<p>You could be right–especially deferring out of state applicants during difficult economic times for in state residents.</p>
<p>Hang in there!</p>
<p>I disagree with the advice on Penn. In fact, for a nursing major state schools make the most sense. Don’t waste your money on Penn, Villanova or BC for nursing. Nursing is not an academic field so much as career training. You will end up working beside Pitt and Penn State grads - and be making the same money - but have spent twice as much to get there. If you want to study liberal arts or engineering it may be worth the extra money but not for nursing. This is not a knock at the profession. There just is not enough of a difference in salary (if any at all) to make up for the extra cost of the education for nurses. </p>
<p>And as Yabeyabe2 said, it is easier to be accepted to Penn for nursing than for other majors. That’s generally true with all of the more selective colleges that offer nursing. As you would expect, most people with a 4.0 gpa and SATs over 2100 that are interested in the medical field go into a pre-med-type major (like bio or chemistry) rather than nursing.</p>
<p>Tom, do you have enough expertise in nursing to be sure about the lack of benefit of attending those private schools or are you just guessing (as I am)? Would a Penn nursing degree, for example, openup better jobs than a URI degree?</p>
<p>Also, since the poster is from CT, she would be paying out of state tuition at the other public schools–in some instances, aid packages from private schools can make it cheaper to attend the private school than pay the out of state tuition at a public school.</p>
<p>As yabeyabe2 said, I do need financial aid anyways and I think private schools will end up giving me better financial aid than the state universities in the end. But I do agree, that I dont think it really matters so much as where the best place to go for nursing is. My mom keeps telling me I will end up making basically the same amount of money no matter what nursing program I go to. However, I do think that you can get into better graduate programs if the nursing school is more well known and I am hoping to go on to graduate school and become a pediatric nurse. So in this case I think its better if I can try to get into a really good nursing program at a private university opposed to going to a state university (although I am considering state universities as well).</p>
<p>It’s not just about the nursing program itself Tom…it’s about the entire college experience. I personally would much rather spend my college years at Penn or BC than at a state school. Some people prefer large public schools, some don’t.</p>
<p>D was also deferred at Pitt and UVM with similar stats, but was accepted to Drexel with some money. Have you looked at Temple?</p>
<p>At a Pitt nursing open house, we were told that their av. GPAs are above 3.8.</p>
<p>Foxy: that is a fair point. Obviously there is more to a college experience than classes and job prospects but the value of those will depend on how valuable they are compared to cost. </p>
<p>Yaybaybe: Even if out-of-state, the state colleges are generally less expensive than the private colleges named. However, if JBLAn qualifies for financial aid then the cost may be offset. Penn gives good grants but Villanova and Boston College are known to be less generous with aid. I am not saying that she shouldn’t apply but that she should seriously consider cost in her decision. You asked whether a nurse from Penn will have more job oportunities than those out of a state school and I would say not necessarily. A degree from Wharton (what Penn is known for) may carry some cachet but nursing is nursing. A lot of what makes a nurse good has to do with personality not education. Nursing is not a research science. It is a supporting role with only a very basic science background. Nurses from Penn are still nurses.</p>
<p>Investment Banks look for grads from top business schools because what they are doing is often speculative and requires the trust of investors. Investors like to see degrees from bigger name schools before trusting them with their money. Patients don’t ask for a curriculum viatae before allowing a nurse to start an IV or administer medication.</p>
<p>OP, you may as well apply to the private schools and see what they offer you. The person I know who is at BC got a very generous aid package. In fact, it cost her slightly less to attend BC than it would have to attend UMass-Amherst (honors college). </p>
<p>Like yabeyabe2, I’m curious to know TominVT’s nursing background/experience.
-------------------------------------------------------edited to add:
“However, I do think that you can get into better graduate programs if the nursing school is more well known”</p>
<p>I’m curious about this as well. Any MSN’s out there care to comment?</p>
<p>guys i got into case western nursing! :)</p>
<p>You have a great career ahead of you!
But I still hope you try Penn!</p>
<p>My daughter also got accepted into CWRU today. Now we wait for March for RD from Penn and UVA.</p>
<p>I applied to Penn nursing as well. I heard we hear back in mid february though! not as long of a wait as march :)</p>
<p>You and Aglages’s daughter are guaranteed great educations, regardless, but good luck with Penn. Jblan, I knew Pitt was not a sign of your results to come!</p>
<p>
Hope you’re correct. The earlier decision date may account for why our financial information is due sooner than the other Penn colleges. Have you done your interview yet?</p>
<p>Thanks yageyabe2! Now we just need to find a way to pay for CWRU.</p>
<p>My daughter is a junior in Penn’s program - it’s not easy to get into as it’s one of the top programs in the country! She was also accepted at BC, Vanderbilt, Emory, Michigan, Penn State and NYU. Waitlisted at Georgetown. Vandy and Emory have programs you apply for your soph year (Vandy has a 5 year NP program but nurses we talked to discouraged going this route). BC was fairly easy for her to get into - we never even visited their campus!</p>
<p>We looked at Villanova and they do have a good program - my daughter is finding that a lot of their nursing students have clinicals at the same places she does including the UPenn hospitals CHOP and HUP. The reason she didnt apply there was that she thought the environment was too overprotecting - they give that vibe on campus visits. </p>
<p>Have you looked at Michigan - their program is tied with Penn in a lot of rankings. </p>
<p>My daughter was unsure about nursing - she is doing a minor in Health Care Management through the Wharton school at Penn. When she graduates she will not neccessariy work as an RN - she has lots of choices.</p>
<p>
Michigan has a great program, but their clinicals are all over the place. Evidently there are too many nursing students for the one hospital on campus so you need to travel some distances to get in your clinicals. Just what I heard…</p>
<p>Penn has longer distance clinicals also - it’s a mix but some of the most popular ones are at hospitals that are out of the downtown area. My daughter doesn’t drive but managed to carpool with a group this semester - she said it was worth the 30 min drive at 6 am to have a great experience. When a college student says that you know it must have been good!
My guess is that all the schools have a mix of on-site and distance locations. As I mentioned the Penn hospitals have nurses from other schools also come for clinicals - I think the idea is to work in a variety of hospitals to get a well rounded experience.</p>
<p>Working in multiple clinical settings has upsides and downsides. My school has clinicals all at one hospital because we have a joint program with a hospital’s school of nursing, and it’s great because it’s about 5 minutes away, you really get to know the people there and are pretty much guaranteed a job after graduation, you can work there as a student nurse aide after your first semester there, and because it’s just one place, you can be sure that you’ll get to know each department pretty well. I personally like that better than the idea of having to go all over the place, especially since the biggest downside of that is that generally some of the clinical places are better than others and if you get a bad place, you’re stuck.</p>
<p>deferred from northeastern- UGH!!! this is not giving me much hope for boston college or villanova!!!</p>