I thought I would start a thread for prospective Nursing students here.
I’ll start with my questions:
My daughter was accepted to Nursing (yay), Honors, and just a small merit scholarship ($2K/yr). I think she wants to go there, but therenis no doubt she could go to either IUP or Bloomsburg for a lot less. Give me the pros of spending so much more on Pitt in terms of impact on her career?
Apparently there are dome Nursing scholarships available to enrolled students - anyone know how hard they are to get?
Doing the Honors program, which includes a thesis, on top of the demanding Nursing program - would this be worth it down the road as well?
And what’s the best housing option for Nursing students - Nursing LLC, Honors LLC, other?
Just my two cents…I would pick Bloomsburg in this case. Yes, Pitt nursing is one of the top, but hospital hiring managers (from what we were told) only care if you have your degree, decent clinical experience, and passed the NCLEX. They aren’t necessarily going to pay you more for a BSN from Pitt versus another school. Save the debt load for grad school…and consider going to Pitt then. Bloomsburg is one of the tougher programs and students get excellent clinical experiences at Geisinger. All that being said, it may be a tough sell to your daughter if she has her heart set on going to school in a bigger city.
I’ll second @Sophley . A hiring manager isn’t going to care about the Capstone or Honors thesis. Get the degree, pass the NCLEX, have solid clinical experience. A new RN/BSN from Pitt will not make any more than an RN/BSN from X University Wherever.
If you have the $$ saved up and are good to go and that is your student’s preference then cool. If significant debt will have to be incurred to go to Pitt vs. the other schools then definitely think twice. There is no big huge ROI for choosing Pitt over another school for nursing.
The Nursing LLC seems to be the way to go from what I read on our Pitt parents group. But they can’t go wrong sticking with Honors either.