VCU vs. Georgetown

Terpole · Apr 4, 2013

Tough decision. I'm sure you know this already, VCU is probably the 'Harvard' of nursing anesthesia (so I'm told) but Gerogetown is right up there with them. If it comes down to cost you between the two I'd go with the lower cost school, but not at the expense of being separated from children, no matter how much you make

missnurse01, MSN, RN · Apr 8, 2013

Kd money was a reason I knocked georgetown off my list. I would love to have you in class with me, but if your fam can't relocate with you it might be tuff. Either running two households or trying to cram study each week so you could visit on the weekends. What was your original commuting plans when you applied?

Good luck with your decision

NurseLay · Apr 8, 2013

I was put on an alternate list for VCU and accepted to Georgetown's CRNA program back in December. Yesterday, I received a call from VCU and was accepted to the Richmond campus. This is great for me, but I am from nova. I am willing to move, BUT my son would have to remain in northern VA with his father. I like both programs, but Georgetown's cost is really scary! Any thoughts?

Sounds like my situation, but on the West Coast. My son will remain with his Father while I attend school in Northern California (about a six hour commute). It's a very hard decision. We are originally from the East Coast and I actually have a friend going through Georgetown's program now and I worked as an RN at VCU. VCU is a great school with a great medical center with equally great staff. If you decided to commute, the commute from Richmond to NOVA is not that bad, just know, you will HAVE to dedicate your time to studying during the week. I wish my commute would only be about 2 hours, but it isn't, and I DO plan on studying my butt off during the week so I can dedicate time to my son and husband every weekend. We do what we must. In the long run, it's what you are willing to sacrifice and whether or not you will be able to live with the decision. Regardless of what you decide, congratulations, you will be a CRNA either way!

~NurseLay

kdlrn · Apr 10, 2013

Thank you all for your responses! My original plan was to go to the Northern VA campus if I was accepted, but there are no spots open there as of right now. So it looks like I will be in Richmond during the week and driving back to NOVA on the weekends. It's not an incredibly awesome situation, but it's doable. I actually just went down there to visit my friend who is an intern at MCV. It really wasn't that bad of a drive compared to the horrible traffic up here! My son is a little older (he's almost 12), so he understands that this is only temporary and it will be a great thing in the long run. Nurse Lay-you are right, we do what we must. Good luck with your program! Missnurse-I will see you in August!

missnurse01, MSN, RN · Apr 11, 2013

hey kd! congrats and yeah!! where are you going to stay during the week? Can your friend board you?

kdlrn · Apr 12, 2013

Thanks missnurse! I have no idea where I'm going to stay, hopefully close to MCV. I looked at a couple places when I was down there, but I'm not planning to move until the beginning of August. I'll probably go back down in a month or so and look at more apartments. Have you talked with other people about housing? I wish I could live with my friend, but she has a (tiny) one bedroom.

missnurse01, MSN, RN · Apr 12, 2013

Did you get the whole list of people in the program? It has their contact info. I would first call MTG and ask her if anyone else is looking for a room-mate. If she hasn't heard of anyone I guess you could cold call everyone on the list and ask them if they are looking. Places close to MCV can be expensive, my friend shares a two bedroom and I think that they are paying 800 a piece. I do not know what your budget is. I also do not know how much it would be to just stay in a hotel for 4 nights a week. I don't know if anywhere would cut you a deal for the guaranteed repeated business.

I would love for you to come stay with us, but not sure how it would work since we don't really know eachother and I have a family. On the other hand with your contribution I could rent a larger house and you could have more room to yourself, lol. And we could carpool in...or bus in...right now I am planning on getting dropped off each morning and ride the bus home. I know there is not any subsidized parking there, so I think it is 8 bucks a day or something. But we could always split that. I don't know. We are looking at staying in the Chesterfield area, as they are very homeschool friendly, so about 20-25 minute commute on non-toll roads. If you stayed with me you couldn't need to buy household items, other than a cheap bed off craigslist. Or an inflatable camping bed, lol.

let me know, gonna pm you other vcu contact stuff

kdlrn · Apr 14, 2013

Missnurse-I can't PM yet and I can't find the page. My email is [email protected]. That will hopefully work! Thanks :)

missnurse01, MSN, RN · Apr 19, 2013

emailing you now!

a4562 · May 8, 2013

Hello,

I was just in a similar situation as kdlrn. I was put on the alternate list back at the end of November and had planned on going to a program in Florida that I was accepted to at that time. I was very excited about the Florida program but then last week got the call from MG at VCU saying they were offering me a spot. It was a tough decision to make as I had mentally prepared myself for some time now to move to Florida and was excited about their program. However, VCU was too tough to turn down since it is the top CRNA school plus it allows me to not have to move very far from where I live now. I haven't gotten all the materials yet from the program but am interested in meeting everyone. Is there a facebook group created yet?

missnurse01, MSN, RN · May 8, 2013

hey! Welcome! That's crazy that spots are still opening up for people! I guess people are deciding that they can't go, or that they are jumping ship for another school. Wild! Where are you coming from? I just moved to Richmond area from WA state last week! Going to be starting a travel job next week. There is not a facebook group that I know of, however a group of us have another thing going on if you can email me your addy I can send you instructions.

Welcome!