<p>I live with my grandma currently and I’m trying to go to Volunteer State community college thats in Gallatin,TN because It has Mechanical Engineering and I want to get my associates degree and transfer to a university to get my bachelors in Mechanical Engineering. My grandma wants me to go to Nashville State Community College which is closer to me but it doesn’t have Mechanical Engineering as a class. I don’t really want to go to Nashville State community college even though it is closer to me but Volunteer State community college has the degree I want to study. How do I convince my Grandma to let me go to a community college thats an hour and a half away from me?</p>
<p>Does Volunteer State have residence halls? If not, where do you plan to live? How do you plan to pay for your tuition, books, r&b, personal necessities, etc.?</p>
<p>You need to go talk with the admissions counselors at Nashville State CC, and ask them what classes you can take there in order to get ready to transfer into a bachelors program in Mechanical Engineering. Even if they don’t have a specific Mech. Eng. program at NSCC, I expect they have a general engineering program that will include the courses that you need.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>I spent a little time looking at those 2 colleges. You are right that Volunteer State is a better program for your goal.</p>
<p>-NSCC does not participate in the Tennessee Transfer Pathway Program where your credits are guaranteed to transfer to a 4 year college. This is not good because you may have additional classes to complete and you may be coming from a weaker position than other transfer students at TTPP programs. It also indicates a poorer quality college, but that’s just my assumption.</p>
<ul>
<li>Volunteer State does participate in the TTPP, so you are guaranteed all your credits will transfer to TBR, UT, or participating TICUA institution to complete a bachelor’s degree. </li>
</ul>
<p>-NSCC has a pre-engineering track but the classes are pretty minimal. You will not look like a strong candidate coming from that but you can consult your advioer and work with your target college to try and bolster your program.</p>
<p>-Volunteer has a parallel curriculum with ABET accredited engineering programs. This is a huge advantage with having all the proper prerequisite classes and will make you stronger for admissions to an ABET program (and it is very important to complete an ABET accredited 4 year degree.) </p>
<ul>
<li>Volunteer State has agreements with many local area universities (Tennessee Technological University, Tennessee State University, and Vanderbilt University to name a few) to insure a smooth transition into their discipline specific upper level engineering courses. </li>
</ul>
<p>Volunteer State wins by a landslide. Tell grandma to put that in her pipe and smoke it. </p>
<p>But now you have a problem. 1-1/2 hours is too far to commute without stress and serious curtailing of study time and campus activities. It may not be always possible, but your could try to schedule your classes M, W, F only for less commute days</p>
<p>How is the money situation? Volunteer State says they don’t offer housing but they have a list of rooms to rent in private houses. It is possible you might even be able to rent a room M-F on a cheaper basis than full time and someone might be happier not having the student around on the weekend. Students interested in obtaining a list of such facilities may contact the Office of the Vice President for Student Services in the Wood Campus Center, room 217. Or you can try craigslist, newspapers, campus sources, listservs, or renting a shared apartment dorm style for cheap rent.</p>
<p>Way to go, BrownParent. That is exactly the kind of research a student needs to do before enrolling in CC with hopes if transferring. Most students don’t and end up staying in school an extra year or two. It’s especially important for STEM majors, because they usually have to take a lot of corequisites. </p>
<p>^^indeed, nice post, BrownParent. We all learned something from that one.</p>
<p>OP: what BrownParent said. 
ABET accredition for Volunteer State is huge - ABET means it’s recognized by the profession and will ensure a smooth transition for both jobs and your 4-year degree. Engineering is hard and attending a non ABET accredited program would make transferring into an ABET accredited 4-year program much more difficult for you, especially if the other program is not part of the transfer agreements in Tennessee (not a good sign).</p>
<p>I don’t know where BrownParent’s information is coming from but NSCC does participate in the Tennessee Transfer Pathway Program for Mechanical Engineering as well as many other AS and AA degrees. This can be found in NSCC’s catalog as well as the Tennessee College Transfer Guarantee webpage. Going to either Vol State or NSCC would require that you take the same 66 credits to satisfy the TTP AS requirements and both could be transferred to any TN 4-year school with no issues. Also, NSCC does have articulation agreements with many of the 4-year schools in the area such as Lipscomb, Belmont, King College just to name a few. </p>
<p><a href=“Program: Mechanical Engineering A.S. Degree - Nashville State Community College - Acalog ACMS™”>Program: Mechanical Engineering A.S. Degree - Nashville State Community College - Acalog ACMS™; lists NSCC’s Tennessee Transfer Pathway curriculum for mechanical engineering.</p>
<p>You may want to check the class schedule to make sure the needed courses are offered frequently enough: <a href=“https://pnswlss.nscc.edu/pls/PROD/bwckschd.p_disp_dyn_sched”>https://pnswlss.nscc.edu/pls/PROD/bwckschd.p_disp_dyn_sched</a></p>