Do you think grades are universal?

Nursing Students Pre-Nursing

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Plese no flaming as my intentt is NOT to offend anyone. This being said do you feel an A from a major nationally recognized univeristy is the same as an A from a small local CC. This was a recent topic of discussion among my peers.

The reality of life, of course, is that your future employer is not going to be comparing your transcript from School A with Betty's transcript from School B. The employer is going to be looking for "RN" after your names ;)

In this forum, we're all hoping for the reality you speak of. This is the pre-nursing student forum and most of us are working on our prerequisites to apply to nursing school. So, we're constantly worrying about grades because the admissions committee will be comparing my transcript to Betty's transcript. Context is everything.

Peace,

Cathie

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Specializes in CNA, RN Student.
In this forum, we're all hoping for the reality you speak of. This is the pre-nursing student forum and most of us are working on our prerequisites to apply to nursing school. So, we're constantly worrying about grades because the admissions committee will be comparing my transcript to Betty's transcript. Context is everything.

Peace,

Cathie

Absolutely, getting into the nursing school is competitive but as far as future employers go, once your have graduated nursing school, passed NCLEX and are licensed-the hospital won't go digging for your transcript to compare to the other applicant for the job.

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Absolutely, getting into the nursing school is competitive but as far as future employers go, once your have graduated nursing school, passed NCLEX and are licensed-the hospital won't go digging for your transcript to compare to the other applicant for the job.

Agreed, I was just pointing out that employers looking at your grades wasn't what the thread was about. In this forum, we're all trying to get IN to nursing school. So, most of us live and die by our GPA's.

Peace,

Cathie

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GPA is a GPA.

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My experience has been that the local university courses are approximately at least a third harder than classes I took at the local CC, not only in nursing but in chemistry, etc. as well. As far as our school of nursing, one reason may be that it is a competitive entry. Most GPA are over 3.5. If by comparison, the CC chooses a random or first come, first served admission, then more than likely the courses would have to be easier in order to maintain any sort of a reasonable graduation rate. Furthermore, the vast majority of our university instructors are Ph.D.s which was not true at the CC. Yes, they may use the same text books but from there, the testing challenge can vary widely.

I know this wasn't intended to start a debate, but I think most of us in the CC level who cannot afford university, have families, other careers that we need to support ourselves and have worked our behinds off to get this far will take extreme offense if someone tells us that the grades we got were "inflated" or "manipulated" for the purpose of being taught in the community college setting.

Nursing students attending universities also have families, other careers that they need to support themselves and have also worked their behinds off...all factors that hold no relevance in comparing the education one receives at either institution.

How can anyone say that that is the "less meaningful" and "less educated" path choice. No one said less meaningful but you have to agree it is a less educated path choice. Same difference between a Bachelor's in Business and an MBA. Less education.

In the end we are all "nurses" and after one passes NCLEX and works and proves to be an inadequate nurse, that is reflective of that individual

Regardless of the quality of the individual, you cannot discount the education as well. Becoming a good nurse is multi-factorial, and one of the key factors is education.;)

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My experience has been that the local university courses are approximately at least a third harder than classes I took at the local CC, not only in nursing but in chemistry, etc. as well. As far as our school of nursing, one reason may be that it is a competitive entry. Most GPA are over 3.5. If by comparison, the CC chooses a random or first come, first served admission, then more than likely the courses would have to be easier in order to maintain any sort of a reasonable graduation rate. Furthermore, the vast majority of our university instructors are Ph.D.s which was not true at the CC. Yes, they may use the same text books but from there, the testing challenge can vary widely.

It sounds like this varies from school to school. I know that in my area, the CC program is very competitive. I have a 4.13 and it's unlikely I'll get in this term. It's not a lottery basis, but a points based system mostly based on your GPA. There are folks doing their pre-req's at the CC that have decided to apply to the University because their chances of getting in there are better than at the CC.

I think the thing we can take from this conversation is that wide generalizations won't work. It really varies school by school and Prof by Prof.

Peace,

Cathie

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Plese no flaming as my intentt is NOT to offend anyone. This being said do you feel an A from a major nationally recognized univeristy is the same as an A from a small local CC. This was a recent topic of discussion among my peers.

No they aren't univeral. Even within instructors at the same school they can vary widely. But this same variance is exactly why we can't stereotype CC or lower rated colleges because the individual classes and teachers can be harder than a 4 year university or they can be easier, it all depends.

