FUS with Abigail (Day 1)

Despite having to get up at 4:30am, today went well. We had uneventful flights from Hsv to Memphis to Pittsburgh. Everything ran on schedule and for once I was not randomly selected for terrorist pat down and luggage search. Rental car went smoothly, drive to Steubenville is easy. We stopped in West Virginia for lunch and I was thrown off by "smoking or non-smoking"; I keep forgetting not all the world is healthy conscious. I desperately wanted coffee and searched for Starbucks in WV on my iPhone and voila there was one in the town we were in (ever hear of Weirton, WV?) and it was RIGHT around the corner newly opened in Krogers. Got to our hotel and crashed for about an hour and then drove the less than 5 minutes to campus.

Turned out our 3pm arrival time was an appt with admissions; thankfully we had our paperwork with us to ask the questions we wanted answered. Eric (the admissions counselor) is going to check on the courses Abigail has already taken through AL Early College and some other possible courses to see if they would transfer as Core Curriculum requirements. He wasn't certain about how GI Bill works but knows that it doesn't count against financial aid from them as it's  "our" money. I may stop by Financial Aid tomorrow if I get a chance to get more clarification. Eric also said there have been or are soon to be some changes to the benefits.

Abigail would be a Pre-Nursing student for one year and then have to apply to the Nursing program. They recently grew the program to 60 students admitted each year from about 110 that come in Pre-Nursing. Of those 110, only about 90 actually end up applying to Nursing. Nursing students may spend a semester of their sophomore year abroad in Austria - the only additional expenses are passport, plane ticket and sightseeing. There are even some trips built into the cost of the program. (This year, they accepted 60 of the 75 that applied as per phone call March 2012)

All students (other than Seniors) must live on campus. Freshmen may not have cars. Clinicals start in sophomore year but they pair up those with cars with those without so that no one is ever rideless to their nursing experiences. There is no campus shuttle to/from the airport but Eric assured us that everyone finds a ride and rarely does anyone pay airport shuttles. They have a wonderful Fine Art Society that offers great discounts on events to students. For instance next week they are going into Pittsburgh to see Wicked and tix were about $25 each. Now there were only 100 available so showing up early was essential but I think Abigail would camp out for these types of opportunities. Students do not need to be Theater majors to audition for or work tech for campus productions.

At 5pm I dropped Abigail off at Clare Hall to spend the night with her room hostess Mary. Tomorrow I will meet her at 11am for a campus tour. By that time Abigail will have already attended two classes. I'll report on those tomorrow.

After dropping off Abigail, I went to JCPenney's looking for new jeans - ended up with new PJs and a white polo shirt for Theresa for AHG . I then had dinner at Bob Evans and am now relaxing for the evening while Abigail experiences campus life. She is also hoping to meet up with an online friend who is a freshman.