STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

ranchera20 · Marc Jacobs

College Search Project

Maddie · Coach

I LOVE college searches! I think they're so fun. Unfortunately, I don't know a ton about nursing. One of my friends is in UPenn's nursing program and hates it.

Some advice about applying for college, think about EVERYTHING! I pretty much made my decision of where I would go based on what I thought the student body's reputation was like, and how high they were rated academically. Although I did take into consideration things like location and course offerings, I didn't think about it too seriously. I knew I was going to school in a horrible town where it's snowy about seven months out of the year, but I just didn't think it would be an issue. Turns out it is and it really sucks. I also thought that most of the schools I was applying to had about the same course offerings and so that shouldn't weigh too heavily on my desicion. Another mistake. I went to college planning to major in bio, but our bio department is totally geared towards pre-meds and I wasn't into it at all. Then I wanted to do history, but they are very focused on western stuff, which I also didn't want to do. As a result I'm in my third choice major, poli sci. So I wish I would've thought more about how that affected me. Anyway, there's my long winded answer about what you should look for on a school's website. Also look for any special programs or something that they have that is unique to that school. My school's saving grace is that they have a five week term at the end of the year where you only take one class and I was able to go to India during that time. Sorry, I'm obviously really bitter.

A really good resource for information about schools is the Princeton Review if you don't already know about it. And not to pimp out my own state, but I hear the University of Washington has a pretty good nursing program, but I don't really know. Sorry I don't know more about nursing!

ranchera20 · Marc Jacobs

Thank you Maddie! Dont worry I dont know a whole bunch either yet but I love to hear from people who have gone through college and everything already! I will def. check out the University of Washington now! Never thought of it!

If you dont mind saying, why does your friend hate it there? And I had heard about the Princeton Review but I still have to go to the site!!

Thank you again!

Maddie · Coach

My friend hates pretty much everything about it. She thinks the classes aren't geared towards actually learning the material, they're more set up so that you struggle to get good grades but don't get anything out of it. She hates the social scene as she says it is all sorostitutes and frat boys and she can't relate to anyone. She also hates the weather, particularly how muggy it is when it's warm and then snowy for the rest of the time. I don't know how much of it is just her or how much of it is actually true of the school though.

honey · Gucci

i'm in a similar situation (looking at grad schools). as far as the stuff you need for class, most schools' sites have a section for prospective students. that should give you the statistical info. you need. also check www.usnews.com they do annual rankings. you have to subscribe to get really detailed information, but the general section will provide you with basics and you can go to the school's site for more info.

specific to your search, i believe baylor has an excellent nursing program. i believe you have to get more than an undergrad degree for nursing, so look at the programs the school feeds into, and see if you're interested in them as well.

personally i only applied to 4 undergrad schools. i'm lazy so i just picked the schools that used the common application (it didn't really make sense to me to fill out a bunch of separate apps). when i was picking schools my primary concern was location, i wanted to be in nyc (though didn't end up going to school there). after i got into schools i considered the rankings and the amount of aid i would get (the primary reason i didn't go to nyc for college b/c nyu wanted me to pay 3x's the amount the other schools did.)

i didn't really consider fit until after the fact. while it's important, imo you can't really gauge that until you visit a school. after ruling out nyu, i was going to look at the other 2 schools on my list (i got waitlisted at one school -- actually it probably would've been my first choice, but i think things worked out better with me getting waitlisted). but i was totally turned off of one school after getting a personal phone call about visiting (i was just like if this is the a**hole they have representing the school, i totally don't want to go there). so i just ended up picking the last school. though to be honest, if i didn't go there my mom would've probably kicked my butt.

to build on what maddie said, definitely look into course offerings. if you want to go into nursing, make sure the school has a program for that, not just a pre-med program. additionally look at the other offerings too. so many people change their minds about their majors during their first year, so make sure there is something else at the school that you want to study.

also hopefully this won't apply to you, but guidance counselors are full of s**t. sorry to be so blunt, but my guidance counselor was pretty much like you're not going to get into x,y,& z schools (even though i had the grades and sat scores to make me eligible) and i got into them. so take the stuff people say with a grain of salt, and don't be afraid to reach for a school that may seem out of your league.