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Specializes in CNA, RN Student.
It sounds like this varies from school to school. I know that in my area, the CC program is very competitive. I have a 4.13 and it's unlikely I'll get in this term. It's not a lottery basis, but a points based system mostly based on your GPA. There are folks doing their pre-req's at the CC that have decided to apply to the University because their chances of getting in there are better than at the CC.

I think the thing we can take from this conversation is that wide generalizations won't work. It really varies school by school and Prof by Prof.

Peace,

Cathie

I have to agree with Cathie, this is exactly the case. It is wrong to make generalizations. As far as the poster who said that university professors have their PhD's and CC's do not. Wrong. All my teachers have been "Dr. such and such" and I have one professor who is a Dr. and used to teach at MIT but now teaches at my CC only because her husband had a work transfer that took him here. My Micro professor used to teach at Baylor and retired, moved here and missed working so took up a part time job at the CC. She even handed us lessons that still said the class number from when she taught at Baylor and made it a point to tell us she wasn't going to teach us any less simply because we are all heading into the same "reality". I beg to differ that grades and education make the better nurse....there is no honesty to that. I always love the stories my mom and friends tell me about the nursing students or freshly graduated nurses who pride themselves on their grades and education that start working thinking they know everything and know nothing when it comes to direct patient contact. Like Cathie said, it varies from school to school so to make a generalized assumption and declaration is unfair. I guarantee their are CC's out their who's graduates end up with a better education than someone from from a university...and vice versa. Yes, people in universities do have families etc....but call me crazy, CC's are much more affordable and class scheduling at a CC also caters more towards the student with other obligations. I know that it is different everywhere, for example the state college in my area is dangling to its accreditation by a thread and will probably lose it whereas the CC I attend is in the midst of making a conversion to a state college, so geographically speaking my opinion could be biased but I too have attended University and have received a Bachelor's degree from University and granted nursing prereq's are probably harder than Computer Science courses but I am finding the classes equally as demanding. Again, just my personal experience and I stand by the fact that one can't make judgements on the quality of education based on a generalization. To each his own.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Tele, Psych.

My personal experience...

I also attended a major University right out of high school and again as an adult. I can say that even though I graduated high school on an academic scholarship in the top 5% of my class, I was more interested in the extracurriculars than class.

As I matured and went back to a major University I noticed a difference in the population. At 23 I was one of the oldest in my classes, and I could see my "18 year old" self in many of my classmates. I sometimes even felt bad for the professors because of the lack of interest or respect they received.

I've noticed that many of the students in the Community College I attended were non-traditional students. They seemed to participate and interact more with the professors and each other during class. When a traditional student was in the class and began 'acting up', rather than the rest of the class encouraging the behavior, the students would give a disapproving look. This is only my opinion of course, but classes at the Community College were easier for me, because I appreciated the material being presented. I know that I didn't have the same appreciation for education at 18 than I do now.

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Specializes in Med/Surg <1; Epic Certified <1.
I've noticed that many of the students in the Community College I attended were non-traditional students. They seemed to participate and interact more with the professors and each other during class. When a traditional student was in the class and began 'acting up', rather than the rest of the class encouraging the behavior, the students would give a disapproving look. This is only my opinion of course, but classes at the Community College were easier for me, because I appreciated the material being presented. I know that I didn't have the same appreciation for education at 18 than I do now.

Good observation!! I got my first associate's at the CC where I am now in NS. When I transferred from there to get a bachelor's 10 years ago, I was amazed at how rude and disrespectful the "kids" were at the private university I attended and absolutely hated it.

I started taking evening and weekend courses and was so pleased to find myself back in the company of adults who WANTED to learn again!! I still think that the education I had gotten at the CC was overall tougher than my university courses, but that might also be the nature of those 8-week courses.

By the way, when I took an Honors Oral Communication class at the CC, I had two 70-year-old students in my class (not related to each other). Now that's what I call diverse!!

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As far as the poster who said that university professors have their PhD's and CC's do not. Wrong.

Please re-read. I posted the vast majority of our university instructors are Ph.D.s which was not true at the CC.

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As far as the poster who said that university professors have their PhD's and CC's do not. Wrong.

Please re-read. I posted the vast majority of our university instructors are Ph.D.s which was not true at the CC.

Again though, that is the sort of thing that differs from college to college.

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