<p>I have been doing lots of research for college since I will be applying soon. I am a top student who's interested in nursing. I'm trying to add a few more schools to my list, so I would love to know schools that are known for having good nursing programs. ALL other criteria aside, I just want to know some more schools I should check out to see if they could be a good fit. So any suggestions, anywhere in the U.S., for schools with good nursing programs would be greatly appreciated, and any opinions on those schools too!</p>
<p>You will have to narrow down your interests to allow for useful suggestions. What state do you live in, and what geographic area would you consider? Could you afford a private or out of state public college? Do you want a large school or small one? </p>
<p>@Charliesch Well I know, there’s a lot of different factors to take into consideration and I will do that without a doubt. I was hoping to get suggestions just to have a starting point and be able to look and see okay here’s a school with a good nursing program (check) now does it fit everything else I may want (?). I’m just having trouble trying to find schools that have nursing programs people would recommend.</p>
<p>But you’re right, I should probably be a little more specific! I live in Alaska and want to go out of state, so I’m kind of just looking anywhere in lower 48. Cost will be a huge factor so anywhere with good merit scholarships would be nice. Not too large of a school, but I’m pretty open to any suggestions.</p>
<p>From what you have described, I would suggest looking for mid-priced private colleges with direct entry nursing programs that are near at least one major hospital and that offer substantial merit aid. I’d start with the list of direct entry programs on this website. Some colleges describe automatic merit aid on their websites. </p>
<p>You also would need to find a place with affordable airfare. You could test out the prices of flights to a few metro areas during the times of the year when you would want to go home (such as Christmas). Some airports have little competition and have expensive flights, while others are served by discount airlines. I imagine few have direct flights from Alaska. You might also be able to do part of the trip by rail.</p>
<p>There also are some US public universities that are still affordable for out of state students, such as in North Dakota and I believe Utah. You can look at the financial aid part of CC to see suggestions.</p>
<p>There are also some public universities that offer merit aid to top students. Most public universities offer little need-based aid for out of state students, unless you a top African-American student.</p>
<p>There are two public universities that meet full financial need for all out of state US students - UVa and UNC-CH. However, they are both extremely competitive for admissions. UVa has a great direct entry program and UNC-CH is not direct entry.</p>
<p>There are some expensive highly competitive programs that offer excellent need-based aid, such as U. Penn.</p>
<p>I know nothing about nursing programs at Canadian universities. You could check to see how hard it is to take the US RN exam with a Canadian degree. Canadian universities used to be very affordable for US students, but the popular ones in eastern Canada have raised their prices. There might be some good reasonably priced ones in western Canada. </p>
<p>Hi @ blue652 your previous thread back in June mentioned a pretty good SAT score & high GPA , 1390 ( cr + m ) ( ? )
I think what you’re thinking … you want some kind of way to narrow down your list of schools out of literally hundreds of programs since you can visit most of them. That make sense.
Cost will limited your choice.
I have one kid in nursing & another one applying right now as we speak, and we started looking at every possible programs In-State only & expanded our search to other privates…
but always start in-state & see what’s available. </p>
<p>OOS public ( cost the most )
Private ( merit will cut down only part of the cost , you + your parents still need to pay for the rest )
In-State Alaska ( cost less )
Hospital based programs ( cost less , they are partnered with a local college so you take college classes there)</p>
<p>this is just a randowm example of a cost of a private with merit aid.
I make up the cost , some schools I have looked at cost LESS than that & some are up to 60,000
cost $49,000 ( tuition & room) - $20,000 merit = 29,000 cost to you
so you need to asked your parents & see what they say.
Hope this helps you. </p>
<p>In my daughter’s experience, she applied to several private colleges that were not extremely selective and where she was in a top tier of their accepted students. Almost all offered her 50% off of tuition merit scholarships. If a college is mid-priced to start with, that can bring down the price to a level close to an in-state college.</p>
<p>It is common for private colleges that are not extremely selective to discount their tuition for students with good scores. </p>
<p>My son had higher numbers than my daughter and applied to multiple colleges with high sticker prices that offered to meet 100% of proven need or that offered large amounts of merit aid. All but one (Villanova) brought their price down to the sticker price for Penn State, which is our in-state flagship.</p>
<p>You want to make sure you apply to enough colleges where you can compare net prices. Also, the best aid and the spots in nursing programs often go to students who apply early.</p>
<p>Also, keep in mind that housing, food and ordinary living expenses vary greatly across the country. In general, California, NYC, Boston and DC are the most expensive. You can live like a king in some areas for what you pay for a hot closet in NYC. </p>
<p>both look like a good program, I don’t know how far away these 2 schools are from where you live. Can you visit them & see if you like them? Even though you like to go elsewhere.
You can always do study abroad program & also work outside Alaska after you graduate…just a thought</p>
<p>Thank you all for your help. I truly appreciate it!</p>
<p>@Charliesch You make a lot of great points! I have been looking at some private universities as well as public. I know neither is really supposed to be better than the other, but do you think I should just look more at private universities then? (Getting 50-100% tuition scholarship would be really important)
I have never thought to look at universities in Canada. I’m not sure how that would work if I got a degree there then came to back to the US, but that’s not a bad idea at all though. That may be a good option and something I should look into.</p>
<p>@leftrightleft 2010 SAT (1390 CR+M) but I hope for it to be at least 1400+ when I retake it next month. I’m in the top 5% of my class, unweighted GPA of 3.97. I will definitely look into those that you suggested!</p>
<p>@FlowerMom I’m trying to find options out of state (whether it be private of public). UAA (in-state) is definitely my fall back option if nothing else works out or is just too expensive. I live nearby UAA and it would probably be my only option if I had to stay in-state since it’s the only school that offers a BSN here. Two of the main reasons I don’t want to go to UAA though is that I would really really like to leave Alaska and go elsewhere for college and the nursing program here has a two year wait list, so it would basically take 6 years before I could graduate which does not appeal to me at all.
