Hawkeye Community College LPN and RN Programs

Hi, I am currently a sophomore, but I plan on graduating high school my junior year. I have always wanted to become a nurse. My mom is a CNA, Restorative Aide, and a Med Aide; and my older sister is also a CNA. I am scheduled to take the CNA class through HCC during my junior year, and I am really excited.

Anyways, I am hesitant about if I should attend Hawkeye Community College or Allen College. I have asked a lot of nurses about which they would choose and they all have said "Allen College is awesome", and "Hawkeye is pretty decent considering it's a community college". However, Allen College is A LOT more expensive than HCC, and I don't want to take out a lot of student loans.

So before I make my ultimate decisions, I want to gather some opinions about HCC, the program, and their instructors. So if anyone has or knows someone who has attended either the LPN or RN program, I would love to hear about their experience with Hawkeye Community College. Thank you in advanced.

Hi CNADaughter!

You have some very good questions as you think about yourfuture college plans. As an employee ofHawkeye Community College, I can tell you Hawkeye offers the CNA program whichis the first step in pursuing a nursing career. The CNA program is a combination ofclassroom and hands-on lab working with patients.

Hawkeye just opened their new virtual hospital - which isable to replicate many patient scenarios from birth through an agingadult. Utilizing patient mannequins,students are able to learn patient treatment and procedures in a safeenvironment before their on-site clinicals. It is very cool technology! Andyou receive instant feedback.

I would recommend you visit the college - either at a groupvisit day or for a personal one-on-one visit. Our admissions office is always happy to answer any questions with futurestudents. They can be reached at319-296-4000 or online at

Experience Hawkeye Visit Days - Experience Hawkeye on a Campus Visit - Hawkeye Community College | Waterloo, Iowa

Good luck!

I graduated from Hawkeye and something I consistently heard while doing clinicals was "Hawkeyes nurses are GREAT nurses."

Only thing I have to say about hawkeye is I graduated from their lpn program last summer I have enough points for the rn and the gpa. Yet I am still on the waiting list to get into the rn program.

I graduated from LPN July 2013 and have already started the RN program here. I really like it.

I didn't attend Hawkeye but I got my LPN & RN at north iowa area community college. I would say check your graduation rates and NCLEX pass rates. Of they are decent go that route to start and then transfer if you wanted to get your BSN. Save a lot of $ and you gain lots of experiences

As someone who has a mountain of student loan debt (and will continue adding to that mountain as I look at nurse practitioner programs), I'll say this: GO TO COMMUNITY COLLEGE. Future-you is going to thank now-you for being practical and not having to worry about monthly student loan payments of $500+ is going to make your new career a lot nicer to handle.

If anything, consider getting pre-reqs out of the way at Hawkeye and then transferring to University of Iowa's BSN program. You're going to want a BSN to be competitive in the job market, and it's a lot easier if you get it done before you get out into the workforce, rather than trying to work as a nurse while you finish the degree (IF you can get a job as a new grad with only an ADN, that is).

Hawkeyes is well recommended but always seems to have a waiting list.

I would recommend attend Hawkeye for your ADN then attending another school for your RN-BSN! Saves you a bunch of money and doesn't affect you ability to get hired somewhere.