Indy schools... Marian, IUPUI?

HARRN2b · Apr 17, 2006

Hi Indy gal,

I am wondering the same. I attended the Marion College information session. It is very expensive. They do have a 5,000.00 scholarship available to those of us who already have a previous bachelor degree, which would help. I believe it brings the tuition down to approx 13-14k per year. They also prefer you do your prereq's there as well, though it is not mandated. Iupui is nearly impossible to get it. I do know someone in that program. She already has a bachelor, but did not do accelerated, due to demanding schedule. She is just pursing another bachelor all together. She is going for a total of 3 years. Marion is the fastest, and easiest to get in. Also I have heard it is a wonderful program. Just my thoughts.

Holly

Trauma Columnist · Apr 17, 2006

I did the Marian College ADN to BSN in 92-94. Felt that I got I good education. For me (military spouse), it was the best program I could do. There was no waiting list at the time and IUPUI's list was 3 yrs long then. The instructors at that time were very very good.

dawn1971 · Apr 17, 2006

I have a cousin that looked into Marian and IUPUI. IUPUI has a VERY long wait list, and is very difficult to get into, she has now started pre-reqs at Marian and likes it a lot (and yes, they are taking out loans...). :uhoh3:

IndyGal · Apr 18, 2006

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate it. :) I hadn't realized IUPUI was so hard to get into, so maybe that will make the decision for me. At this point I'm planning to apply to IUPUI, Marian, and Purdue and go from there. I'm hoping for one of the first two because I'd rather not commute to Lafayette. Marian has another information session next month, so I'm going to go to that as well. Marian is actually the closest to my house, so that would be very convenient.

audrey3663 · May 12, 2006

Look into University of Indianapolis!

new_mom26 · May 15, 2006

Does U of I have a waiting list?

Sunny99 · May 24, 2006

For IU School of Nursing at Indianapolis (IUPUI) and at Bloomington, students who did the majority of their undergraduate coursework at either the Bloomington, Indy, or Columbus campuses of Indiana U/IUPUI have priority over students from other campuses and colleges, so it is especially competitive for the latter.

HOWEVER, I saw that they are changing admission criteria for students applying for Fall 2007. They might still use the priority thing (I have no idea), but they will be looking at more than just GPA. Click this link, http://www.indiana.edu/~iubnurse/

then "new requirements..."

I'm assuming this applies to both accellerated and traditional BSN programs, but you'd better check with them to be sure of the requirements. I just came across it on their site and wanted to share the info.

Seems like a good thing, especially since most people with a bachelor's degree had no intention of applying to nursing school while they were working on the degree.

Good luck to all.

anne74 · May 24, 2006

Oh my Gosh - I just graduated from IUPUI's accelerated program this December - and I have a lot to say about it! True - IUPUI is extremely hard to get into. There were 30 students in my accelerated class, and the GPA cut-off was a 3.8. I did my first undergrad at Purdue (West Lafayette) and did my science pre-reqs at a college in Illinois. It seemed to me that they mostly accepted people by their GPA.

IUPUI was the most unprofessional school I've ever experienced in my life. The whole school does not have it's act together. The counselors are clueless and unhelpful - they do the bare minimum. The Financial Aid office could use some aid itself - they screwed up everyone's loans, not once but every semester. General admissions office never got my graduation date correct - even after explaining to them several times over several months. Every month I had a new obstacle to deal with.

The instructors were very consdescending to us and had the attitude that we should be grateful that they accepted us, rather than treating us like customers who were paying thousands of dollars for an education. They're very arrogant since they have such a long waiting list. There was a constant, lingering threat of getting kicked out and "sent to the traditional program" - meaning you'd have to repeat a semester. (Which was great for them - more money!) Like if you missed a clinical day the threat came out; if you didn't pass a useless math test EVERY semester, you could get kicked out. I was shocked at the treatment I received there. And I was an Illinois resident, so I had to pay out-of-state tuition for that treatment (I'm now in serious debt). Definitely not worth it!

To be fair, there were some good professors who cared - but the bad apples outweighed the good. And even some professors were nice to students, but their teaching skills were terrible. Instead of teaching they would talk about their personal experiences as a nurse - nice stories, but we needed a lecture on the information we were tested on! There's a serious shortage for nursing instructors. Universities expect instructors to have advanced degrees, yet they pay them much less than if they worked as a nurse in a clinical setting. So where's the incentive to become a teacher? Schools are forced to hire any warm body who fits the criteria and nevermind if they can actually teach! (Again, this doesn't apply to all professors - some were very good.)

I do have to say, however, that when I was at IUPUI, the administration was terrible and since then they've gotten a new Dean and new Assistant Deans who seem to be changing things for the better. And I've heard they're expanding the accelerated program to allow more than 30 students in.

I heard good things about Purdue's nursing program, although they didn't have an accelerated program when I was applying. I haven't heard much about Marion - other than it's expensive. However, if you plan to work in a hospital in Indy, most of them have great scholarships for students, will pay some of your tuition if you work there as a student nurse, or give huge hiring bonuses and loan forgiveness programs (they'll pay back some of your loans if you sign a contract with them.) So, don't be totally turned off by cost.

Community Hospitals in Indy (Community North, South and East) had the best offers for new grads - $5,000 signing bonus, plus paid $8,000 off your student loans. And, they offered four $20,000 scholarships to students who signed a 4-year contract with them. I worked as a student nurse at Community East, and it was a great experience. They treat their nurses well and pay the most. (But unfortunately for me, I moved to Colorado so I couldn't take advantage of any of their programs.) Clarion (Methodist, IU, Riley) had a pretty crappy deal for new grads. They didn't pay anything for school.

Since it's hard to get in anywhere, I would apply to all available schools and go by the one who accepts you first! You should consider U of I and Ivy Tech too - in fact, they seemed to get more practical, clinical experience. At IUPUI, we had to take a lot of useless "fruffy" classes, in which you decorated health posters, etc. However - I'm not sure if Ivy Tech has a BSN program. Eventually you want to get a BSN, because Clarion and I heard that eventually Community are starting to require all nurses to have BSN's or they won't hire you. Clarion is forcing their nurses without BSN's to go back and get it by a certain time, or you lose your job.

Overall, I've heard many of the same complaints about any nursing school - there's a saying that "nurses eat their young". You just have to bond with your classmates and get through it together. The reality is, just get through nursing school however you can and pass the boards - you really learn how to be a nurse on the job.

Hope all this information is helpful - you certainly won't get this info from an IUPUI counselor. I had to figure this stuff out the hard way. And since then I've moved to Colorado. A nice thing about nursing - you can move anywhere. Good luck!