Health science degree first?

[HanaJ]

hi everyone. So I'm now getting ready to start my second year in college. I attend a community college and have accepted that I would need an extra year to graduate. Transitioning from hs to college was a bit tough but I now know I want to be a nurse (bsn) and in my spring semester started taking pre req so I can eventually transfer to a SUNY and start my bsn program there. But I definitely ruined (so bad I got dismissed) my gpa my first semester so I was wondering if I should just get my health science degree from the cc THEN apply to the bsn program? or is that a bad idea? I'll accept all options, PLEASE. (Sorry for the lengthy question)

[akulahawkRN, ADN, RN, EMT-P]

Regardless which path you take, you should do your best to repair the GPA damage you have done. More importantly you should make sure you get excellent grades in your prerequisite courses because programs often look both at your overall GPA and your prerequisite GPA to gauge how likely you'll be able to successfully complete the program. Yes, they do track this stuff. As to whether or not you should pursue a degree, that's really your choice. One of the few advantages of completing a degree is that sometimes a university will note this and consider you to have completed all your lower division work. This means you basically enter the university as a Junior and you're ready for upper division work, including starting the core coursework in your major. This can come at a cost of more time and money spent at the Junior College level and not directly pursuing your BSN.

I went to a junior college and transferred directly to a university without completing a degree. I basically had ONE lower division course to take and that was blended into my coursework for my major. The impact to me was quite minor but it could have been significant had I transferred a couple semesters earlier. I got through my undergrad work and I have a Sports Med Bachelors. This helped immensely later when I went back for my ADN, both in being ready to take in the info I needed and because I didn't have to re-do all the lower division GE to earn the Associates Degree.

Truly it's up to you to decide if it is more advantageous to get your prereqs done and transfer or if you should continue on to earn a degree and then transfer. There are advantages and disadvantages to both.

My own personal take on your situation (as I understand it) is that you should knock your prerequisites out of the way and repair your GPA damage in the process. Repeat a course or two if you must but do that sparingly, and try to never have to repeat a prerequisite course unless you absolutely must. If you happen to be a couple courses "short" of earning a degree, go for it and earn the degree. Along the way you should also become very familiar with the university's policies about what courses transfer and what won't and how they'll view an Associates degree relative to their graduation requirements. If you find you're ready to transfer and you haven't earned a degree, you don't have to get it.