This is for Texas Residents and College Students: are your colleges and universities going downhill?
I'm considering relocating to Austin, Texas (or San Antonio) after nursing school. My parents are getting old and sick and I have a sixteen-year-old brother who lives with them and might need some guidance himself as he approaches college age. My family lives in a shithole, dead-end, ghetto town in Florida called Bradenton (or Bradentucky as the locals call it). I refuse to live there, or anywhere in the state of Florida for that matter. But, oddly enough, I really dig Texas and I think Austin or San Antonio would be awesome Texan cities to live in that are relatively close to Florida. I already know that Texans value the whole "surivial of the fittest" thing, and that its schools are usually populated by white students with rich parents who can afford all the tuition, books, and living expenses out-of-pocket. If I move to Austin or San Antonio, I plan to finish my medical education (pharmacy, nurse practitioner - haven't decided yet), but I'm concerned that Texas schools have become flooded by immigrants and competitive students to the point where they're "hypercompetitive." Out here in Oregon for example, getting into any nursing program is what getting into medical school was like 20 years ago - it's THAT bad. You more or less need straight As in all your prerequisite courses in order to compete - and book smarts usually don't mean you're going to make a good nurse. In fact, I'd argue the opposite but that's just me. If I go through all the trouble of relocating to Central Texas to be geographically closer to my ailing family (who live in Florida - yes, it's a long flight but considerably shorter than Oregon), am I going to face a "hypercompetitive" school culture (again this would be for medical programs in Texas like pharmacy and/or advanced nursing programs) with long waiting lists, hundreds of applicants for few spots, immigrants, slashed budgets, etc? One of my chief concerns about Austin is that all of the IT workers who are currently losing their jobs will be turning to the health care professions because it's one of the last "frontiers" in employment, and they'll be competing with less entitled, resource-rich, and monied students for coveted spots in programs. Would some of you Texas residents who are familiar with the college and university systems in Central Texas (chiefly Austin and San Antonio) help me put all this into perspective realistically. Is your college/university system overburdened right now, or is it still accessible to the average joe? BTW: I'm not blasting immigrants - I know a lot of Mexican people come north to American for educational advancement and I think that's wonderful. But the migration adds to the bulk of students competing for funding, resources, and college admissions - as does the slew of white, laid-off IT workers switching careers for job security. I love Texas and hope to live there some day but want to make sure there are opportunities for advancement before I decide to relocate. You know, it's not misaligned fingerpointing. I'm trying to get information about the schools down there. I love Texans actually (duh) -- I just know that in certain states (California, New York, Massachusetts, maybe Texas) the schools are bursting at seams, and it comes down to people with no money (immmigrants) and students who come from inherited wealth. As someone who worked his way through grad school in the south, you will completely understand me when I write that I don't want to have spend the next 10 years of my life competing to get INTO graduate programs that are hypercompetitive. The economic downturn in this country is making things worse.
San Antonio - 1 Answers
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You may not be blasting immigrants, but you are blasting some. Texans, white people, student. This is an ignorant post populated with untrue stereotypes. As opposed to a page long rant, why not just ask a question and leave it at that? Instead of misaligned finger pointing, why not just keep it short and sweet?
