My D is seriously considering UD nursing. She loved the campus, but she is torn between Fairfield, UNH and St A’s. All New England schools with great programs. UNH and ST A’s 100% NCLEX rate and preceptorships in Boston. Fairfield 96% with study abroad Sophomore year semester. We are from MA. We visited UD and nursing program has 170 in class, where other schools are 100 and less (UNH only 65). She would like to get out of New England I think for a change. Wants big campus feel with a college town. She knows she should go to St As for great program but worried about size. UNH is comparable to UD with campus feel. Does anyone have any insight? We just dont know as much about UD nursing beyond admitted student info session we attended. Sounds good but not sure.
My D20 is deciding about UD too, and we are from MA as well. I have no answers at all but happy to discuss either here or by PM. She is deciding between UD and Pitt at the moment.
We have visited UD twice. Their program seems very solid and all the students we’ve met have seemed happy. It’s the rest of the university that still feels unknown. She is trying to decide where she will fit in best. It is important to her to have the “full” university experience-- a big campus feel like you said, and also wants out of New England for a change of pace. She is excited to try new things and not spend 100% of her time with nursing students at least for the first year til clinicals heat up.
@TimeFlies2 I’d love to PM but not sure how! (: Thank you so much for the response! My D20 definitely leaning towards UD vs UNH - her only hesitation with UD was 170 students vs UNH 65. She definitely is trying to get more insight into their nursing program. Also we just have that unknown factor with UD. It does seem solid. We went to admitted student day Feb 29 and attended the nursing info session which seemed great. Happy with everything we heard. She just wished she knew someone who went through program. She actually loved the bigness of the campus and the college town feel. She’s very outgoing and wants to meet lots of new people! and YES full college experience! She applied to UD honors and still waiting to hear. Im sure everything will be delayed based on the craziness of the world right now and UD closing down to students. Thanks again for your input and anymore insight please feel free to share!!
Just sent you a message.
My daughter is a freshman nursing student at UD and loves it. (Despite being sent home four weeks into the spring semester due to COVID-19)
Because of the Living Learning Community for nurses, she immediately met and became friends with other nursing students. She has found that very helpful, as they share a lot of classes. They walk to class together and study together. The nursing program is very difficult and it’s great to be among other nurses. There are plenty of opportunities to meet other non-nursing students too.
They take one nursing class in the fall and one in the spring. Then beginning sophomore year, it’s practically all nursing classes. They have numerous nursing study abroad programs during UD’s January session or in the summer. Nursing students at other schools are not always able to study abroad due to program requirements.
I see the larger number of students at UD as a positive and not a negative, personally. I believe that they had a 96% NCLEX pass in the most recent data (10/1/18-9/30/19), which is very high. (To compare to other nearby schools: Villanova 96%, Penn State 93%, Pitt 94%, UPenn 94%)
UD as a whole is a great college experience. Main Street is within walking distance to the school, as are dorms and off-campus apartments. A car is not really needed to get around. It’s a beautiful campus. Nice balance between social and academics. My daughter hasn’t had a bad professor yet. She likes them all and finds the classes challenging yet manageable with hard work.
@vamom4 Thank you so much for all this great information! She was able to zoom with a professor today and had a great talk! I am so happy to hear about the support. Thats very important for her. So she is almost ready to commit!
I’m following this with interest.
My D is really stuck between UD and Pitt. No decision yet.
VAMom4 can you say more about the nursing program being difficult?
Also, how does your D meet students outside of nursing? My daughter thinks she won’t want a nursing LLC wherever she goes, in order to meet other people. Not sure if that’s a good or bad idea.
Nursing programs anywhere are going to be difficult. We were told most accept more students than they have clinical slots for because they know some will drop out. You need to be a strong student.
My daughter has found that the classes are challenging, but she is able to work hard and do well. It’s not a hopeless situation. Her classes freshman year have including two nursing classes, Anatomy 1 and 2, Biology, Bio-Chemistry, Nutrition and other university and nursing foundation classes. She was able to earn a 3.8 GPA first semester. She has one friend who parties too much and therefore doesn’t do as well. The rest of her nursing friends all balance academics and social stuff well, and are able to do reasonably well.
I definitely recommend rooming with other nurses or doing an LLC for nurses. It has been so valuable to my daughter. It’s almost like an instant sorority. She is rooming with nursing friends next year and going forward, I see her having her nursing friends as one group, and her sorority friends as another.
They can meet other people by joining school clubs, or going to dorm events. Plus not all their freshman year classes are nursing specific classes, only two are. In my daughter’s group of friends, all of them just joined sororities, and of about 10 girls, they are in six different ones. Very easy to meet non-nurses.
Pitt is a much more urban campus. If you are deciding between the two, consider which campus style is preferred.
Also, another great thing about UD is that it feels like a private school because only about a third of students are in-state, because the state is so small. 69% at Pitt are Pennsylvania residents. 38% of UD is Delaware residents. The rest are from all over. In my daughter’s sorority, for example, the breakdown is about 33% from NJ, 20% from NY, 15% from PA, 10% from DE, a bunch from Massachusetts, Maryland, Connecticut, and then a handful from other states like California, Virginia, Rhode Island and Illinois. More geographic diversity than most public universities have.
Pitt is definitely a more urban campus and very different from Udel. Pitt is basically in the middle of the city.
I will say however Pitt’s affiliation with UPMC is invaluable . UPMC is a world class health care institution. People come from all over the world for transplants and other high level innovative treatments. There is no doubt that nursing students at Pitt Will have a much broader range of clinical experiences and opportunities.
This is why I would pick Pitt if I were the one attending. I do feel it is a stronger and more comprehensive program, with more exposure to different things. The hospitals are a complete university setting that train not only nurses but physicians, pharmacists, social workers, dentists, OT, PT, everything. So if one were professionally ambitious, I think Pitt has more to offer.
However, for my D, I’m not sure she can appreciate all that. And UDel is very good too.
She will have to decide, and there are aspects that she likes about each. She does prefer the more classic type campus (Delaware) to the city environment.
Comments about students from different geographic areas are interesting. One of the student nurses she met at UDel said there were 7 students in her nursing class from the same Delaware high school. That made us wonder.
My daughter just heard she was taken off the wait list and got into UDEL nursing, would it be at ALL possible your daughter would speak with mine, she has already committed to URI nursing but is torn because UDEL was right up there. What are her feelings about the classes, professors, their approachability, if your daughter could talk with mine it would be really helpful, I think we only have to June 1 to decide and we just heard on Thursday.