nursing school help please?! :)

hey guys! i'm a second semester freshman at suny cortland as a psychology major, and i decided at the end of last semester that i want to become a nurse! (and later, nurse practitioner, but i'll concentrate on that when the time comes.)

unfortunately, finding a nursing school with a good bs program is a lot more difficult than i thought it was going to be.

first off, i like my school. i like the atmosphere of a mid-sized school, with many fun opportunities on the weekends. i like going out and having fun. (trust me - i spend enough time in the library during the week that i can have my fun time on the weekends... but only if i don't have massive amounts of work to do! i am very hardworking.) that being said, i'll probably finish out my sophomore year here so that way i can still spend time here, but i can also finish the rest of my ges that i need to actually apply to a nursing program. (assuming that it's a two year program/ i'll be able to finish it in two years.)

i thought about getting a bachelor's degree and then going back for an accelerated program but honestly, i really don't enjoy schoolwork, and i would like to be done with it asap. also, i'm trying to minimize my loans as much as possible because like for many people, i'm having a rough time paying for college.

that leads to my next point. i need a school that's economically friendly. (lol.) well, you know what i mean. i'm a new york resident (long island, to be exact

), so either a suny school or a private school that gives rather generous scholarships. my parents don't really have the resources to pay for an expensive school and the last thing i need is to be paying loans for the rest of my life.

also, i only got a 3.48 last semester. it's pretty decent, but i've heard that nursing schools are pretty competitive, and i know there are many other people who have higher gpas than i do. will that completely diminish my chances of getting into a nursing school? i'm also trying to at least match that gpa this semester, so hopefully i succeed with that!

so here's my big question: which nursing schools do you guys recommend? i'm having such a rough time finding a school that's a good match, so any help or insight would be really, really appreciated!

also, any tips for actually getting into nursing school? i know my gpa isn't absolutely stellar, but is there anything else i could do in order to increase my chances of getting into a good school?

thanks so much!