BSN Oakland University vs Wayne

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Specializes in Acute,Hospice,Rehab, QA, Nrg Management.

Hello all,

After careful consideration, I think pursuing a BSN is the best option for me. I am an lpn - 10 yrs experience with 62 general college credits. my reasons; first, I spending a little more time to complete BSN requirements is better in the long run. second, I am afraid that once completing my RN it may take another several years to get back into school again. I am 38 and I'd like to be finish before I am 50..LOL. so basically at my rate, I should be finished all prereqs by next sept.

Questions:

1) are (wsu and ou) programs similar ? financially and academic quality?

2) how often are students accepted per year?

3) any other suggestions that will help me is this endeavor?

Thanks for your input.

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Specializes in Med-Surg/Trauma.

Hi Sadie!

Hopefully I can help you out with a few questions. Wayne admits students once per year for fall start. Oakland has both fall and winter starts. I also believe Oakland takes more students per year.

Last I checked Oakland does have a kind of waiting list-- once you are done with prereqs and apply at OU it very well might be a year and a half before you can start classes (that was a huge turn off for me and is just one of many reasons why I went with Wayne). I think OU is doing some changes in it's admissions process so you probably want to go to an info session. They don't care where you've done your prereqs.

At Wayne they now give preference to students who complete some or all classes at Wayne. I know this year some students who had great GPAs (like 3.8) but who didn't do any classes at Wayne weren't accepted this fall. All this info will be explained at an info session and is also available on their website. (only 48 of us were admitted to the traditional program this fall)

Wayne has lower tuition, and when I was researching I perceived it to have a better academic reputation for nursing which is why I wanted to go there. Another personal turn off was that the lady at OUs admissions meeting told me "they didn't turn away qualified applicants like Wayne did." I think I'm just weird and that would probably be considered an advantage by many. I didn't have a great impression at OU's admissions meeting and I didn't find the staff to be particularly helpful. I had the total opposite impression at Wayne-- the staff was friendly, organized, and knowledgeable. I guess you'll just have to go to meetings yourself and form your own impressions.

I have to say that I am very impressed with the quality of the teachers I have this year at Wayne-- especially Dr. V for pharmacology. She is the most wonderful lecturer and I'm learning so much from her. I feel so lucky to have someone of that caliber teaching at Wayne (if you don't know who she is open your Davis' drug guide for nursing and look at the author page). No other place would I have the opportunity to have her as my professor. I also love the fact that Wayne State has a very diverse student body and is in the city.

Hope that might help or give you something to consider. I suggest you go to info sessions at both schools and start to form your own opinions. Good luck-- making the decision to go back to school can be an exciting and scary one

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Per the nursing advisors at WSU, the LOWEST gpa for the 2nd degree class for fall 08 is a 3.7.they only admitted 48 students....I believe the gpa for 05 or 06 was MEDIAN 3.3. I'm not sure what happened, I think they admitted less people...or perhaps educators quit?

Wayne may be a good school, but that's a ridiculous gpa. Johns Hopkins nursing 2nd degree program MEDIAN gpa is only a 3.5. U of M's is lower then Wayne state too.

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Something else for you to know Sadie is that OU has a unique grading scale. Whereas at most schools an A = 4.0, at OU in their nursing program specifically, an A = anywhere from 3.6 to 4.0 and you need to have a 100% to get a 4.0.

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Last I checked Oakland does have a kind of waiting list-- once you are done with prereqs and apply at OU it very well might be a year and a half before you can start classes (that was a huge turn off for me and is just one of many reasons why I went with Wayne). I think OU is doing some changes in it's admissions process so you probably want to go to an info session. They don't care where you've done your prereqs.

Really? I thought OU gave best consideration to students who had done some or all of their prereqs at OU. If not, that is a plus!:up:

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Hi Sadie!

especially Dr. V for pharmacology. She is the most wonderful lecturer and I'm learning so much from her. I feel so lucky to have someone of that caliber teaching at Wayne (if you don't know who she is open your Davis' drug guide for nursing and look at the author page).

Katie, do you mind giving her full name? I also found the staff at WSU to be very nice (though I am comparing with EMU not OU on that one). I met with Dr Grace and she answered all my concerns. The EMU lady in charge of students' affairs was very, very hard to get any information out of and made my mind up for me right away.

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Specializes in Acute,Hospice,Rehab, QA, Nrg Management.

Thanks everyone for the valuable info. I must attend both info sessions. Although, WSU would be most convenient for me since I work a few blocks away. I was told that WSU was more expensive because of an additional registration fee per credit? I guess that isn't true.

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Specializes in Med-Surg/Trauma.
Thanks everyone for the valuable info. I must attend both info sessions. Although, WSU would be most convenient for me since I work a few blocks away. I was told that WSU was more expensive because of an additional registration fee per credit? I guess that isn't true.

Sadly the fee was upped this fall :sniff: but that only applies to certain classes in the college of nursing(mostly ones where they need to secure outside faculty like clinicals or have labs). There is a flat registration fee that you pay to the university (any university will have that. This fall I paid 147.50 registration fee).

This fall I'm taking 4 classes (3 credits a piece) and was charged the per credit course fee for one of them (physical assessment/lab). The cost was 397.50. This goes towards covering the cost of operating the physical assessment lab, buying supplies for the lab, lab faculties time etc etc and ensures that lab faculty can come in and run open practice sessions too. I was not charged a fee for any of my other classes (special topics, pharm, and patho). In future semesters more will have a course matieral fee for me.

Even with an additional fee on some courses at Wayne I'd think the tuitions at both schools would be equal or with wayne slighly less but that would be something for you to figure out with a handy calculator. Happy adding!

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Specializes in Med-Surg/Trauma.
Katie, do you mind giving her full name? I also found the staff at WSU to be very nice (though I am comparing with EMU not OU on that one). I met with Dr Grace and she answered all my concerns. The EMU lady in charge of students' affairs was very, very hard to get any information out of and made my mind up for me right away.

PM'ed you as per terms of service

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Specializes in Med-Surg/Trauma.
Really? I thought OU gave best consideration to students who had done some or all of their prereqs at OU. If not, that is a plus!:up:

They're in the process of changing things-- the info I have is from a couple years ago. You probably want to go to an info session to get the most up to date info. As of a few years ago they didn't care where you took them-- you could take them all at a CC and if you had half way decent grades you would get in is what I was told-- it just may take a year and a half for you to start. This may not be the case anymore. Check with them-- their actual admissions staff is undoubtedly more reliable than I am. I merely spoke with an admissions person two years ago:lol2:

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Specializes in ICU/Critical Care.

Every school is increasing their tuition. I paid 1000 bucks for 4 credit hours. I prefer OU over WSU because they offer more online courses. Their RN to BSN program is online and its better for me since I work full time. I think OU has a good nursing school. I know a lot of graduates from their school of nursing and their Anestheisa program.

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