MGH vs Vanderbilt

[acutedude123]

Hey everyone,

I have been accepted into both MGH and Vanderbilt's Adult/Gero acute programs and am trying to decide which to choose. I would prefer to go to Vanderbilt and live in Nashville, but MGH offered me a sizeable scholarship (around 70k). Vanderbilt's program is two years (summers included), whereas MGH is three (summers not included). Vanderbilt ranks higher for both general nursing and the specific specialty, but I know MGH - especially the clinical sites/hospital - are high quality.

I know Vandy offers you the opportunity to subspecialize, but I am not sure if MGH does. Does anyone know?

I want to attend Vandy but don't want to go into tons of debt. I know that I should factor in the cost of living in a bigger city and going to school for a year.

Any advice, thoughts, ideas, etc would be greatly appreciated!

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

It's more expensive to live in Boston, for sure. It is an awesome place to go to school, though, and the MGH program is very highly thought of. But so is Vanderbilt, and it's not as tough a winter there (we are verrrryyy focused on that here in eastern MA lately).

As to doing subspecialties at MGH, the way to find out about that is to call them up and ask them.