What’s the problem?
Let me quote from further down in the Q&A:
“Can I still live at University of Maryland College Park even after I go to Nursing School?
Because you will no longer be a student at University of Maryland College Park, you will not be allowed to live in on-campus housing. Of course you could remain in the city of a college Park and live in any of the off-campus housing options.”
Many students regardless of major move off campus, especially at big state universities. So, if a nursing student wants to remain part of the greater university community, live with classmates/friends, attend athletic events, etc, she can do that by living off-campus and commuting over to the University of Maryland School of Nursing in Rockville (Shady Grove) after 2 or 3 years on campus. Let me note that 3 years on campus means that the student is pursuing a 5-year/dual major option.
Nursing students increasingly spend less time on campus as their 4 years progress and they begin to spend more time in their clinical placements. As they become upperclassmen, their coursework is focused in their major and they are not taking courses with students outside their major, With the College Park/School of Nursing Guaranteed Pathway, that’s what a student is doing. She takes regular classes and lives in dorms (or off-campus) for the first 2-3 years, but then focuses on her major for the last 2 years like any other student. In this case upper level classes are taken farther away at what is essentially a satellite campus. One of my daughters is a nurse and I understand how undergrad nursing students spend their time and where they spend it.
Welcome to the real world. College is not a destination. It is means to your ultimate goal, which means leaving the college cocoon at some point.
As I said in my initial comment on this thread, the best nursing training depends on excellent clinical experiences where best practices are employed. These are not normally found in “quintessential college towns”. That’s the note of unreality which has permeated this whole quest. Many of the options listed will get a student certified as an RN, but will either provide less than excellent training, or will involve major hassles getting back & forth to clinical placements, or both. It’s best that this reality be faced now rather than after a student is on a remote campus at a distance away from top clinical experiences but in the “quintessential college town”. At that point it’s too late to do anything about it.
The 3/2 option for a 5 year dual major program may seem like it’s adding a 5th year unnecessarily. Not really. Is this young woman telling us by seeking the “quintessential college town” experience, that she really is not 100% sure of her commitment to nursing and needs more time on campus to explore other options? I’m obviously just speculating, but if this is the case, the 5 year plan is more efficient by allowing for this and still getting a BSN/RN in just 5 years. Some nurses obtain their nursing degree after graduation when it takes 2-3 more years after 4 years of college. Yale, Columbia, and Georgetown are all examples of excellent nursing schools that have these postgraduate options for students who needed the undergraduate experience before being ready to make their commitment to the profession.