Central Florida Nesties
"I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him." I Samuel 1:27
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Relocating
My husband and I are thinking about relocating to the Orlando area from Michigan. He's a theatre technician and looking to get a job at one of the parks, and I'm a medical assistant and needing to finish my BSN. We need recommendations on nursing schools (there seems to be a lot more options than here in West Michigan) and also good apartment complexes in decent neighborhoods, hopefully closer to the southwest side of Orlando/Kissimmee. I'd love some advice! TIA!
"I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him." I Samuel 1:27
Re: Relocating
I'm not too familiar with nursing schools, but I can tell you that the UCF medical school just opened, but I believe that is only for med students not nursing. I believe the University of Central Florida main campus has nursing programs which is on the east side of town. I always lobby hard for the Lake Nona area--its up and coming, lowest crime rate in Orlando, and would be the half way point between UCF and the attractions (Lake Nona being in the middle). Obviously, I would make sure your husband has a job prior to moving down. I recently read that Orlando ranks #42 out of 50 cities in the US for having a poor job market. I have quite a few friends that have been unemployed for over a year now and still no success. I'm not trying to scare you--I promise; just educating you about the city beautiful.
good luck with your endeavors!
Hi! My husband and I moved from Michigan to Orlando over five years ago, so I can certainly see what's drawing you to the area.
I agree with the pp, make sure that your husband has a job lined up prior to making the move. The market down here is tight, but no where near as bad as it is in Michigan. I have a lot of unemployed friends from college up in MI
I know a couple people who were trained in lighting, sound, etc that were unable to get a job in their area in the theme parks. I've heard the competition is intense for those types of jobs. But it's certainly worth a try!
I can't think of any specific apartment recommendations, but I would suggest avoiding the Metrowest area by Universal Studios. It was an up and coming area when we first moved down here, but it went downhill fast. (although you could now pick up a condo there for 50k lol)
UCF has a BSN program on their main campus, but you might want to see if they have any satellite campuses that have the BSN (I don't think they do). If you have come out with a degree in medical assisting, depending on where you went to school and what type of degree you have, you will want to talk to a UCF advisor pretty quickly to see what pre-requisites you need to finish up for their program. If you have pre-reqs to finish, look at one of the community colleges on the East side of town - Seminole or Valencia depending on where you live.
Remember that you are considered a non-FL resident for tuition purposes until you have proven residency for one full year. I'm not sure what the tuition rate is for non-residents at UCF, but for the community colleges it's about 3.5 times what in-state students pay.
Also, if you have financial aid, don't forget to change the school code if you are planning to start right away.
Check out Valencia's nursing program. I attend VCC on the west campus which is by Universal. Of course, you would be paying a higher tuition at first out-of-state.
Yes, living by Metrowest is far from the likes of living, I dunno, in Isleworth... but there are decent areas around this way (Dr. Phillips starts right behind Universal). I am a strong believe that ANYWHERE in the Orlando vicinity can be dangerous if you don't take proper precautions. I mean there have been home invasions in Windermere and robberies in Heathrow, etc. So unless you have the coin to get behind the gate at Isleworth or something, you just have to be aware of your surroundings.
I don't live far from Disney and I am close to VCC as well. There are plenty of apartments in the Lake Buena Vista, Windermere, and Winter Garden/Ocoee areas that you could look into.
I would suggest Key Isle, Altis, or Buena Vista Place.