Pediatric Nurse Practitioner

[lsuenurse12]

Hi! My name is Gabrielle and I am currently attending Nursing school at Louisiana State University in Eunice. I want to one day become a PNP, it is my dream job and I feel confident that this job would make me so happy. I have so many questions if anyone is willing to help!

First, I must say that the RN program I am currently in is an associate degree of nursing. In order to apply to graduate school I would first need to attain my BSN (which I would like to do online). I am mostly not concerned with getting my BSN, but about NP school.

I am very interested in moving to Denver and applying for the Pediatric NP program at the University of Colorado or maybe just staying around the Louisiana area. Is this program in Colorado a good program? Is it hard to get in to? How many students do they accept? Do I have a better option?

I am open to reside in a new state in order to attend school but I do love Colorado and Louisiana and these are my preferences. I know for PNP I don't have many options. I would like to move at least a year before I apply for the program in order to gain experience in Colorado and become a resident of the state for tuition purposes. Please give me your advice on what you think is my best option, where the best PNP program is, and any wisdom you would like to share.

Thank you very much! I appreciate your help!

[Margo37]

I live in Denver and applied to CU's PNP program but was really unimpressed with my interaction with the staff during the application process. I basically sent in my application and then several months went by without any word from them. The couple of times I reached out with questions I received really canned half-asses responses. It kind of turned me off and I wound up never even attending my interview and enrolling somewhere else instead. I'm currently attending Drexel University, even though I'm paying quite a bit more there, because they actually seemed to care about my success in the program. They called me after receiving my application to discuss next steps and answer any questions, they had an online q&a session, and I just generally felt supported through the process. Only in my second quarter but I've been happy with my choice so far! My coworkers who attend CU don't really have great things to say either. They agree that they are pretty unhelpful and told me they basically are just told to read the book and teach themselves everything. Some of their exams are open book too, which I thought was weird. I've heard them make comments that they're shocked the program is ranked so high because they haven't been impressed. That being said, in state tuition is very affordable, they find you preceptors, and if you're motivated to learn and willing to teach yourself I'm sure you could be successful in their program.