I was informed that the PTA program at my school had significantly less applicants this year, and someone accounted that to the poor economy. What's your opinion? I've heard that a poor economy causes an increase in students. But I can also see how it could cause less students.
If people can't afford to cut back on work to attend school, it would make sense for nursing programs to experience a lower # of applicants.
folks, nursing school enrollment isnt down. Maybe at a school here and there, but any hope that they will decrease in the future is wishful thinking.
Historically, during every recession, higher education enrollment has increased. People realize that they need more skills to be employable and whats a better time than now when they can't get jobs anyway to go look? The financial crisis has little effect on loans for students. There is no shortage of companies who would be willing to lend to students in the health profession. A student may not be able to get 100% of their loans from the government, but that doesn't mean that private institutions won't loan you the rest. Although they may charge higher interest rates, i don't think any student would decide to not matriculate to their school because the interest rate on the loan they need is 2-3% higher - especially if its their dream to be a nurse and they want it bad enough to take all the pre-reqs.
Also, there has always been way too many students applying for nursing school than the school can handle. The shortage of nurses isn't from the dearth of people wanting to be nurses, but rather from the amount of faculty available to train nurses well enough - which i don't think will be affected/diminished by an economic downturn.
For those who wish for less applicants and thus less competition for nursing school, i dont want to burst your bubble, but its only going to get tougher im afraid. Just do your best and let the chips fall where they made. That being said, my analysis of how the economic situation will affect nursing admission just my own personal opinion. Make of it what you will.
The past history on increased enrollment during recessions are true but the case doesnt apply here to this current recession. The problem is the credit availability. Credit lending has freezed up and is slowly thawing. In other recessions, we still had easy access to cheap money (loans with low interests), but today is not the case.
More and more students have been relying on student loans to pay for their high increasing cost of tuition for years. Grants and scholarships are no longer enough to pay for the high costs. There is no guarrantee on federal grants because if you make too much then they will stop paying you. Scholarships have been dryed up or frozen because of their ties to the stock markets. There has been many articles pointing out the effect of the credit crisis it has on student loans. There has been a 41% drop in student loans alone for 2008.
Im pretty much a news nutt and read/watch news 24/7. From what I read this is whats going to happen according to the analysts
Enrollment for community colleges and state universities will go up while private/out of state universities will go down. Costs will be a big factor. It will be harder to get scholarships and grants. Remember, banks have basically stopped lending money, or start charging much higher interest rates to colleges or students that qualify.
There is one thing that people will agree on. High costs of College Tuition. Its a big bubble that needs to be popped thats long over due.
In South and Central Fl, I can tell you that the applications for the nursing program is through the roof i.e 750 apps for 250 spots at Broward Community College in Southern Fl. At HCC, over 500-600 apps for about 200 spots in Tampa, FL. USF has cut one of the two start terms for ABSN and the college has had budget cuts which has made it even more competitive to get in. As a result of this, it is very, very competitive to get into a State college for nursing. GPAs required are going up, more hurdles are being put up i.e TEAS, NEt or NLN exam required, and soon more pre-reqs
Cheesepuff....no one will have that much trouble getting student loans. Business loan, sure - but not a loan for education, especially not nursing school. And like I said, not many people are going to give up their goal for nursing school especially if they've started or completed their pre-requisites just because they'll have to pay a few more percent in interest for their loans. Competition will get stiffer. Act accordingly.
OMG- doesn't California already have long waiting lists for nursing programs? Or is that just the community colleges?
I'm not even sure. The ones in the bay area it seems like a lot of people with 4.0's get turned away even. I had a friend who finished his pre-req's and applied to 3 colleges for 3 years and never got in so he gave up. So this should make it even harder.
I just saw a newspaper clip today, on the front page it said that here in Boston that college aplications are booming from community colleges to private schools ,maybe due the the economy. I too thought that it would go the other way.
At my school ( a Com College) we over 800 people applying for 56 seats each semester (spriing,fall), I dont even want to think about more people applying to our nursing program:banghead:
Agrippa
490 Posts
folks, nursing school enrollment isnt down. Maybe at a school here and there, but any hope that they will decrease in the future is wishful thinking.
Historically, during every recession, higher education enrollment has increased. People realize that they need more skills to be employable and whats a better time than now when they can't get jobs anyway to go look? The financial crisis has little effect on loans for students. There is no shortage of companies who would be willing to lend to students in the health profession. A student may not be able to get 100% of their loans from the government, but that doesn't mean that private institutions won't loan you the rest. Although they may charge higher interest rates, i don't think any student would decide to not matriculate to their school because the interest rate on the loan they need is 2-3% higher - especially if its their dream to be a nurse and they want it bad enough to take all the pre-reqs.
Also, there has always been way too many students applying for nursing school than the school can handle. The shortage of nurses isn't from the dearth of people wanting to be nurses, but rather from the amount of faculty available to train nurses well enough - which i don't think will be affected/diminished by an economic downturn.
For those who wish for less applicants and thus less competition for nursing school, i dont want to burst your bubble, but its only going to get tougher im afraid. Just do your best and let the chips fall where they made. That being said, my analysis of how the economic situation will affect nursing admission just my own personal opinion. Make of it what you will.