Non-degree at a CC?

[Jae117]

I am currently at PSU harrisburg and trying to transfer over to a community college to finish my pre-reqs. I am hoping to go to either bmcc or bcc in nyc for fall 2017. I have a few classes that would apply for pre-nursing curriculum but next year I want to finish all before applying into bsn programs for fall 2018.

My question is how do I go about as a non-degree student in bmcc or bcc without paying the non degree tuition?

I was told that I should say I am liberal arts major then just finish my pre-reqs, but i wanna hear from others who experienced this. Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance.

[Double-Helix, BSN, RN]

If you enroll in a degree program, won't you have to complete the required curriculum courses for that major? Liberal arts curriculum will not include the hard sciences (chemistry, anatomy, microbiology) that you'll need for nursing school. It sounds like you'll end up paying to take required liberal arts classes that you don't need for nursing school. If you're paying for extra classes just to get a tuition discount, you're not actually saving any money.

[Jae117]

hmm you're right. I'll just call both schools tomorrow about that cause I would rather pay more than waste time/money with extra liberal classes.

[KatieMI, BSN, MSN, RN]

It is a VERY common trick both universities and CC do toward students who only need certain classes as pre-reqs for any specialty, not only nursing. You see, the only one thing the college really wants from you is $$$. So, it is more profitable for them to make you "liberal arts major" and then tell you, for example, that your transcripts won't be released, or be released as "incomplete" until you take another X credits in useless humanities' classes.

You can turn this trick to your advantage because you'll have to take some humanities as "electives" during your BSN program. Call the BSN programs you are interested in, and ask them which such classes you can take now and if they can be transferred at all or only so many credits. Do every transferable credit in CC because BSN programs are difficult and you won't have any time for some advanced basketweaving course while there, leaving alone the price of such classes in university. Humanities also usually way easier in CC than in 4-years university, so you can do a relatively cheap boost to your GPA; should you go into a graduate program later on, higher GPA will help even if it would be filled up by humanities which have nothing to do with nursing. If you can, take at least one advanced writing class because you'll write a whole lot of papers in BSN program.

If your BSN programs won't accept any humanities' coursework from CC, then hold your ground and do only your pre-recs and maybe one advanced writing class.

[Jae117]

Thanks alot, but the thing is since i am a transfer student i already have some of the freshman required liberal classes that PSU makes me take. I have psych, sociology, american studies, english and drama in media class for my art credit. So I am pretty much already good with some liberal courses. Also if I don't take a summer course then my nursing pre reqs (a & p 1 and 2, chem, micro, developmental, stats, etc) take up my whole year basically. So what do you advise based on that?