<p>Hello!
I am going to be a senior in high school this upcoming year and I am beginning my college application process. I am still not sure which schools I should apply to though. I heard that you should apply to 8 colleges minimum. I live in Southern New Jersey (close to Philadelphia) and would like to stay close to home ( 4 hrs max)
-SAT: 660 in CR; 620 in Math; 670 in Writing.
-GPA: is 3.7
-I am taking 1 honors and 2 AP courses this year.
-I have done volunteer jobs here and there throughout my high school career.</p>
<p>I have been looking at Rutgers New Brunswick and Camden, Temple, Saint Joseph's, The College of New Jersey, Pittsburgh, West Chester, and possibly UConn? </p>
<p>I would like to get some money from the schools, so if you could recommend colleges that offer a lot? Also my family somehow does not receive any benefits from FAFSA.
Please help!! thank you(:</p>
<p>You would probably receive merit aid at a number of private colleges in PA., such as York College of PA. York’s sticker price for tuition is only $17K per year, which goes up to about $18.5 in your last 2 years of nursing. A number of PA. private colleges with nursing programs list the requirements online for their merit aid.</p>
<p>Check out whether you would be eligible for any NJ college grants. If so, it may be worthwhile to stay in NJ. I understand NJ and NY do not allow their state grants to be used at out of state colleges. </p>
<p>I don’t think St. Joe’s has a direct entry nursing program. As of last year, you did 2 years of pre-nursing at St. Joe’s and then were encouraged to apply to Thomas Jefferson U. in Phila. for the last 2 years.</p>
<p>I don’t know if NY school interest you but, Stonybrook and U Binghamton are great schools in NYS</p>
<p>If you’re looking at Pittsburgh even though it’s more than 4 hours away, there are numerous nursing schools (although it’s more than 4 hours from Southern New Jersey). You’d probably get money from Duquesne, LaRoche, Waynesburg, Indiana University of PA and Carlow. This is a wide range of schools. IUP (Indiana University of PA) and Duquesne are the two largest. IUP might be the least expensive even after financial aid is factored in. Some students also like Gannon’s nursing program in Erie.</p>
<p>South of UCONN in CT is Quinnipiac and Sacred Heart. You can also consider Catholic U in Washington DC, which isn’t that far for you.</p>
<p>D was in the same boat with no FAFSA aid. Until all the scholarship letters arrived, it wasn’t possible to determine the net cost for each school. She kept adding nursing schools every month so that she would have as many options as possible. It seemed like a lot, but it really wasn’t by the time that she weeded through her final options (she decided the nursing programs at X were too small…the nursing programs at Y were too competitive…the nursing program at B didn’t have a choice of hospitals…the nursing program at A was too far…I recall that Drexel was very expensive even after scholarships.). She would have gone to any of the schools if it was her only choice for nursing at the end of the day though. Fortunately, one of her options turned out to be the best fit and gave her enough money. </p>
<p>8 seems like a lot (D ended up applying to 10 or so by December of her Senior year, in a panic about getting into a 0-4 nursing program), but they sort themselves out eventually. (It’s obviously simpler if you already love a school and know you can get in and can afford it.) The extra application fees can pay off in scholarships and possibilities. Once you get admitted, you can weed them out a little more and weigh cost after scholarship letters arrive. Those scholarship letters can take more weeks, and it’s frustrating to wait to hear. We had a calendar and kept track of the dates on which deposits were due. Each school had a colored folder on the dining room table for all the brochures and stuff that they sent LOL. D kept track of pros & cons and the net cost of each school in each folder. Gradually folders would start to be thrown away as she narrowed down the list.</p>
<p>There are a large number of really great neighborhoods in Washington DC. However, I’m told that parts of the neighborhood around Catholic U. are still questionable. I haven’t seen that particular neighborhood myself, but you can look at an online map of homicides in DC.</p>
<p>One of the nice things about Pittsburgh is that it is on an Amtrak line from Philadelphia. Amtrak is great for students because they can play on the wireless internet, sleep, eat, or study while they travel. However, that line was almost shut down this year because the state hesitated to subsidize it. Pittsburgh is a very affordable city that many people feel is a great place for a college student.</p>
<p>Also, keep in mind cost of living. It costs a great deal more for food, off-campus housing, on-campus housing and everyday things in some big cities, such as Boston, DC and NYC. (I just looked at hotel rooms in Boston, and there was nothing less than $250 a night, even for basic hotels in out of the way locations.)</p>
<p>You might want to have a look at the Univ. of Delaware. It has a beautiful campus and has an excellent direct entry BSN Program. If you go over the WWB into PA it is located 45 minutes south just off interstate 95 in Newark, Delaware. From South Jersey it actually takes less time to get to UD then to get to Rutgers-NB. It is highly competitve for Nursing admission but 2/3rds of the students at UD are from OOS (with the largest OOS contingent coming from NJ) so they do provide a reasonable amount of financial aid to OOS students. You might want to at least give it a look. Website is Udel.edu. Good luck.</p>