Hawkeye Community College LPN and RN Programs

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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.

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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 at319-296-4000BsAt4ube4GblQIAAAAASUVORK5CYII= or online at

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

Good luck!

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

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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.

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

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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

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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).

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Specializes in ARNP.

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

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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.

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