Upcoming college student near Asheville.

Hey, I'm new to the site and found it through another forum that said I should check in here.
I'm a soon to be college freshman in August at Mars Hill College near Asheville, North Carolina.
Although Mars Hill doesn't offer anything (I don't think) that I could go into to get my started in the nursing area, I'm still very interested. I plan on attending my first year then transferring somewhere else so I'm looking at about 5 years of schooling if not more which I'm fine with.

I don't want to sound like I'm not at all educated about the nursing field... I just don't know a lot about the schooling needed and things of that nature. I just recently gained interest in it and am trying to decide on what I want to do as a career & as of now I'm looking into nursing.

I have a few questions and wouldn't mind some more information if anyone would be kind enough to post it for me

I've read up on a few COL threads here and it seems the COL in NC is cheaper than up north and quite a bit of other states.
What's are the top 5 schools to get my degree in, in this field?
What's the highlest level of math/science needed?
Based on an hourly rate what's the average pay for the hospitals in NC/My area?
Is an internship is possible if I go into this field?
If I go take this on as a career, do most hospitals higher "new-grads"?


Thanks for taking the time to read this and any information or answers you can reply with are very hepful.