better to do ASN at a community college?

There are no hospital-based ASN programs around here, so I am not familiar with those. Between a community college and a place like ITT tech, it seems to be preferred to use a community college. The tech schools are often not accredited both regionally and nationally, which can affect you if you plan on doing a BSN program at some point.

IMO there is no one right answer to this question because there are great and horrible of all 3. What matters is NCLEX pass rates. Will all credits transfer for BSN? Cost Convenience. If the program has a good reputation, a good pass rate, and credits transfer it's a good option no matter where it is. Some technical schools or private programs are more expensive and that is a personal choice. I personally wouldn't go to a really expensive program unless it's the only one with a schedule that you can make work for you.

I would also investigate clinical sites. Where are they? Are they good hospitals? Do they have high accuity? An icu one place is med surg in another. You want to make sure you get to see stuff. Also when are clinicals. When hospitals like schools they get weekday morning or 12 hour clinicals. Weekend and evening drastically reduces what you will see and learn.

Also getting that first job is hard and you want to use clinicals to network.

Bottom line do your homework on all your options.

I will add most tech schools aren't great. But I know of a few good ones.

I would avoid tech schools if at all possible. They're very expensive and have poor reputations in general.

I haven't seen a hospital-based program in years, so I can't speak to that.

Community college-based programs will vary, of course, so it behooves you to do your research. Check out retention, NCLEX pass rates, online reviews, and if possible, the reputation among nurses and nurse managers in the area. I have seen programs with horrible reputations locally, and the nurses make it very well known around other people. They will see the students in clinicals, and make a lot of judgments based on that. As a result, many managers won't hire nurses from those schools, because they want nurses they know can perform and won't shirk responsibility.

Hospital-based programs are also known as diploma nursing programs, but are NOT ASN programs. A diploma nursing program is one that has all the clinical and classroom components required to allow a graduate to sit for the NCLEX-RN (assuming, of course, the school IS recognized by the State BoN to allow licensing. BUT it CANNOT be an ASN program because an Associate of Science in Nursing is a college degree awarded by a college, and it is first and foremost an Associate's degree, meaning that general education requirements OTHER than nursing have been met.

One can graduate from a BSN program (Bachelor's in Nursing) and sit for the NCLEX.

One can graduate from an ASN program (Associate's in Nursing) and sit for the NCLEX.

One can graduate from a diploma school, no degree involved, and sit for the NCLEX.

There can be no ASN online-only program; even those that are primarily online have a clinical component that must be satisfied. Sometimes there are options that allow for skills testing in lieu of formal clinicals, but one must still learn those clinical skills. And a degree like this is not universally accepted; actually, it can be useless if the Board of Nursing in the State in which you seek licensure does not accept it.

So, there really are three ways to go, but not quite as you had them :)

One important thing to note - you will need to complete a RN-to-BSN program before you can continue on to a nurse anesthetist program or to medical school.

I was going to decide on doing an online ADN/ASN degree but I'm having second thoughts after reading your post. Actually I think there are online ASN degrees and I am aware that you must complete clinicals onsite. Is the online degree generally frowned upon by admissions committees at grad schools? Will they even know that it's an online degree if you do the program at a community college? Is it really the case that there are online ASN programs not accepted by state nursing boards?

Thanks.

Yes, it is really the case that there are online programs that are not accepted for licensing. Excelsior is one such school; I'm sure there are others but not off the top of my head. It's Monday, after all :)

As for the rest, much depends on the accreditation of the school and the reputation of the program. What are the NCLEX pass rates where you are considering attending? I can't say I understand an "all online" nursing degree from a community college; traditionally these schools offer some of their programming ONLY at the school.

If you do science courses online that have lab components, not all schools will accept those courses for transfer. If it's the school at which you will be obtaining your degree that offers their online option, that's fine....but if you then seek to transfer to another school down the road (higher degree?) they might refuse that coursework. It's pretty common to see online labs rejected in a transfer request, from what I've seen posted on this forum.

Pick the school with the best NCLEX pass rates. That's what matters in the end.