<p>If we’re talking about nursing programs, it doesn’t surprise me. Nursing programs get a ton of applicants from community colleges and quite frankly not a lot of Ivy Leaguers go to college planning on nursing. So, the nursing programs are probably not as familiar with the top colleges as, say, medical schools.</p>
<p>A lot of people out there are really dumb. This is a reality that you should embrace. I have no doubt in my mind in the slightest bit that community colleges are at least twice easier than the high school I attended, if not the middle school as well. </p>
<p>Also, the grad school admissions system is kinda f-up. Although I believe a 3.6 from Cornell should be favored over similar GPA from lower schools, grad schools don’t care. (especially law schools)</p>
<p>Right.</p>
<p>I attended a community college, and got a journalism education 1,000 times better than anything offered at your high school. Your unsupported and frankly ignorant view of community college is duly noted.</p>
<p>^</p>
<p>Keep telling yourself that, lol. And, my school didn’t even offer classes in journalism. There were kids at my high school who took Calculus at local community colleges because it was widely accepted that taking Calculus at my high school was tougher. And, are you seriously comparing the rigor or quality of community college academics to that of Cornell? If so, you should be examined.</p>
<p>I don’t have to tell myself anything. The dozens of national journalism awards earned by my alma mater’s student newspaper speak for themselves. So does the placement record of its alumni (Washington Post, Newark Star-Ledger, Yahoo Sports, Los Angeles Times, etc.)</p>
<p>The only argument you have thus far presented is an unsupported anecdote and an unsourced claim that something is “widely accepted.”</p>
<p>If that’s the best you can do, it doesn’t speak well for Cornell’s teaching of critical thinking and logic.</p>
<p>Also, I haven’t said anything about community colleges vs. Cornell. That’s a strawman of your own creation. You are the one claiming community colleges are worse than a high school.</p>
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<p>To my surprise, much of things I learned at Cornell actually have little to do with critical thinking or logic. Much of it is understanding the material, applying it, and performing well on the exams. Difficulty comes in from the fact that course grades are curved; you are competing for good grades against a bunch of smart people and gunners. Unsourced claim and anecdotes don’t prove it scientifically obviously, yet from my high school, there were kids who took math and science courses at local community colleges to avoid taking ‘hard’ courses at my school. Obviously, I am only speaking of my personal context, from the school district I came from. (Which is a competitive public school district)</p>
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<p>And, you wrote the following from an earlier post:</p>
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<p>Are you kidding me? The kids that get into Ivies are top students who score at least 2100 on SAT 99% of the time. Even many perfect scorers get rejected. Community colleges, on the other hand… accept anyone with a high school diploma. I am afraid you are one of those folks that OP was alluding to.</p>
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<p>Just curious, did those news companies hire for journalist positions alums straight out of your community college? I am wondering.</p>
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<p>Nope. We’re talking about nursing, right? Cornell doesn’t even offer nursing, whereas students from a community college RN program are going to have more specific coursework and experience in the profession.</p>
<p>Again, I disagree with the grad program’s inflexible admissions policy, because going based on GPA alone is not very holistic to say the least. But to say that a graduate of a CC nursing program is automatically less qualified for a BSN program than an Ivy grad is simply not supported by any evidence that I’m aware of. If you have some, I’d be happy to review it.</p>
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<p>“Those folks?”</p>
<p>Not sure what you’re talking about, but I have no problem with the Ivies. (Totally loved it when Cornell made the Sweet 16 last year.)</p>
<p>Yes, I went to community college after high school. So did my father. Actually, he was a high school dropout - now he has a Ph.D in paleontology from Berkeley, by way of LA Valley College. Sample size n=1, of course, but it’s more concrete than anything else presented here.</p>
<p>If you think community college is a roadblock or only for the incapable, you’re simply wrong. It wasn’t the right path for you, cool beans. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be the right path for some people.</p>
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<p>I agree with this. I am not sure why such attitude prevails in this country, despite it having world’s best universities.</p>
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<p>The issue isn’t specific to nursing; the issue is with the assertions that the value of a community college education equals that of an Ivy.</p>
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<p>Those who assert that community college students are not necessarily academic inferiors to Ivy students.</p>
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<p>I am honestly surprised that you are actually trying to argue this. I am not sure if you studied Statistics, but you learn that when you make comparisons, you ignore outliers in your samples, or at least don’t regard the outliers as the norm representatives of the sample in question.</p>
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<p>No one is arguing this. The issue is with those folks who compare and contrast community colleges with Ivies.</p>
<p>Don’t like my statistics? Maybe you should present some of your own, rather than flatly demanding everyone take your unsupported assertions at face value.</p>
<p>I made no claims about the overall academic quality of the student body at a community college. I would freely admit that, in general, the student body at a community college is of lesser capability than that of Cornell. That’s not what’s at issue here - we’re talking about individual students.</p>
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<p>Well, they aren’t. Someone at a community college could be just as capable as someone at an Ivy. You do realize there are a trillion and one reasons why any given person may choose or not choose any given college, right? We are far from a perfect academic meritocracy. (Legacies? Athletics? Big donors? Limited space? First-gen with no family support? etc.)</p>
<p>On average, certainly, one can claim that Ivy students are more qualified than community college students. But on an individual basis, as you so presciently admitted, there are outliers.</p>
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<p>Not even sure what you’re saying. All I said was community colleges were easy. I didn’t make any statement regarding the choice of an individual who attends one.</p>
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<p>You did. </p>
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<p>The issue here was the overall attitude of some folks, maybe not you, but those who tend to hold contempt against high academic achievers.</p>
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<p>Ok, you are really pushing it.</p>
<p>Lazy Kid - Um, getting a start at a community college means nothing. People who do one year at a CC then transfer to Cornell are just as prepared upon graduation as those who started there. Otherwise they couldn’t have made it through three years at Cornell and graduated. The original point of my post was that graduating from Cornell gives you a more well-rounded education than graduating from a community college. Transferring from the CC to Cornell negates my argument.</p>
<p>Polarscribe - I didn’t receive a nursing degree before applying to the grad school, nor did any of the other applicants. I wasn’t saying “my ivy league nursing beats your CC nursing.” The applicants had GENERAL EDUCATION degrees from community colleges, and were applying to a BSN program. Neither of us had nursing experience. Under than scenario, I think my 3.6 BS from Cornell should have trumped the 3.7 from a community college associate’s degree based on GPA alone.</p>
<p>If I were to go to a community college, my family would probably disown me. Seriously.</p>
<p>[No disrespect to those who have gone on to succeed after community college]</p>
<p>Jeff Winger used to be a successful lawyer and now he’s at community college!</p>
<p>LazyKid… I just want to say that you’re awesome lol.</p>
<p>JoJoBear, are you asian???</p>
<p>^^^^LOL</p>
<p>What?
No, I’m Hispanic!</p>
<p>xD</p>
<p>*** is going on in this thread? lol</p>