Same Undergraduate & Graduate College?

Trauma Columnist · Feb 10, 2017

I did a BSN and MSN (management and leadership) at University of Phoenix

Then I did two post-MSN certificates at my local hospital-affiliated college of nursing

Riburn3, BSN, MSN, APRN, NP · Feb 13, 2017

Although I went to two separate schools for my BSN (NMSU) and MSN (UTEP), I don't think it really matters much if you attended the same place for both, unless the school in question has a horrible reputation in your area to begin with. I'm yet to encounter anyone in the medical field that gives a crap about the prestige of the school you went to outside of some of the for profit schools. When you consider that lots of physician's were trained at schools in foreign countries that 99.9% of us have never heard of, it's probably why school prestige matters little to those of us that practice directly in the field.

I'm finishing up my post masters AGACNP at UTEP, and plan to go there for my DNP next year. Unless you plan on working in the upper echelons of academia and research, I don't really think it matters if you end up going to the same school.

CoolLikeThat · Feb 15, 2017

I do not think it makes a difference either way as long as you of to a decent school and not a pay-for-degree online program. I moved around a lot and ever program I completed was with a different university in a different state. It was brought up in interviews just as a talking point.

It's like a Vit C · Feb 24, 2017

I worked with my associates degree for a few years before going back for my BS. The program I attended (NYU) offered a BS-MS dual degree where some master level classes could be taken as electives towards finishing the BS. Since I was already enrolled there and had some masters level classes already, I just continued straight through at the same school. I did this instead of going through the hassle of applying somewhere else. So I have my BS and my MS from the same school mostly out of convenience; however, it was also a good program.

aerorunner80, ADN, BSN, MSN, APRN · Mar 2, 2017

I couldn't agree more. I got my undergrad and am getting my MSN at the same school. What I like about this is that I already know the system and am familiar with how the school of nursing operates so I'm hoping that the transition into a graduate degree program won't be quite as stressful as if I had to get to know a whole new school system.

Ultimately it's your work ethic and knowledge that people will care about. This will speak much higher volumes than where you were educated at.

JellyDonut · Mar 9, 2017

I wish I had done everything at one school. Every time I apply for any program I have to pay for 6 separate set of transcripts and follow up to make sure they have been sent. Worse is having to enter every class you have ever taken to some silly online system and still submit transcripts. One set of transcripts would have been heaven!!!!

lrn22 · Mar 18, 2017

I got an acceptance letter for my MSN-FNP from the same school got my BSN from. I am 90% sure I am going to attend with a big part of that being I already know the school and how to work inside their system.

delawhere2006 · Aug 24, 2017

I'm a former higher education instructor who is going back to school for nursing. My husband is completed his post-doc in engineering, so I feel like I'm might as well throw in my 2 cents since we've spend so much of our professional lives in academia.

From my experience, the only people who care about having multiple degrees from the same schools are the extremely snooty-academic types. The same type of people who exclude candidates from non-ivy league schools or top programs in the country, anyway. In the grand scheme of things, I'd say that just about no one else cares if you get your undergraduate and graduate degrees from the same school.

Yet, if you have ambitions of getting a tenured teaching position as nursing faculty at at a top-tier institution, it may be best to spread out more.