Best City/Area for New Graduate

royr · Oct 10, 2006

I also am wondering about this question. The grass always looks greener on the other side of the fence. I am looking into CHOP in the Philly area as a posible move when I graduate nursing school in May. I know the pay is better in NYC, but I spent 19 years of my life working there and don't want to go back. Been there - done that. The real key to this is where can one find good pay as a new grad nurse and stil afford to buy a home and feed a family. Califrnia and Hawaii are both nice, but the housing csts are too high for starting out in a new job. Please everyone - where is a good place with decent public schools, reasonable housing, and a nice pay check that does not all disapear to taxes?

allnurses Guide · Oct 10, 2006

Well I'm always going to recommend Louisville KY, because that's where I'm from. :) Low cost of living, wonderful quality of living, lots of culture, great restaurants, and other things to do, weather isn't too bad but does have a tendency to change on a dime :), and plenty of nursing jobs available. Only two problems to consider... 1. This area tends to be murder on folks with seasonal allergies and headache/sinus problems. 2. The Jefferson County (Louisville) Public School system, I would consider mostly average. However, it is a LARGE system with several optional programs so that you can find a program that is the best fit for your child(ren). Plus, there are many private school options including a Christian academy, and Lousville has a VERY LARGE system of Catholic schools, where children of all faiths are welcome.

Another city I would actually recommend is Columbus OH. Beautiful city, fairly low cost of living, excellent hospitals, lots of things to do, and good schools. The Dublin OH (one suburb) school system is excellent. My sister in law teaches band there. =) I love Columbus and though I love the Louisville area, I'd live in Columbus in a heartbeat if it weren't so far from mine and my husband's families.

**Elektra6, ASN, BSN, RN** · Oct 10, 2006

If you're from Northeast Pa, how about South Jersey? You would have loads of hospitals here in Jersey (Virtua, Cooper, Kennedy systems), great hospitals in Philly (Jefferson, Children's Hospital, Hospital of University of Pennsylvania, Temple), the Jersey shore area (Atlantic Health), the Trenton area and I know a woman who commutes to Delaware easily. All of these are within a 1 hr commute. There are still semi-affordable towns here and the schools are good. It's nice here and you can live in a more city-like or rural town depending on what you want. I'm an new LPN making almost 50K, most of my RN friends don't complain about their salary!

Check us out because we always need nurses.

gemini901d · Oct 10, 2006

Thanx for the replies. South Jersey sounds like the best of these suggestions. At least so far :-( but still nothing all that encouraging. Unless the starting salaries are really good ($35+?) Columbus and Louisville sound kind of out there. The salaries in Northeast PA are Very Low along with the low cost of living but at least we have access to NYC (2.5 hrs), Philly (2), A.C. & Jersey shore(3), Baltimore (3) , Washington (4) and so on. Where would you get away to in Louisville or Columbus or for that matter if you live in Denver, Dallas, Detroit, Memphis or Boise for that matter.

Like most I'd love to live in an urban/semiurban area like Anaheim or a SanDiego area but can't imagine it's affordable even though we don't have expensive tastes or needs ( just want to pay the bills and feed our child). I mean there are working nurses in these places right? Any other suggestions or ideas or am I way off with this question?

kat911 · Oct 10, 2006

Try texas, we have most anything you want. Along the I -35 corridor between San Antonio and Austin and Dallas you can find small, medium and large hospitals. you can live in the big city, a small town, small city or medium city. Do you want to own land, some counties one acre is as low as $1000.00. You can buy homesites of 1-15 acres or more if you want, within driving distance of work. Lots of lakes out here. Lots of trees, good farmland. Winters are generally mild, everything comes to a halt if it snows! You will need a car unless you live in the big city. Cost of living runs the gammet. Big cities cost more but tend to pay more, sometimes. You can get a nice home here for under $80,000.00. Of course there are other choices along the coast or out west. Unless you want big mountains with big trees and snow we pretty much got it covered. Can you tell I'm a native:lol2: Good luck.

imenid37 · Oct 11, 2006

I live near York. York itself, I am sorry it's my opnion, is not that great. There are many nice areas close to York, though. The cost of living is pretty low. It is really close to Baltimore and DC. It is only a couple of hours from the MD and DE beaches. The cost of living is low compared with MD where I lived the first 31 years of my life. I am pretty happy here. I work about a mile from home, but a lot of our neighbors work in MD. Lancaster is also a very nice area.It is a bit more expensive than here, but very nice, in my opinion. Good luck!

gemini901d · Oct 17, 2006

Well thanx to the 4 "secure" people on this board who bothered to respond though 200+ took a look. As underwhelming as I could have asked for. I guess "tell us what freaks you out" is a more amusing and gossipy subject worthy of 5+ pages of responses. I guess I can file this in the "If I'm happy where I am I'm not telling dept." It looks like the nursing field is the same as any other.

flowerchick · Oct 17, 2006

Wow, why so quick to jump to a negative stance?

I'll rise above your snotty inflection to add my two cents, therefore showing you that the nursing community is NOT as you seem to believe. (Although, a well-timed look in the mirror might be warranted...)

So, anyways, I'm in Northern IL and the job market is fair and housing is reasonable. Most school districts are above-average in our area, there is also a large contingent of private schools. Taxes vary by county and are on the high side in my area (about 7K a year for a 250-ish house) but services reflect that. As for 35K+ am I misreading this? Most new grads in IL start around 22.00 an hour which is just over 45K a year without differentials. Is it that much of a difference elsewhere? If so, wow!

flowerchick · Oct 17, 2006

Sorry, correcting my error. I now see 35 DOLLARS an hourm not 35K.

Halinja, BSN, RN · Oct 17, 2006

Well thanx to the 4 "secure" people on this board who bothered to respond though 200+ took a look. As underwhelming as I could have asked for. I guess "tell us what freaks you out" is a more amusing and gossipy subject worthy of 5+ pages of responses. I guess I can file this in the "If I'm happy where I am I'm not telling dept." It looks like the nursing field is the same as any other.

Ouch! Interesting reaction to the responses or lack of them.

Maybe the reason people do not respond is that we don't know other people's niches, only our own. So how can we tell you where the 'best' place to live is? There have been other threads on allnurses that mention wage and housing prices. That's about the best information we can give you. You might search for some of them. There are also things like ratios of patients to nurses to take into consideration...and I only know what quality of living means to me, not to someone else.

In my neck of the woods, central california, without a speck of 'woods' in sight, a new nurse can expect 23.00 an hour and my smallish (1300) sq ft house is worth around $300,000 oh, and the air quality is horrible. No rain, though!

gemini901d · Oct 17, 2006

"Wow, why so quick to jump to a negative stance? "

Quick??????????????

Noone has posted Anything to this thread in a week.