Taking Pre-reqs at a community college or university: Which is better?

Why not approach the University and see if taking your prereqs at a community college will hinder your acceptance into their accelerated BSN program.

As long as your program will accept them, why not take them at a local community college? It's usually more affordable, and taking courses at a university is no guarantee that you will get a better education than at a community college. What you put into your coursework is what will really help with your nursing career. I transfered into a BSN program with a previous BA in psychology and prerequisites done at a local commuter university that offered 2 and 4 year degrees.

Your concern is shared by many students in many disciplines!

This depends on where you are and what programs you want to apply to. If you are in California and applying to Cali programs, community college is fine. assist.org is a useful website that lists articulation agreements between all cc and unis in California.

The East Coast is trickier as I understand it. Some programs see community college prereqs as distinctly sub par. Others (including some rather prestigious ones) are cool with community college work.

Check with the programs you are interested in. Do not omit this critical step!

As as disclaimer, I am a graduate of San Francisco City College (the largest community college in the nation - with a roster of famous alumni, including O J Simpson) , and I am soon to be a graduate of UC Berkeley . Frankly the basic science and mathematics education at City College far surpasses Cal. Schools out here know this.

Good luck!

I took most of my pre-reqs at NJ community colleges and was accepted to all three accelerated BSN programs (2 NJ, 1 Penn) I applied for. But call and ask!

I split my pre-reqs between a university and a CC and had no problem getting in.

I'd say go the CC route -- much, much cheaper (out this way, anyhoo)

When I applied to Yale, I was nervous about the fact that half my pre-reqs were from a local community college. The response I got was: "as long as it is an accredited college, we don't care!". I didn't end up going there but I was always impressed that my CC credits were good enough for Ivy!

I have a prior degree where most of my GE was done at a university; returned to the local CC years later to do my nursing pre-reqs (Diablo Valley College in CA--the one having the grade scandal....unfortunately, because it's really a great CC).

Hands down, the science courses taught at DVC were far better than any I had experienced in my prior university career. At my prestigious university, several of the lower division courses were taught in huge auditoriums and you were assigned a teaching asst. for office hours and rarely if ever conversed with the actual instructor. Also, the courses were expensive. Compared to what I paid per unit 15 years ago at the University, DVC is a fraction of the cost.

More importantly, My science teachers at DVC were always available for questions, and they were focused on being teachers, not on being researchers. They were some of the best teachers I've ever had--my anatomy and physio teachers are rock stars. Nurses and techs where I volunteer talk fondly about them and can share stories with me in detail about these instructors. I can't even remember the names or faces of my university GE science teachers. Have never bumped into an alumni from my University days and shared stories about them, ever. Of course, upper division teachers were a different story.

My strong recommendation, especially if you are in California, is to go the CC route for your GE. Much better prep as far as my experience goes.

The idea behind many community colleges is that people use those courses/degrees to finish up in a 4-year university. This used to be their fundamental reason for existing, so it really shouldn't be a problem.

Good luck!