<p>The criteria are indeed different. One has to be committed to joining a helping profession (which actually eliminates about a quarter of nursing students once they get into the program.) </p>
<p>And if you think that all students with a pulse can acquire a superior record by attending the CC, think again. The vast, overwhelming majority of students who want into the program take their nine pre-reqs at the community college, and then subsequently DON’T get into the program because their grades are too low. I don’t know how it is now, but it was the case that two A-minuses and you were eliminated. (My wife almost didn’t get in because she took one on-line course in which the highest grade was called an "A-A-minus, and admissions first accorded it an A-minus status.) Certainly the mean GPA is WAY below that at most of the prestige schools. I haven’t taught at this community college. I taught for years at the community college of Philadelphia. We sent two or three a year on to Ivy League schools (they were usually in their late 20s), and these students were every bit as good as those I taught at UChicago (actually, honestly, better - the benefits of maturity). But I can tell you that in MY classes, the GPAs were certainly close to a full point lower than they were at Chicago. </p>
<p>Look - I’m not arguing that students there are “academically superior”. That’s not the point. They are more “competitive” for what they are trying to achieve. And yes, the Yalies would have to retake courses. They might do well. I would certainly hope so.</p>