Rejected, don't know what to do

[juju27]

I am currently a freshman at a private school in upstate New York. I don't qualify for financial aid and my school gave me a $10,000 scholarship and I have an outside scholarship of $2,500. It comes out to around $31,000 a year, which isn't cheap considering I'm don't have a seat waiting for me junior year. Next year my brother is going to school too, only he's going to a state school for half the cost. Anyway my told me he can't afford to pay out of pocket for both of us with how much my school is. I could take out loans but I know I want to continue my education after I get my BSN and don't want a lot of debt. My dad said if I did the federal one he'd pay the interest but to cover the rest he'd have to take out a personal loan. He told me to do what makes me happy and he'll figure it out but I'm not comfortable with making my dad go into so much debt over me. I applied to a major SUNY school in my town where I could live at home, save money, and no one would have to go into debt. My GPA last semester wasn't as high as I would have liked to due to being stupid and getting caught up in the wrong things so it came out around a 3.4. This semester my grades have improved and I'm focusing all my time on school. In high school I was involved in a lot of clubs, and have around 200 hours of shadowing in the health care field. I really thought I had a shot but I just got my rejection email and I'm completely devastated. I feel so stupid and like I'll never be able to pursue my dream. I could stay here, make myself and my dad go into debt, or I could go to community college in my town for a year, take re-reqs and apply to nursing school again. I was really banking on this and now I have no idea what to do. I don't even want to tell my dad because I know how disappointed he'll be in me.

[TooManyCats, ASN, BSN]

Here's how I look at it. Nursing is a licensed profession. Your skills and your license will speak volumes, more than the place from which you earned your degree (assuming you earned it from an accredited school of course). If you can get into a community college program, go for it. If not, try a state school. Save your money, save that aid for your RN-BSN (if you want one). To be totally honest, a lot of the time, these private schools which charge an arm and a leg aren't even as well regarded as public programs.

[juju27]

Yeah this community college has a nursing program but I spoke with an advisor and she said I could apply to that after I did on year there...so for 3 years of school I would only have my associates and would have wasted a year of my life along with 30k. I think I'll just work on pre-reqs there and apply to some of the SUNY nursing schools. I'm just really doubting myself right now and if I can even get in to a nursing program.