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I am not from Indiana or Oklahoma. So the tuition is somewhat high either way, although if you think that's a lot, try attending a private liberal arts college! I talked to both schools' financial aid departments today and found out there is a federal guideline that makes practically all second degree students ineligible for financial aid. IUPUI sticks to this guideline and although there is an appeals process, it's complicated and bureaucratic. I already submitted a letter explaining my situation last month and they haven't budged. Getting my application submitted in the first place was frustrating and painful. Oklahoma City University bends the rules for second degree nursing students in order to give us some aid. My aid package includes a transfer student scholarship and subsidized and unsubsidized federal loans. I had a good experience attending IU Bloomington for part of my first college degree and IUPUI's nursing program is highly ranked. On the other hand, Oklahoma City University seems to be a place where I could really thrive and I get a good feeling from them. Considering that one school is giving me aid and one school isn't, my choice is pretty clear, isn't it?

Great, just the person I want to talk to. My biggest problem right now is that IUPUI financial aid said that I'm ineligible for financial aid because I have too many credits. Obviously, I'm a second degree student! If that's their policy, then, does that mean that every single student in your accelerated class received no financial aid whatsoever?

I have been accepted to the accelerated second degree BSN programs at both IUPUI and Oklahoma City University. I have to make a decision by November 4th. What do you know about these programs?

I would like to become a nurse anesthetist someday. It disturbs me that from what I've seen on YouTube, almost no one in the field knows how to pronounce their job title! http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=anesthetist I keep hearing a-nes-di-dist a-nes-ti-tist Say anesthesia. AnesTHEsia. THE, as in theology or thesaurus. Say anesthetist. "AnesTEHtist." No! It's not TEH, it's THE. By the way, my parents are immigrants and my first language was not English. Because I didn't want people to look down on me, I became a stickler for proper spelling, grammar, and pronunciation. How is it that such highly educated and respected individuals can't even say their job title correctly?

I am currently looking at two other schools which begin in January 2012. Oklahoma City University has a 16-month accelerated second degree BSN program that accepts all who qualify. It's closer to home, less expensive, and I'll most likely get more financial aid because I'm starting the process early. I think I have a good chance of being at the top of the class, which is important because I want to be in Sigma Theta Tau. I'd also rather have a 4.0 from OCU than a 2.5 from Emory. Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) has a 20-month accelerated second degree BSN program. Their website looks really good, which may be shallow of me, but I think how a school presents itself reflects on how well they're put together. I attended Indiana University Bloomington during my first bachelor's as a sort of "study abroad" thing and I absolutely love IU. Indy and Bloomington are not the same, though. I'm not keen on having to start in August. Starting in January gives me time to prepare. I want to familiarize myself with the NCLEX. I've already looked up the textbooks they use at OCU and they have most of them at the local university library. I also want to enjoy these last few months at home.

UPDATE: When the admissions representative called me, she said I had "a week" to decide. She emailed me a copy of the acceptance letter that's supposed to be in the mail. (Incidentally, they told me earlier in the year that my decision letter was in the mail, and it never appeared.) According to the letter, I have until August 10 to decide, which is 15 days from the day she called me. That is not a week. That is more than two weeks. She requested that I give her my decision "within 48 hours of receiving your financial aid package." I'm going by what the letter says. The tuition per semester is $18k. Plus fees, living expenses, books and supplies, and transportation, it comes out to $27k. The entire program is four semesters and it is not accelerated. That's a total estimated price of $108,000. Per semester, they gave me a $3000 grant, which I'm sure is the minimum amount they give everyone. There's $1250 in work study, which means I have to take time and energy away from studying to work for them for money I don't get to keep. There are also some paltry federal loans, which are not aid--they're money I owe the government. Big name schools put forth an image of being "good" because they are hard to get into, but no one can quite put their finger on exactly what is so good about them. The only thing I can think of that makes Emory objectively better than other schools is they have a $4.7 billion endowment. You'd think they'd pass along some of that sweet Coca-Cola money on to their nursing students. Emory will be Emory whether I go there or not. But my life will be very different depending on the decisions I make. The reasons I would want to go to Emory mostly revolve around wanting to show off that name brand to other people. But being a nurse is not about impressing people. By the way, if Emory is such a great school, why is their NCLEX first time pass rate 93%? Why isn't it 100%? What happened to the 7%?

I have been trying to get into an accelerated 2nd degree BSN program for a while now. I applied to Emory University in January of this year and didn't hear back from them for months (past the time decision letters were supposed to have been sent out). I was turned down by other schools and felt my chances weren't good for this one, either. I tried emailing them and calling them, with no satisfactory answer. I decided to forget the whole thing. Today, July 26th, I got a call from them saying that I've been accepted. Apparently, I was on a waitlist (which they didn't tell me). I have a week to make my decision. Classes start August 26th. I was told my acceptance letter is in the mail, but I'm pretty sure there's no financial aid left this late in the game. I guess some people would kill to be accepted to Emory University, and I'm happy that I got in, but I also feel bad about the way they kept me in the dark and don't think I would be happy there. On the other hand, if I could make it through the two-year program, I would always have Emory University on my resume and a big name school counts. Since I didn't expect to get into Emory, I have been working on applications for schools that start in January 2012 that I think I would do well at. And I'm not ready to start school as early as Emory wants me to. It's a difficult decision--turn down a big name, prestigious (and very expensive) school and take my chances elsewhere, or go ahead and go to Emory? My main criterion is not cost (all the schools I'm looking at are very expensive) or difficulty (they're all very challenging accelerated programs) but my personal feelings about my chances of being a successful and happy student. I just don't feel good about Emory at this point. What would you do? For those of you familiar with Emory, is this typical of how they treat students there?