Which to Choose? HCC or BC

U.S.A. Florida

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Hi everyone!

I am currently in Italy. I'm not from Florida and have only attended college in NC. After my husband's military service we are moving to Tampa (his parents live in Trinity so we'll be around that area). I have most of my prerequisites for nursing school done. I have science and language prerequisites left to do. There is very little opportunity of taking those science prerequisites here in Italy for me so I'm choosing to do them online. Ultimately, I want to attend University of South Florida for my BSN. I've narrowed down my choices to Broward College and Hillsborough Community College. I'm paying out of state tuition so my first choice is Broward, but I'd love opinions on both from you all.

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I live near Trinity, never heard of Broward College. Is that in Broward County? If so, that's nowhere near Tampa. HCC is a good program, but very competitive to get into. You have to have a 3.7 or higher and a good TEAS score to get in usually.

Consider PHSC. Trinity is in Pasco (the P in PHSC), they are generally a good program, but not as competitive as HCC. Plus, if you are a resident of Pasco or Hernando counties, you get a 5% boost in your score that they use to determine who gets into the program.

Also, consider . It's a private school (so its expensive) but I just finished there, and I feel I got a VERY good education. The instructors are smart, currently working in Nursing, care about us, etc. The school is also well respected by area hospitals. We had hospitals begging our instructors to come in almost every week to pitch jobs to us. Many of us that just finished are accepting jobs in specialties at a trauma center in the area.

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Thank you for the reply. Yes Broward College is in Broward County. I'm only doing the prerequisites fully online right now because I'm in Europe. I plan on transferring to the University of South Florida there after I finish my associates. I wasn't really aware of all the other colleges near Trinity though. It seems that Florida colleges are pretty specific about transfers, so I wanted to get an Associates in Arts from a school in Florida instead of my home state of NC, and then transfer to a university to save myself some money since I'm paying out of state tuition. Both HCC and BC have the required prerequisites as online classes but BC is cheaper than HCC. Does it matter what school I get my associates degree from if I'm just going to transfer anyway? Thanks for the information, I'll look into those other colleges you listed!

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Any state funded community college will be fine for pre-reqs since they are all appropriately accredited and USF will accept transfers. USF is a good choice for your nursing school. It's competitive though!

You may want to check with , because I don't believe they charge in state or out of state tuition, so the price difference may not be much different between them and a community college.

Also, check out SPC (St. Petersburg College). They are based out of Pinellas county, and have a respectable nursing program of their own.

Either way, you're moving to a good market for nursing schools and jobs. Anyone who wants to work as an RN can certainly find plenty of opportunities around here.

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