<p>To build upon the above comments, if you are offered merit aid and would need a high GPA to keep receiving that aid, the competitiveness of the school can matter. It is harder to maintain a 3.3 GPA for example at a highly selective college than at a less selective college.</p>
<p>UNH, URI, UVM, And UMaine all have excellent and highly respected Nursing Programs. If a student applies themselves to the best of their abilities they can obtain a quality Nursing education at all of them. They certainly should not be viewed in any way as being second rate Nursing Programs. Trying to compare the Nursing Programs at these schools with the Nursing Programs at UMass-Amherst and UConn is difficult to do. The Nursing content at all the schools is probably fairly similar. A slight difference might be in the makeup of the Nursing student body. While there certainly are indivdual student differences (all major schools end up with a few students with 4.0+ GPAs and 2400 SAT scores) from an overall perspective the competitiveness of the total Nursing student body at UConn and UMass-Amherst is probably a little higher (I said a little) than at the other schools. This does not necessarily mean that these schools are “better” than the other schools but is mearly a reflection of the level of academic competition between the students at each school. This difference is then reflected in the rigor of course content as an academic adaptation to this level of competition. You can obviously argue the pros and cons to this but in any event it is the reality of the situation. I will end this with the comment I have made in many of my posts on the Nursing Forum. IMHO the quality of Nursing education one receives at any school is more highly correlated (for the most part) with the effort one puts into it as compared to the “ranking” of the school. As usual just my perspective. Good luck to all applicants.</p>