Since I would get good scholarships to go to UAA, my parents don’t want to spend a lot for me to go out-of-state, especially since my brother, sister, and I will all be in college at the same time starting next year. So… scholarships are definitely important and any aid I could receive! Thanks again for your input!</p>
<p>Any opinions of the following schools/their nursing programs:</p>
<p>University of Portland
Seattle University
University of Massachusetts Amherst
University of Kentucky
Linfield College
Case Western
Montana State University
Miami University</p>
<p>Sorry, I’m only familiar with schools in the Mid-atlantic states.</p>
<p>Please keep in mind that full ride scholarships are extremely rare, even with high scores. With a few exceptions, even the best scholarships require the student to pay for room, food and travel. Stafford Federal student loans typically are available for 5500 to 7500 a year. Some students are also offered federal Perkins loans for another couple thousand a year. </p>
<p>I’m guessing you would find that there are many flights from Portland and Seattle to Anchorage. I would think it would be hard to get to Montana, but I’m not an airline expert. If you like Montana, you might check out North Dakota public universities, which are seeking out of state students and which are well-funded by their state.</p>
<p>We’ve been to Case, Portland, Seattle, and Linfield. Case is head and shoulders above these other programs.<br>
Merit aid at Case is very generous too. Portland is a small place, where Nursing dominates, so top merit offerings publshed by the school are simply not given to declared Nursing majors, since there is no need to draw applicants. It’s not nearly the program of Case, not even close. Seattle is a more interesting school, Jesuit, and in a better location. Clinical hours are greater than at UP, clinical locations are closer to the campus, and outcomes of nursing majors are better than Portland, though the program is smaller than UP. Linfield’s Nursing program is struggling to keep up right now, but the school is beautiful and the faculty we met are all amazing.</p>
<p>@cecilturtle Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I have yet to visit any of these schools so your thoughts are greatly appreciated.
With the merit aid at Case, how much does it bring the cost down? Especially since the cost of attendance is about $60,000, which is way too much, even half of that is still very expensive, so that worries me.
With regards to Portland, would I not be eligible for much aid there then (even though I have high test scores and GPA) since nursing is so popular?
Do you know anything about merit/financial aid at Seattle? Also, does it matter if I’m not really religious to get accepted or go to a school like that?
Would you even recommend Linfield then? I’m not sure if I should still consider it or not… </p>
<p>Sorry this is so many questions! Just thought I’d ask in case you (or anyone else) could help me with any of them.
Also, if there’s any other schools you visited that you would recommend or have any opinions about I would love to know (even if it’s a negative opinion of a school I should avoid)!</p>
<p>@blue652 , i know that we’re bouncing around, but with your SAT and other stats, and willingness to attend school near Cleveland…have you considered University of Pittsburgh? You could very well qualify for full tuition, which could bring costs around $18-20K. In previous years, CWRU was able to offer up to $20K scholarships to Nursing students. Pitt’s program is even better than Nursing at CWRU. </p>
<p>You should also consider applying to U Penn. They pledge to meet 100% demonstrated need. Penn’s School of Nursing is absolutely amazing, a biased opinion. </p>
<p>The best UPortland could offer would be ~$17K merit money. Seattle would offer about the same, with a total price tag just below UP, though living in Seattle is more costly. Since it is in the area, you may want to consider Gonzaga. Their Nursing school has modernized quite a bit in the past few years. And USF has a terrific direct admit Nursing program; based on past years, they could offer you up to $19.5 of merit money, provided you apply ED. </p>
<p>@cecilturtle I have thought about University of Pittsburg, but I didn’t think I’d be eligible for full tuition there. I think when I looked on their website it said 1450 (cr+m) to be eligible for academic scholarships.
Is the $20K scholarship at CWRU a separate nursing scholarship or the only merit scholarship I would get? I’ve read other posts where people got up to a $30K scholarship…
I’ll look at Gonzaga and USF, although I won’t be applying ED.</p>
<p>You should definitely apply to Case as there is no application fee or supplemental essay and it is excellent for nursing. Here is a start for you to look at some of the scholarships available. Look around the site for costs and financial aid. It may still be costly even after FA/loans/work study but it’s worth a look.</p>
<p>SDSU, as in South Dakota State University. Low OOS costs. Excellent program. And being from Alaska, you probably won’t find the winters atrocious.</p>
<p>The cardinal rule for all college applicants - make sure you apply to some colleges that serve as both admissions and financial safeties. Usually these are less well-known in-state public colleges, or a college with guaranteed merit aid or guaranteed need-based aid. As noted above, there still are a few state universities with affordable out of state tuition and that are not highly competitive. They generally are in states that had trouble attracting out of state college students. </p>
<p>It doesn’t do any good to have an admissions safety that you can’t afford.</p>
<p>Some out of state direct entry public universities that have more affordable out of state tuition, fees and room & board per year are:</p>
<p>Arizona State - $35,000
U Minnesota - $31,000
U Pittsburgh - $39,000
San Diego State U. = $33,000
U Tennessee - Knoxsville - $38,000
U Wisconsin, Madison [accept 25 freshmen year & remainder of nursing students enter via secondary applic.
junior year] - $36,000
U Utah -[accept 10 freshmen early assurance & remainder enter via secondary applic. junior year] $31,200</p>
<p>With your competitive stats, you may qualify for admission into the honors program at some public schools with merit aid potential. Good luck!</p>