The University of Illinois Chicago announced earlier this week that they would be accepting MacMurray College nursing student transfers. Dr. Cynthia Reese, Director of UIC’s Nursing Program at Springfield, says $25,000 total is available to transfer students from Mac’s Nursing Program. “Our program is set up where about half of the program is prerequisites and then the second two years at UIC-Springfield is for the nursing component. The $25,000 would be for the nursing portion – the junior and senior year portion of the program.”
Reese says that UIC’s annual tuition is approximately $19,800. She says that Mac transfers should be able to seamlessly transfer their federal student aid and loans into the UIC-Springfield Nursing School program. Reese says that Monique Williams, the undergraduate recruiter, is the first person to contact on the Springfield campus.
Reese says she is not sure about the numbers of students who will transfer into the program. “We just not sure. We are estimating that there may be roughly 50 current MacMurray students that would be eligible, and we would really consider it a triumph if we could attract and enroll 10-15 of those students.”
Reese says that students will have access to the University of Illinois-Springfield’s campus. She says that the library, rec center, the learning center and its tutors, and dormitories specific to nursing students are available. Reese says she’s very familiar to MacMurray College and their nursing program’s expectations. “I would like incoming transfer students to know that while the University of Illinois-Chicago is very large, our campus in Springfield is very small and intimate, which is probably much more along the lines that MacMurray students are used to. Our faculty know our students well. I know the students well. We are a very caring nursing program. If someone is not in class, we are on the phone checking in on them to see what’s going on. I would say that my faculty are big part of that caring environment. All of us are from Central Illinois, so it’s not like we are Chicago transplants. I actually started my nursing teaching career at MacMurray in the mid-90s, and the faculty that I worked with when I first started teaching really set me on a good path to get to where I am today as director of this nursing program in Springfield. I have some ties to MacMurray, and I have a couple of other faculty that were formerly there, as well.”
Reese was also associate dean of nursing at Lincoln Land Community College from 2009 to 2014, serving as nurse administrator for the associate degree and practical nursing programs. She helped LLCC revise curriculum which was followed by a jump in students passing the National Council Licensure Examination from 80% to 93% in one year, according to her UIC profile.
Prospective students should contact Monique Williams at mwill8@uic.edu by May 20th for an unofficial transcript evaluation and to get more information. MacMurray College is set to permanently close its doors at the end of May. It was set to be honored as one of the top nursing programs in the state this year and has frequently appeared in many “best of” lists for the quality of its nursing program.