North Seattle Community College (NSCC) is a two-year community college

Community colleges in the United States

In the United States, community colleges are primarily two-year public institutions of higher education and were once commonly called junior colleges....

 in Seattle, Washington. It is one of the three colleges comprising the Seattle Community College District

Seattle Community College District

The Seattle Community College District is a group of community colleges located in Seattle, Washington. It consists of three colleges— North Seattle Community College, Seattle Central Community College , South Seattle Community College —and the Seattle Vocational Institute...

 (the others are Seattle Central Community College

Seattle Central Community College

Seattle Central Community College is a community college located in Seattle, Washington, in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. It is one of the three colleges which make up the Seattle Community College District...

 and South Seattle Community College

South Seattle Community College

South Seattle Community College is a community college located in West Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1970, it is one of three colleges which make up the Seattle Community College District. Its programs include nursing , aviation, culinary arts, health care, horticulture, the construction trades...

), and one of the 32 member colleges of the Washington Community and Technical Colleges

Washington Community and Technical Colleges

The Washington Community and Technical Colleges system consists of 34 public, two-year institutions of higher education which specialize in vocational, technical, worker retraining, and university transfer programs...

 system.

Founded in 1970, NSCC is accredited

Higher education accreditation in the United States

Higher education accreditation in the United States has long been established as a peer review process coordinated by accreditation commissions and member institutions. The federal government began to play a limited role in Higher education accreditation in 1952 with reauthorization of the GI Bill...

 by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities

Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities

The Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities is an independent, non-profit membership organization recognized by the United States Department of Education since 1952 and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation as the regional authority on educational quality and institutional...

, and offers more than 40 career training, continuing education

Continuing education

Continuing education is an all-encompassing term within a broad spectrum of post-secondary learning activities and programs. The term is used mainly in the United States and Canada...

, and college preparation

Running Start

The Running Start program in Washington state allows high school juniors and seniors to attend college courses numbered 100 or above, tuition-free, while completing high school. It is similar to dual enrollment programs common at public and private colleges and universities in other states...

 programs.

Location

The main campus

Campus

A campus is traditionally the land on which a college or university and related institutional buildings are situated. Usually a campus includes libraries, lecture halls, residence halls and park-like settings...

 occupies 62 acre

Acre

The acre is a unit of area in a number of different systems, including the imperial and U.S. customary systems. The most commonly used acres today are the international acre and, in the United States, the survey acre. The most common use of the acre is to measure tracts of land.The acre is related...

s, including 11 acres (44,515.5 m²) of environmentally sensitive wetland

Wetland

A wetland is an area of land whose soil is saturated with water either permanently or seasonally. Wetlands are categorised by their characteristic vegetation, which is adapted to these unique soil conditions....

s, in the Licton Springs/North College Park neighborhood of the Northgate

Northgate, Seattle, Washington

Northgate is an informal district of neighborhoods in north urban Seattle, Washington, named for and surrounding Northgate Mall, the first covered mall in the United States....

 district of Seattle. The campus is five miles (8 km) north of the Seattle city center. The college is easily accessed from Interstate 5

Interstate 5

Interstate 5 is the main Interstate Highway on the West Coast of the United States, running largely parallel to the Pacific Ocean coastline from Canada to Mexico . It serves some of the largest cities on the U.S...

, and several King County Metro bus

Bus

A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...

 routes.

Programs

NSCC programs include college prep and transfer, cross-disciplinary, continuing and senior adult education; business, early childhood education

Early childhood education

Early childhood education is the formal teaching and care of young children by people other than their family or in settings outside of the home. 'Early childhood' is usually defined as before the age of normal schooling - five years in most nations, though the U.S...

, electronics and engineering, information technology, health and medical, nanotechnology

Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology is the study of manipulating matter on an atomic and molecular scale. Generally, nanotechnology deals with developing materials, devices, or other structures possessing at least one dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometres...

, and real estate

Real estate

In general use, esp. North American, 'real estate' is taken to mean "Property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals, or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this; an item of real property; buildings or...

 professions. NSCC is also home to the Watch Technology Institute, the only two-year program in the art of Swiss watchmaking

Watchmaker

A watchmaker is an artisan who makes and repairs watches. Since virtually all watches are now factory made, most modern watchmakers solely repair watches. However, originally they were master craftsmen who built watches, including all their parts, by hand...

 and repair in the Western United States

Western United States

.The Western United States, commonly referred to as the American West or simply "the West," traditionally refers to the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. Because the U.S. expanded westward after its founding, the meaning of the West has evolved over time...

.

Library

The library at North Seattle Community College was founded in 1970. As of 2011 it contains 54000 books and subscribes to 594 periodicals.

Miscellaneous

North Seattle has a local chapter of the national Phi Theta Kappa

Phi Theta Kappa

Phi Theta Kappa, also ΦΘΚ or sometimes PTK , is the international honor society of two-year colleges and academic programs, particularly community colleges and junior colleges. It also includes Associate's degree-granting programs offered by four-year colleges...

honors society.

The School's mascot is the North Star.

Further reading

• "About NSCC", North Seattle Community College