PRE.NURSING REQUIREMENTS @ a UNIVERSITY vs. COMMUNITY COLLEGE

catzy5 · Nov 20, 2007

How do nursing schools weigh pre-nursing courses taken at universities as opposed to community college courses? I know most people have said it doesn't matter where you take them...but if I get a B in an Anatomy course at Stanford, but someone gets an A in Anatomy at a community college, which will be favored?

Most places will be equal. A 4.0 is a 4.0 as long as the school accepts the other schools transcripts it won't matter where it's from. Not all schools accept everyones so you would want to work that out a head of time. There are many fantastic community colleges out there whose AP college level courses can stand very strong against a school like Stanford.

gkbroaro · Nov 20, 2007

Do you know where I can find what community colleges these are? Specifically in California...

catzy5 · Nov 20, 2007

Do you know where I can find what community colleges these are? Specifically in California...

There are so many I would call around or look online to the CC near you.

Discovernursing.com

will give you a list of schools offering nursing programs. Most CC offer the sciences though so even if the school doesn't have nursing you could take the pre regs there.

SparklyGirl · Nov 20, 2007

I took Anatomy and Physiology at Merritt CC in Oakland, they were excellent, and I would say equivalent to what I learned at an Ivy League.

goldenngrrl · Nov 20, 2007

My university is pretty rigorous (not just in the Nursing program, either -- all-around academically.) For Nursing, the only science course we're allowed to take at another college is Microbiology. A&P 1 & 2, and Biochemistry (along with all Nursing couses, I believe) have to be taken here. They do this because in the past they allowed students to take A&P & Biochem at community colleges and after doing that the students would fail out of their upper-level Nursing courses here...

That, along with what I've heard from many other people at different schools and in the field of Nursing, leads me to believe that my school (and possibly many other universities) is significantly harder than community college.

catzy5 · Nov 20, 2007

My university is pretty rigorous (not just in the Nursing program, either -- all-around academically.) For Nursing, the only science course we're allowed to take at another college is Microbiology. A&P 1 & 2, and Biochemistry (along with all Nursing couses, I believe) have to be taken here. They do this because in the past they allowed students to take A&P & Biochem at community colleges and after doing that the students would fail out of their upper-level Nursing courses here...
That, along with what I've heard from many other people at different schools and in the field of Nursing, leads me to believe that my school (and possibly many other universities) is significantly harder than community college.

I think some schools will be better then others in different academics, but I honestly don't believe it would be university vs. community college. I think many schools insist you take your pre reqs there because it makes them more money. The AP program I took at a CC in California, I have all the confidence in the world in, my sister in another state was taking AP through a university, my course was so much harder then hers, we had a better indepth content, when ever we compared notes she would say, "we didn't do that, or I have never heard of that" We also had our own cadaver, our labs were much longer then most in the area. Our head of AP also was very picky about who's AP he would accept it was common knowledge that not many could transfer into our program.

goldenngrrl · Nov 20, 2007

I think some schools will be better then others in different academics, but I honestly don't believe it would be university vs. community college. I think many schools insist you take your pre reqs there because it makes them more money. The AP program I took at a CC in California, I have all the confidence in the world in, my sister in another state was taking AP through a university, my course was so much harder then hers, we had a better indepth content, when ever we compared notes she would say, "we didn't do that, or I have never heard of that" We also had our own cadaver, our labs were much longer then most in the area. Our head of AP also was very picky about who's AP he would accept it was common knowledge that not many could transfer into our program.

I defintely agree that it really depends on the community college in question, but I still believe that my school's sciences are harder than the community colleges in our area, at least. I've heard that from numerous students who've transferred into our program from CC (and were forced to take the sciences here) as well as the faculty here (when they told us about students failing their nursing courses here after taking the sciences elsewhere.)

That being said, my cousin is at CC right now and is in an incredibly difficult pre-req program, so it does depend on the school.