Information on Alverno (Mesa) or Marquette (Pleasant Prairie) DEMSN Programs

Published May 19, 2022

1 Post

I've been accepted into the Direct Entry MSN programs at both Marquette College and Alverno College (Mesa location) for Fall 2022. I'm struggling to choose between the two programs, so I wanted to reach out to people with knowledge about them to get their opinions.

I have read through the individual threads on both of these programs, but I thought it would be helpful, both for myself and anyone else in the same situation, to get some direct comparisons and debate on what each of these programs has to offer.

Here are some of the considerations that I'm accounting for with these programs:

Location: I'm on the West coast and was accepted into Alverno's new location in Mesa. That means I'm moving a few hours from home to get to Alverno, or several days from home to get to Marquette (Pleasant Prairie). It's not the biggest deal, but the logistics and cost of moving far away from home, plus the emotional impact of basically not seeing my family for nearly two years are a consideration.

Program Quality: From my research, Marquette seems to have a higher quality program. Their application process, at least, is more rigorous than Alverno's. The Alverno location in Mesa hasn't run through a cohort yet, so there is essentially no information on that. I have heard conflicting information about Alverno's Wisconsin program, but it's hard to trust information on the internet and I'd love to get a broader sample size of current and former students from both programs. What do you think of Marquette and/or Alverno in terms of the academic quality and faculty? My priority is to attend a good quality program that prepares me, as best as possible, for the rigors of real world nursing.

For background, I asked my Alverno admissions advisor about the Mesa program faculty, and she said it will be a mixture of the WI program faculty (for the online classes, presumably) and Alverno alumni.

TLDR: the primary sticking point for me is program quality. Alverno is vastly more convenient, but I'm willing to go to Wisconsin of that's what it takes to get a quality education. If you have experience with either of these programs, either as a former or current student or a knowledgeable observer, what are your thoughts?

I'd love to see some constructive criticism and information on both programs.

Ideally, I'd like to avoid getting more vague, yet dire warnings like some I've seen. For some paraphrased examples, see below:

"This place is not what you think" (what do I think, Professor Xavier?).

"The faculty are horrible and evil" (Yeah, but are they bad at their jobs?).

"Fly you fools!" (Nice try, Gandalf).

Thank you for your input!