NROTC Nurse Option: College selection

F

FFDDG

5-Year Member
Joined
Jan 25, 2013
Messages
24
DD is interested in NROTC Nurse Option. Anyone have any insight into the NROTC Nurse Option at the following schools: Univ. of South Carolina, Univ. of Wisconsin, Penn State, Marquette, Villanova, Northeastern ?

Specifically, looking for quality of nurse program at the school, how many Nurse Option MIDN in the Battalion, any other info that might help in school selection process.
 
FFDDG said:
DD is interested in NROTC Nurse Option. Anyone have any insight into the NROTC Nurse Option at the following schools: Univ. of South Carolina, Univ. of Wisconsin, Penn State, Marquette, Villanova, Northeastern ?

Specifically, looking for quality of nurse program at the school, how many Nurse Option MIDN in the Battalion, any other info that might help in school selection process.
Click to expand...

I can't speak to the quality of the nursing program at South Carolina although I'm sure it's quite good. I do know that there are about 6 or 7 nursing options in the battalion. 90-100 Midshipmen total in the battalion. I do know they have an NROTC nursing club which meets most Navy Lab days. I don't know about other times. The unit has a facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/Gamecock20?fref=pb&hc_location=friends_tab

If you scroll down a ways to the "Club Days - Spring 2013" photo album you'll see the Nursing Club "in action". My son is a Marine Option in the unit so if you have other questions, fire away, or PM me.
 
Look at how nursing program accepts you in. If accepted freshman year great. If not, then it is harder for nurse options because of the nrotc requirement. Call and talk to units and see if they have reserved spots available in the nursing program at the specific school. Marquette has a great program!
 
FFDDG said:
DD is interested in NROTC Nurse Option. Anyone have any insight into the NROTC Nurse Option at the following schools: Univ. of South Carolina, Univ. of Wisconsin, Penn State, Marquette, Villanova, Northeastern ?

Specifically, looking for quality of nurse program at the school, how many Nurse Option MIDN in the Battalion, any other info that might help in school selection process.
Click to expand...


The issue for Nursing is the location of the clinical sites and how far away they are from campus. A lifetime ago when I was a nursing student @ PSU we lived at Hershey Medical Center for 2 terms (trimesters then). Two hrs from main campus.
 
Navy Nurse Option

Definitely want to make sure the Nursing program is a direct entry program. My older daughter graduated last May from University at Buffalo with her BSN. At the time it was a direct entry program but it no longer is. My younger daughter just got an Army ROTC Nursing Scholarship to Pacific Lutheran University. She also applied for NROTC Nursing but was not selected. Marquette was her first choice for NROTC. It has a great Nursing program. Tough program to get into though. They get 1700 applicants and only accept about 7%. Spoke with a Lt. Jacesko there with regards to NROTC. Really nice guy that helped us a lot. My daughter visited 3 times and did PT with the unit. Apparently they did not get any Nursing candidates this year as of the last time I spoke to him. My daughter also spoke to some Nursing students and they were telling her about the budget cuts. Navy may not be giving any more Nursing options due to budget cuts. We also heard that students already in the program may not be able to get into the advanced ROTC classes for a Nursing major due to the cuts. This means you can't commission. Make sure you look into this. Apply Army also. My daughter had 7 Army ROTC schools listed on her app. Give yourself plenty of options and make sure they are not affected by budget cuts. The Lt. At Marquette is a good source and can answer a lot of your questions. Visit the schools and the units and ask if they have an ROTC Nursing mission so that you can use a Nursing Scholarship at the school. Also look for schools that offer free or reduced room & board for ROTC recipients. Apply early for ROTC and get your school involved now so you can complete the paperwork before the counselors leave for summer break.
 
Thank you all for your responses. It appears Nurse Option scholarships may be fewer than in past years. It's also disappointing to read that college program advance standing may or may not be an option for NROTC nursing due to budget cuts.

If NROTC scholarship or college program is not an option I think DD would pursue Nurse Candidate Program as a back up. Does anyone have experience with that program?
 
FFDDG said:
Thank you all for your responses. It appears Nurse Option scholarships may be fewer than in past years. It's also disappointing to read that college program advance standing may or may not be an option for NROTC nursing due to budget cuts.

If NROTC scholarship or college program is not an option I think DD would pursue Nurse Candidate Program as a back up. Does anyone have experience with that program?
Click to expand...

I have no experience with it but I did look into it once for a friend of DS. It looked like a great program. As I recall it only covers two years and further my surmise is that if they aren't giving out Advanced Standing then they probably aren't looking for folks via the Candidate program. However, you should pursue all these options. Since I assume your child wants nursing anyway, it cannot hurt. In two years, or even next year, the needs of the Navy may change. The lack of Advanced Standing this year may have solely been to help address the sequester and not solely due to a lack of need for nurses. Further the entire international situation could always change resulting in a need for more nurses. You should also explore nursing with the other services. Seems to me nursing is nursing although opportunities to see the world may be different.
 
Nursing is nursing, but if you want to do everything the profession entails (AF and Navy rely A LOT on Corpsman and Medics), go Army. I am not saying this because I am biased, but from time to time I see people on here talk about not getting a nursing scholarship to the Navy/AF yet never even bother looking at the Army.

The Army has the biggest Nurse Corps with the largest array of specialties and opportunities. Also, a lot of the military medical world is joint so you might have the chance to travel around as well.

