I’m a graduating high school senior in a dilemma about my college choice. Cost isn’t too much of an issue as my parents are willing to help me out, but I feel like Drexel is far too expensive just for a nursing degree. Currently for the year Villanova is 6k, Penn State Main is 25k, and Drexel is 35k. These are after appeal amounts so Penn State and Villanova would be around the same price for 4 years with their original aid offers. I think Villanova and Penn State both have pretty strong nursing programs, Nova for a DNP and Penn State for a MSN, but Drexel has the advantage of being directly in Philly and its co-op program.
Villanova is a small school in the suburbs that will ensure individual attention and small class sizes only a short distance from Philly. Only con is their student body lacks diversity and I heard can be a bit preppy/uptight. Penn State is a big campus but hopefully with Schreyers I get a nice mix of class sizes. Only problem is nursing students do their clinicals 3rd or 4th year at the Hershey Medical Center which is 2 hrs away, and I’m not sure how I would do classes while I’m living at the manor/housing complex there. I’m not sure if the Schreyers program will make up for the lack of hospitals compared to Villanova and Drexel which have Philly. My dad really likes Drexel and Penn State, but we’re not sure if Drexel is worth the high price tag with the current pandemic and if classes are online, I would just go for Penn State. Sorry for the rant, but I’m very stressed. Does anyone have any advice? I might change majors later on so maybe these factors aren’t that important.
Drexel is not worth the price tag when you have the options of two amazing schools like Penn State and Nova. I personally would choose Nova. You can’t beat that cost for such a good school and the location close to Philly.
I’m with izrk02 on this one. Which of Penn State or Nova would you prefer if you change your major? What would you need to do to keep your scholarship at Nova so that you can keep your costs down? If you would lose that scholarship, would Nova still be affordable for your family?
And you are smart to be preparing for an online fall semester. Maybe you will get lucky and your college of choice will open up for on-campus classes, but if it doesn’t, you will be ready.
Drexel not worth it. Not sure I see much of an advantage of Schreyers for a BSN. I’d call PSU and ask them about the logistics for clinicals. Ask if they can put you in touch with a couple of current students that you could talk to about the BSN.
I stupidly missed the deadlines for the scholarships I qualified for so the money I did receive was need-based through grants. I didn’t even consider Nova as an option as it was too expensive but they gave me a lot of aid last minute. Their financial office hasn’t responded to my email from a week ago so I’m wary that Nova will be a lot of money the other 3 years, but my family would still be able to afford it. It would be around the same as PSU
That’s a good idea. I attended a couple of virtual events but they didn’t have nursing students available and I have been mostly contacting financial aid. I’ll try to get in touch with PSU nursing students. Thanks for the help!
Run to Villanova. If you stick with nursing having clinicals two hours away would be a real drag at PSU, either because you’d live that far out and miss campus activities, or you’d spend a huge amount of time commuting. If you change your mind, Villanova has plenty of other good options and is likely easier to change majors. If your financial situation doesn’t change very much, I’m not sure why your aid would.
As for PSU:
Ask to be put in touch with 3rd/4th year Nursing majors. How do they handle it?
Also ask Schreyer about their other nursing majors and see if you can talk with them about their experience.
Call to get information about costs at Nova.
If it’s 6K the first year but ??? year 2-4(5)… How would it work? Is the need-based grant first-year only or is it tied to your being in college at the same time as a sibling who’d then graduate?
Wrt Schreyer, the seminars and classes are worth it, as is priority registration, the dorms, and the scholarship
It was originally around 32k per year for Villanova but my family had a drastic change in income in 2019 and some recent COVID-19 events so they adjusted my aid. I’m not too sure how they calculated my aid so I have a meeting with my financial counselor tomorrow and I’ll hopefully be able to figure it out. For PSU, nursing students are provided student housing near Hershey and we would live there for the year so I don’t think it’ll be too big of an issue.
I’m just conflicted that I might be stupid choosing PSU when Villanova has more hospitals near their campus and also it’s close to Philly so their clinicals will be better. They also seem more uptight in their student body…but other than that I like the school
