Is Pre-Nursing considered an Associate's Degree?

hiddencatRN, BSN, RN · Jul 20, 2010

To get an associate's degree you need to complete the school's degree requirements. The degree requirements usually include more classes than standard nursing prerequisites.

K nurse-one-day · Jul 20, 2010

heavens no. An associates degree is a completely different thing. That 64 credit hours of course work from all different area's. your pre reqs are just a few classes

Saysfaa · Jul 20, 2010

Even when you have taken all of the classes on your school's list for an associated degree, you don't automatically get one. At a minimum you have to fill out some paperwork.

lifelearningrn, BSN, RN · Jul 20, 2010

Applying for your degree is pretty simple. But to answer the OP- you will likely not come out of school with an associates degree from the prereqs UNLESS you are doing the prereqs to get into a BSN program. The BSN programs in my area require the 42 hour Texas Core, then you take all of your sciences and prereqs and you should have enough hours for an associates of science or associates of arts degree.

Anne36, LPN · Jul 20, 2010

You need 15 pre-req classes just to begin your associate degree at my school. Nursing school is full time 2 years after the pre-req's.

Sand_Dollar, BSN · Jul 20, 2010

Having taken a set of 'random' classes, like the nursing pre-reqs does not guarantee you an Associates Degree.

I knew from the start I wanted to get my BSN and had a list of all the classes the University required. I then looked at the classes needed for an Associates Degree from my local CC and matched them up. I graduated with my Associates of Science this spring. This means I had a minimum 60 credits that met the requirements for that program. I did not need to get my AS to have my pre-reqs done for NS. However, I figured since I only needed one more class to get my AS, why not?

The nice thing with having my AS is that I don't have to worry about matching up the general education requirements at my University to those I did at the CC. Since they saw I had my AS, they put a big X through the gen ed requirements and said I was done, which was a nice.

Each college is different. My daughter who just started her pre-reqs is going through a different community college. Her nursing pre-reqs will fall under an Associates of Arts degree rather than one of Science. Go figure.

JROregon, ASN, BSN, RN · Jul 20, 2010

At my school, it is an Associates degree in Applied Sciences. We have to finish all of the nursing classes, beyond the pre-nursing classes, to get our degree. There are also a few general ed classes thrown in to make it a more well rounded degree. I always thought an associated degree meant a 2-year program. Not so.

PacoUSA, BSN, RN · Aug 18, 2010

I don't think pre-nursing per se is even considered a major, at least I have never seen one like it anywhere.

anie10 · Aug 18, 2010

Contingent on the school itself. At my community college pre-nursing is packaged as a degree, AS in Health Sciences. I draw the conclusion that it is indeed so, due to all the requirements for my degree are also all of the requirements for most ASN/BSN programs in my state (California).

So it all depends where you go to school. Although I have never seen pre-nursing as a specific degree, as other posters have mentioned.

KaitlinRN · Jul 20, 2012

I know this is an old post, but wanted to add that some schools actually do offer a Pre-Nursing Associates Degree (APN)! There are a few schools that I know of back in Washington State that offer this degree (Pierce College, Tacoma CC, South Puget Sound). It wasn't much different than getting your associates in arts, so I ended up getting both before going into Nursing :)

leenak · Jul 21, 2012

Other than a 'feel good about a completion of something', there is not much sense in getting an associates degree (there are few exceptions such as an ASN, which is different). I know some people want to feel like they have accomplished something which is fine but I wouldn't go out of my way to get one.