My school STILL has a couple unfilled 4/4.5 YEAR scholarships for nursing and we are considered in the top 2 nursing schools in the state. We also guarantee a seat into the school of nursing if you make the minimum SoN pre reqs......
 
Aglahad said:
The Army has the biggest Nurse Corps with the largest array of specialties and opportunities.
Click to expand...
Absolutely correct! The Army Nurse Corps is excellent and should not be overlooked as a great way to serve your country. The Army golf courses on the other hand....:cool:
 
Points well taken. No specific reason why DD has not considered AROTC nursing other than dad is ex navy and it is what she is familiar with.

Any particular colleges she should look at for AROTC nursing?
 
ROTC Nurse Option

My daughter's Fall 2013 school is a great start. Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, WA. Battalion has won the MacArthur Award for 2 out of the last 3 years. We were also told that they sometimes get some preferential treatment because of this. My daughter got a 4 year scholarship there on the 3rd board, while a lot of the other scholarships were being given as 3 year AD. Also means the staff is great and the students are serious about what they are doing. Marquette is a great Nursing school but tough to get into. Great ROTC unit. University of Portland also has a great Nursing program but there nursing program does not seem to fit well with ROTC from what we found out. Have to attend LDAC after 2nd year because of nursing school requirement conflicts after 3rd year. Creighton University in Omaha also has a great program as well as TCU in Fort Worth. My daughter applied to all these schools and was accepted but her Nursing ROTC Scholarship was awarded to only her first choice of Pacific Lutheran University. Looks like that may be how it works with the Nursing Scholarship anyway. We also visited all these schools and met with the ROTC unit at 6 of the 8 schools she applied to. Really important to get a good feel.
 
Nursing seats at schools:
Pacific Lutheran University has about 90 nursing seats (45 per semester)--you can apply for freshman conditional admission as a high school senior.

TCU has about 120 slots.

Creighton has about 120 slots as well as Marquette.

University of Portland has about 150 slots.

All these schools are also early entry nursing as a freshman. Really important to get into a program so you don't have to apply while attending. Usually you just have to maintain a minimum GPA.
 
ernrun said:
All these schools are also early entry nursing as a freshman. Really important to get into a program so you don't have to apply while attending. Usually you just have to maintain a minimum GPA.
Click to expand...

If only it was that easy. I think you will find (and as your daughter will see) that a lot of those "acceptances" will get revoked as the year progresses.
 
I just wanted to point out to members considering NROTC nurse option that the Navy changed the list of schools for this option as of Sept 1. The list is now down to 30 schools. The reason for the change is to eliminate schools that did not provide direct-entry into the nursing school. Many big-name schools, some that were mentioned in this thread - South Carolina, Wisconsin, Tampa, etc - are now dropped. This also includes big nursing schools like San Diego State University. What is incredible is that of the remaining 30 NROTC nurse-option schools, only 1 is west of the Mississippi - Seattle University - and that school is x-town to U Washington!

My daughter had an IS school selected for nurse option that was dropped and had to replace it with an OOS selection. That actually worked well for her because the IS school was x-town and about a 50min drive. She did not want to attend this school anyway but she was forced to list it because of the requirement to list one IS school, if available.

I wonder how this affects students currently enrolled in these schools where the nurse option has been dropped?

--Biker
 
Biker said:
I just wanted to point out to members considering NROTC nurse option that the Navy changed the list of schools for this option as of Sept 1. The list is now down to 30 schools. The reason for the change is to eliminate schools that did not provide direct-entry into the nursing school. Many big-name schools, some that were mentioned in this thread - South Carolina, Wisconsin, Tampa, etc - are now dropped. This also includes big nursing schools like San Diego State University. What is incredible is that of the remaining 30 NROTC nurse-option schools, only 1 is west of the Mississippi - Seattle University - and that school is x-town to U Washington!

My daughter had an IS school selected for nurse option that was dropped and had to replace it with an OOS selection. That actually worked well for her because the IS school was x-town and about a 50min drive. She did not want to attend this school anyway but she was forced to list it because of the requirement to list one IS school, if available.

I wonder how this affects students currently enrolled in these schools where the nurse option has been dropped?

--Biker
Click to expand...

Just my guess, but I would expect they'll be allowed to continue. I would also think that college programmer nursing options at these schools will be allowed, once they open up that commissioning path again. My understanding is currently you cannot get Advanced Standing for the college program nursing option as they currently have plenty of nurses.
 
Aglahad said:
If only it was that easy. I think you will find (and as your daughter will see) that a lot of those "acceptances" will get revoked as the year progresses.
Click to expand...

Truth.

Most freshmen and sometimes sophomores aren't REALLY nursing majors until they've been accepted to the nursing program; NOT just to the university. I can't even place a number on the many "nursing" students who don't make the grades during the first couple of semesters; who are subsequently rejected from the universities' nursing program. Future philosophy majors :)
 
I can speak for the University of Portland as my daughter is an MSIV there. She has had a great experience with the nursing program and as others have stated, the guaranteed admission into the nursing program your junior year (just as long as you maintain a 2.75 GPA in 5 core classes) is a HUGE bonus nowadays. We have friends at both NAU and Boise State that didn't get accepted to upper level nursing and had to switch majors their junior year.

It is correct that the ROTC nursing students at Portland attend LDAC after their sophomore year as of this year...they attend a university sponsored summer curriculum (sp?) after their junior year. That's not necesarily an issue as all the sophomores passed LDAC w/o a problem.

Another HUGE bonus is the University picks up room and board fees for all the ROTC scholarship recipients.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top