-- Edited by honey at 20:56, 2005-09-27

bumblebee · Coach

ed. b/c maybe what i wrote sounded conceited or something. my main point is that whatever your guidance counselor tells you, let it go in one ear and out the other. they are full of hot air.

-- Edited by bumblebee at 21:16, 2005-09-27

Maddie · Coach

honey wrote:

additionally look at the other offerings too. so many people change their minds about their majors during their first year, so make sure there is something else at the school that you want to study.

So important!!!! The vast majority of people I know aren't going into what they thought they would go into at all.

cc · Marc Jacobs

For your project I think going to the admissions section on the schools' web sites should answer most of the questions and you can see if your library has the hard copy of the US News guide.

honey's advice is all really good, especially about looking at the non-nursing academics just in case you change your mind.

I agree about h.s. counselors lowballing. In my h.s. we were only allowed to apply to 6 schools and they strongly recommended that we apply to 2 reaches, 2 schools we were likely to get into and 2 safety schools. I think that's a good guideline but don't let people discourage you from choosing 2 real reaches. As long as you think you can deal with going to your safety choices and you really like the mid-range choices I don't see why you shouldn't apply to 2 schools where your chances of getting in are pretty low if you really want to. My guidance counselor and my parents basically didn't let me apply to 2 of the schools that I loved because they said they were too much of a reach so I revised my list and added 2 schools that I really didn't like. I wound up getting into every school I applied to but I would rather have dealt with a few rejections. Obviously you have to spend the application fee and if you don't get in everywhere you'll have fewer options when it comes to weighing the various financial aid packages (if that applies to you) but I don't think taking a real chance with one or two schools is a big deal if you really love them.

bumblebee, I didn't think you sounded conceited! Look at how conceited I sound!

-- Edited by cc at 21:47, 2005-09-27

honey · Gucci

i didn't get to read what bumblebee wrote but i'm sure it wasn't conceited.

a bit of hijacking, but i totally agree with cc. i was hesitant to write that about gc's b/c for all i know you could have a really good gc, but for the most part i think they tend to underestimate your possibilities, esp. since a lot of times they don't really know what you're capable of. when i was going through the college app process i only had one safety-- not that you should do what i did, but as a reference point -- and it wasn't even a real safety. i didn't apply to any state schools b/c i personally didn't want to feel like i was another # (again not true in every case but it was my opinion at the time). everyone, except my mom (bless her she has more confidence in my abilities than i do) thought i was crazy, and wouldn't end up going anywhere. anyway long story short, i got into all my schools (well i got waitlisted at one, but at that point it didn't matter). even if i hadn't gotten into the schools, i would've still felt better knowing my limitations than always wondering what if.

Maddie · Coach

My two cents about the guidance counselor...at my poor public high school my guidance counselor was a complete idiot. She had like 400 kids on top of just being not that intelligent. Sorry to sound like an ass, but you had to meet this woman. She wrote on my recommendaton letters that I wanted to be a journalist and thats why I had been head editor of the newspaper. I have no idea where she got that from as neither were true. She also neglected to send any letters until schools contacted me telling me they were missing them and then she made up some story about how the mailman had stopped coming to her house because she sent too many letters. WTF?

Anyway, the private counselor I had was excellent and she used to work at a private school. She defintely encouraged me to apply to reach schools, but also reminded me to have something to fall back on. I ended up not needing it, but I really think that was just a matter of luck. A lot of my very qualified friends pretty much just applied to really hard reach schools and then the UW as a backup and ended up getting screwed. The UW is a great school, but a bit of a let down when you were hoping for Stanford.

halleybird · Hermes

ranchera20 wrote:

And what school would you recommend me looking up if I want to go into Nursing? Did any of you go to a school that had medicine? TIA if you have any questions let me know!

The University of Arizona has a great medical school and one of the nation's top nursing programs.