We toured campus today, talked to admissions as well as the director of nursing to see the simulation labs. She likes campus, she likes the reputation of the nursing program and the clinical opportunities as well as the personal attention that seems to happen there with the small classes.
A DECISION!!
Congrats.
York College really does not have any classes larger than 40 students. Most are smaller. In comparison, my son went to a more well-known university, and had 600 people in his freshman chemistry class.
They also did a very good with test prep for my daughter. She was able to pass the exam very quickly.
(The way the national exam is set up, they tell you to leave after you have answered enough questions to pass, or if you have answered so many questions wrong that you cannot pass. They don’t tell you which is the case at the time. On the morning of the exam, my daughter was home so quickly, that my wife was afraid at the time that she had washed out.)
Thanks @Charliesch – the visit was very worth it and our tour was just her and I and another accepted nursing student and her mom so the admissions person was able to target the conversation very well for our students. One of tour guides was a sophomore nursing student as well.
My daughter likes to feel like she can know her professors and seek out help when needed and the thing with ESU is it was SUCH a small nursing program and not a key focus of the college like York – at York they do nursing in a large enough way that she felt it was a better place for her to learn and grow. She is very pleased and I am so glad I asked all of you here, took the tour and that should got a financial package that made it possible!
That’s awesome @toomanyteens ! We put the deposit down at York several week’s ago for my son to secure his spot, although he does still have to wait to hear back from a few stragglers, with one being a major one that could upset the apple cart. But my gut feels that York would be the best fit and will most likely be where he ends up (they would be classmates). Just like you said, it is small enough that the students shouldn’t be just a number, but large enough of a program that it has a good reputation. For me, one thing that I have been trying to stress to my son is that I think it is important to have a trauma 1 hospital in the clinical rotation, which York does.
That is so cool @wildfelix1 – she felt the same about the trauma 1 hospital as right now it is her primary interest. She applied to 8 schools and was accepted to all of them; but only a few were really in our intended budget.
York College is one of the most affordable private colleges for nursing, and offers substantial merit aid that may bring the cost down to that of some public universities. The undergrad and grad nursing students make up about 10% of the student body.
My daughter wants to transfer to York Hospital’s Trauma Center, but she needs much more experience before they will consider her. Unlike her dad, she does not get grossed out.
@toomanyteens I’m embarrassed to say how many my son applied to…23! He is still waiting on four, but accepted at all the others which is making this process really difficult. Several that weren’t top runners initially have offered major scholarships and/or special programs making them more appealing, and his unicorn school (Pitt) didn’t offer any merit so I had to break it to him last month that we had to cross it off the list…ugh. To make it even harder, we only were able to tour a few schools over the summer, but we did tour small, medium and large sized schools, and he had no preference (other than Pitt). We are now trying to weed out based on trauma levels, advancement testing, etc. that we didn’t know enough about before applying. This has been a real learning process (thanks to @Charliesch for much of the info). York was one of his faves this summer based on the tour. Plus one of his best friends is a Freshman at York this year and loves it.
@Charliesch I seem to recall on the Penn State nursing tour, the nursing professor telling us that they lose quite a few nursing students due to the “grossed out” factor. Trauma would definitely be the worst of the worst for that!
@wildfelix1 glad to see we weren’t the only ones applying liberally to nursing programs. Somehow D avoided all PA schools but after quickly rattling off her first 5 acceptances she’s starting to question the quality of her selections.
@wildfelix1 We cast a fairly wide net too - but we knew the merit game a bit because my nursing student is our 5th and last college student! (woo hoo). So we knew that the key was to be a top student (like her stats had to exceed the average stats) so we targeted her applications in that way for the most part and then waited to see what came in. We also knew we had to start early (from making mistakes with the others) and then we did tours just this month once our ‘realistic’ choices presented themselves.
Wilde: I believe that is one of the reasons why colleges like to see that nursing applicants have done some volunteer or paid work in health care, so they have a sense of the gross stuff they will see and touch. The goal is to rise in the professional so you can order other people to handle some of the gross stuff.
If is also helpful for potential applicants to watch some surgery videos online.
I agree @Charliesch - York really kept in touch with my D throughout the process of ED application, making sure she came for a tour, met with admissions and the nursing staff. In the acceptance letter they talked about her out of school activities (ambulance volunteer and her camp at Drexel for prospective medical students) – I do believe that is why they were very interested in her - even though her academic stats are high average but not ourstanding.
@Banker1 The mega amount of apps was due to reading these boards and all the discussions about the extreme competitiveness of nursing admissions. In retrospect, we went way overboard! Avoiding PA for direct entry nursing programs is like going to Seattle and not running into a Starbucks! 
PA is close to us so my son for the most part applied to programs that are an easy day trip in case of emergencies. I’m sure your daughter end up with some quality choices if she applied to a large sampling as well.
@wildfelix1 I hear you. We didn’t know what to expect around acceptances for this impacted major. And D wasn’t sure where she wanted to apply. So out went 17 applications with app fees and test score submission costs totaling $1350! She has no clear favorite and no school seems to not want her yet and now she’s got a new to do list with honors and scholarship applications due at some of her choices. It’s exciting to say the least. Good luck!
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" In retrospect, we went way overboard! Avoiding PA for direct entry nursing programs is like going to Seattle and not running into a Starbucks! "
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Funny and true @wildfelix1
It is valuable to submit many applications to compare financial aid and net cost, not just for admissions. Also, a student may feel very differently about the type of college they want to attend as the months pass by, and they learn more about colleges. Their first choice in August, may be their least favorite choice by January.