Engineering and Nursing

I wonder if Dr. McDreamy's nurses had a four year program...

Many students enter Dominican with hopes of becoming a nurse or an engineer. However, at Dominican, these majors are a lot more complicated than people think. The engineering program is affiliated with Dominican, and is a five year program. The first two years students only take classes at Dominican, but the next three are at Illinois Institute of Technology. Students who are involved with this program are still able to live on campus. Junior Ernesto Ramirez is currently involved in the engineering program. "IIT's campus is about forty five mintues to an hour away. Sometimes it is hard because I have an 8:30 a.m. class at Dominican and have to literally run to my car to make my classes at IIT. Also, it is hard to receive extra help just because the campus is far away from River Forest. But, we are being taught by real engineers who really know about the field," Ramirez said.

But, what about the nursing program? For students who want to become nurses, they have two options. They can either complete two years at Dominican and apply to West Suburban or finish four years of college and then apply to nursing schools. Most colleges have a nursing program so after your four years students are able to become nurses. Tammy Altonaga completed two years at Dominican and now attends West Suburban. She really wishes that she could have completed her nursing degree through Dominican instead of transferring after two years. Gina Navia, who is from Kansas City had to rent her own apartment because Dominican does not offer housing for West Suburban transfers. If a student is still affiliated with Dominican for the engineering program, why should it be different for the nursing program? Also, since nursing is such a popular field, shouldn't Dominican have a four year program without transferring in between or afterwards? More people would be attracted to Dominican if these programs were offered as a four year program.