for direct entry, upenn or yale?

[balloon]

Hi,

I am fairly new to the forum. I was pretty set on attending YSN this fall for the GEPN program until I was recently admitted to UPenn's accelerated BSN/MSN program. I am in the FNP specialty.

I have visited both campuses and talked with faculty/staff/current students involved in each of the programs. I try not to consider cost in my decision too much - as both are beyond what I can afford... I think both rank pretty highly, so I'm not a big believer in go to Penn because it's No. 3 or something and Yale is No. 10... according to US News.

So.. I have a few questions for you all.

How important is the BSN in addition to the MSN? At Penn my course of study is 4.5 years, for a 3.5 year program, because the academic director assumes everyone works part time during the master's to gain clinical experience. Yale's GEPN is 3 years, and so I would finish my degree much more quickly but be short the BSN and the work experience.

Are there any accelerated BSN Penn students who feel negatively about taking classes with undergraduates? This was a big complaint of many applicants I met at other schools during application time.

Is Yale (god forbid!) lacking classes or curriculum which renders it unable to grant the BSN? What will I be learning at Penn for 4.5 years that it takes Yale only 3 years to teach? I guess that's sort of a complicated question.

In terms of the FNP, which area/clinical exposure is better? The faculty member I interviewed with at Yale bluntly admitted to me that as an FNP in New Haven she was having a difficult time finding a clinical practice. She said family practice isn't the greatest specialty to be doing in Connecticut since Yale Med doesn't teach it. Thoughts?

Any comments on Philadelphia versus New Haven would also be helpful. I am from California and have never left the west coast.

Thank you!

[naggytabby, BSN, RN]

personally, i'd rather live in philadelphia than new haven. i grew up in new england and lived in california for 14 years

if you go straight through (full time) the fnp program at penn, including doing 'double' clinicals during your last semester of senior year (and i am assuming you are a summer start and not a fall start-ugh) you could, for instance, start in june 2006 and be DONE in december 2008. that's 2.5 years.

many full time students work, including during the master's portion

hope this is helpful

[gimleteyed]

New Haven is kind of like Oakland, but without the quaint charm. Okay, no, seriously... Penn is an awesome program at an amazing school. If you have any interest at all in teaching later on, I think Penn outpowers Yale at every step.

I can think of a few advantages to the BSN (I'm halfway through an ETP MSN at another school). The biggie is financial aid--a lot of loan repayment programs and scholarships want to see the BSN. Another major one is flexibility. If you discover at any point that you like bedside nursing and would like to try it for a little while, or even that you want to do bedside nursing part time and NP stuff part time, the BSN will make it much easier to get the job you want.

Here's the other thing about BSN/MSN programs: a LOT of programs out there find that a significant number of their students decide they want to leave/take a leave of absence once they pass the NCLEX. One thing that holds a lot of those students back is knowing that they don't have a "real" nursing degree. That's true at my school, and from what I hear, it's true at Yale, too. It's not true at Penn, and yet that school holds on to plenty of their students. I don't know, but it sounds to me like they're doing something very, very right out there in Philly.