to get my foot in the door at that hospital.

Then I decided that I wanted to work in the ER, as my interest was in trauma, so I befriended some of the ER techs & nurses and let them know when they were hiring that I would be interested. Soon enough, a spot opened & I transferred to the ER as an ER Tech.

I learned some things in nursing school, but where I really learned how to be a nurse was in that ER. That experience enabled me to get several job offers from different area hospitals trauma inits, ICU’s, etc. when I graduated.

I think employers prefer a BSN, but it does not matter where you get it. Nursing is not dissimilar to other professions in that your drive and hustle and experience is what will take you places. I would go to the least expensive school that you like the best. Nursing can pay well, but not enough to have big loans.

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I really only have feedback on Duquesne as that’s the only school on the list my daughter applied to. We did visit and she loved that it (at least at the time) was the only school that had a double major in BSN and Biomedical Engineering. She also considered their PA program. The campus is pretty small and rather self contained but still “in” the city so there’s a ton to do on the weekends. Proximity to clinicals is also an upside!

Creighton in Omaha has a “real campus” feel. It’s in the northwest corner of the downtown area of Omaha and, while “in a city” it still has a campus feel. All the buildings are in this Creighton red brick style. We enjoyed our visit when we were there. Omaha seems like it would be a very manageable city (urban but not that large to be overwhelming). There is a cool district probably a 15-20 minute walk from campus called “The Old Market” which is an old warehouse area that has a lot of restaurants, shops, and such.

Marquette is slightly bigger, in a mid-size city and definitely has a more “urban” feel to it, even though it still has its own campus area (it’s about 1.5-2 miles west of downtown Milwaukee, separated by I-94, the major north-south highway through the city). The nursing school’s current building is in the southwest corner of the core campus area, but they are building a new nursing building pretty much right in the center of campus. It is supposed to be ready in 2024 (so perfect for BSN students starting next year). The Third Ward in Milwaukee is a nice area for restaurants and such. Perhaps Milwaukee folks won’t like this, but I’ve always thought of Milwaukee as a smaller, more manageable version of Chicago, with a nice river running through the downtown area. It is particularly nice in the warmer months.

Same … we are visit Upitt on 20th case 23rd and 24th umich. How abt you?

When chasing nursing school prestige (really unnecessarily because nobody cares as long as you passed your NCLEX), keep in mind that nearby schools often do clinicals in the same location and even share professors. So UVA and JMU may not be much different for that, same with UD-Villanova, Pitt-Duquesne, Drexel-UPenn.

So, be sure to ask at each school: Where are the clinicals done? Because you do NOT want to be traveling 1-2 hours twice a week for clincals.

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Couldn’t agree more.

We will be at Case on the 20th, Michigan on the 24th and just had to reschedule Pitt which was supposed to be on the 25th b/c she had an unplanned conflict. So that will now be a couple weeks later. Can’t wait for a decision!

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I misunderstood…same here want to come to a closure.

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Anyone have any real experience with URI Nursing versus Fairfield vs Quinnipiac? Daughter has also gotten into other schools but they are smaller and she wants at least 5000 students. Obviously a nursing degree from most schools will get you a great job (have a recent grad from Saint Anselm where top Boston and other hospitals are actively recruiting -!) but too small for D27 and she is interested in any experiences at these other schools. D27 really also wants to do a semester or even summer abroad as well - somewhere in Europe. Thanks

I don’t have any real experience since my daughter is still in high school. She was admitted to Fairfield and Quinnipiac. She didn’t end up applying to URI. One of the things she liked best about Fairfield was the ability to study abroad for a whole semester in Ireland. They also have an Australia semester option. Not many nursing programs had that option. She’s planning to go to the nursing info session next Friday to hopefully learn more.

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Anybody else out there applying for the Ohio State Early Admissions Pathway BSN Nursing? Anybody out there that has done it in the past?

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Thanks - we will be there as well. URI has an Ireland nursing trip over the summer which we liked as well for study abroad. We like Quinnipiac’s nursing building but as it is not on the same campus we are probably going to knock Q out of the running.

Two problems with URI:
1–as has been discussed quite a few times on this and other threads, over many years, URI is not truly direct entry because there is a competitive selection process to progress into clinicals/upper level nursing classes. This goes beyond just typical weed-out criteria, because even if you earn top grades, you are subject to the department’s “competitive selection process” to move forward, or you have to wait and try again to move forward the next semester.
2–there are current URI nursing students in the throws of protest on how the school is requiring a certain grade on a practice NCLEX exam in order to PASS a required class …in order to graduate… look it up… yikes.
It’s so sad because URI is pretty nice otherwise.

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Thank you
The practice NCLEX you refer to is actually a tool used by many other nursing schools. I have another child who is a senior nursing student at another top nursing school and I had him review the protest (along with several of his classmates) and it is much ado about nothing.
And your first point I have addressed to administration and admissions and it is a direct entry. I know you may have had some mis information but they have never denied a student and have always had spaces.

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It’s disappointing to think that many other nursing schools use a student’s performance on a practice NCLEX to potentially result in a student failing a required course and not graduating on time. It’s one thing to require students to practice like crazy and take tons of test simulations, review courses, questions-of-the-day, etc…;it’s quite another to make their graduation ride on it.

Unfortunately this is not misinformation, and although URI call themselves direct-entry, my daughter just wasn’t willing to take a chance on whatever this policy might have done to her progression through the program. Perhaps it would never have been a problem and despite this being their written policy, as you said, they CLAIM “they have never denied a student and have always had spaces.” Never? Why the policy then?

None of her other direct entry admissions had this issue- and she’s a researcher.
Also- I have literally NOTHING to gain or lose sharing this information I gathered this time last year. It’s just information.

Finally, I’d like to add that, overall, URI is WONDERFUL and we loved almost everything about it…I would have loved for my daughter to go there and we were so proud that she was accepted to the nursing program. I think because of just how great of a fit it was - it made us really do the deep dive into this particular issue- in the end, it was the whole too-good-to-be-true thing.

Best wishes to your daughter- she’s got absolutely amazing options!

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