My D was accepted into honors for University of Delaware nursing as well as TCNJ honors nursing, both with scholarships.
(Penn State nursing as well). Looking for anyone familiar with the two programs…
Cost for each? I would think that demand for nurses is huge and all three are great schools…
UDel around 51,000 OOS but $17,000 scholarship, TCNJ 31,000 IS $8,000 scholarship, nothing from Penn which would be over $56,000
How will you fund the rest? The cheapest right now is TCNJ but why didn’t she look at instate? (Where is instate?)
in-state is NJ … was just looking for opinions with anyone familiar with the quality of the programs and overall experience at UDel vs. TCNJ
Why spend thousands more to go to UDel??? TCNJ hands down!!! Instate cost can’t be beat
Quality of the programs??? They are both good programs. Ramapo instate is also excellent with newer state of art facilities. Hate to break it to you but the the UDEL, TCNJ and Ramapo nursing grads make the same starting salaries as UPenn and Villanova grads…
Why would you even be debating between programs? TCNJ is the clear choice. BSN programs all must prep their students for the nclex. Tcnj has one of the highest 4yr graduation rates in the country. Paying 10’s I’d thousands more for the ivy “prestige” of UPenn is rediculous unless you have money to burn…
*10s of thousands
Sorry, I see you said Penn State, not UPenn—— even more so —- Penn State is a rip-off for NJ students. They give little merit aid to out of state students!!! Who in their right mind (again unless you are wealthy and have money to burn) would spend thousands more to go out of state as opposed to TCNJ ???
I tend to agree with the others – over 10K a year more for UDel is just not worth it. There is a lot that can be done with $40,000
My daughter committed to Delaware nursing (I talk about the program on another post), but is waitlisted at UVA nursing and will go if eventually accepted. (We are in-state Virginia, but that doesn’t help much with UVA nursing admissions.)
That said, the advice you are being given here is accurate as far as the starting salaries being similar for anyone with a BSN regardless of where they are getting it. My daughter gave up admission to Case Western Reserve due to the price, even though it’s a more prestigious school. She would rather save the money for grad school.
I would suggest going in-state IF you feel you will have similar experiences at both schools.
In this case, Delaware and TCNJ seems to be roughly the same caliber. Delaware is bigger, but TCNJ is plenty big. Unless you really don’t like the campus vibe there, and unless money is not an issue, I would also recommend staying in-state. Plus, you are more likely to do your clinicals close to home, and that will make it easier to get a job at one of those places in the future.
My daughter is only going out of state because among our state schools for direct-admit it’s either UVA (with 14% in-state admissions rate to nursing) or another much lower caliber school, known for accepting students who didn’t work very hard in high school. (average SAT around 1000, 92% admit rate) While she might get the same nursing education there, she wanted to be among more academic-focused students and didn’t apply there.
You are lucky to have a good in-state option! Save the $44,000 difference between the two schools for something else!
Oh, and regarding Penn State: Nursing students have to move to Harrisburg for junior year to do clinicals, because the University Park campus is sort of in the middle of nowhere. I personally don’t think that is an ideal situation, but you may feel differently.
Thanks you everyone! She also was accepted to University of Florida, an excellent school, but it is a 2+2 and tho she would love the campus and weather not sure worth the risk not getting in to the nursing program… TCNJ , even with the in-state $ advantage may just be a bit too close to home for her taste, but glad to know the program highly regarded…
For some reason I thought TCNJ was not direct admit, nor was UD - my D’s friend goes to TCNJ and I was almost certain it is not direct admit
both UDel and TCNJ are 4 yr nursing, direct admit (both have honors as well)
Just to clarify vamom’s point above: Most Penn State U Park BSN students do need to spend their junior or senior year in Hershey at the large Milton Hershey Medical Center. That is about 1.5 hours from the U. Park main campus. The Milton Hershey Medical Center is a very large complex east of Harrisburg, has housing for nurses and also has a med school.
However, my daughter wanted to spend all 4 years living in the same location with the same students, so she turned down Penn State. She ended up doing her pediatrics clinicals at the Milton Hershey Medical Center anyway while attending York College of PA.
(By the way, the Milton Hershey Medical Center and med school were built using the modern equivalent of $300 million of funds left in trust for charitable purposes by Mr. Hershey. He gave away almost his entire fortune 30 years before he died).
I was going to say that @Charliesch - one of the draws of York for my D was the opportunity to do clinical at Hershey - she is hoping to see the trauma unit