Credibility of Walden University

[angie16451]

I am looking into FNP programs and have heard good things about Waldens program, but I am just interested in the credibility this University has when employers look at at your resume? I am tossing up Concordia University WI (which is completly online except a 2 week assessment course and you find all of your own clinicals. The cost is 570-620/credit.) and Walden Univerisity, which I am aware is entirely online and you find your own clinics. I am unaware of the cost of Walden, if anyone knows that would be great information too!

[Mark Hill BSN]

Just did Mark. I searched UCSF (only because I could easily associate the names of professors with their specialty). The top 250 salaries are professors from the medical school except for one person (the CEO of the medical center). Only 3 people make salaries that crossed the million dollar mark - 2 Dermatopathology professors and a Pediatric Cardiothoracic Surgery professor, both high-paying fields to begin with. I can tell you the rest of those physician professors are Neurosurgeons, Vascular Surgeons, Solid Organ Transplant Surgeons, etc. Only two intensivists made that top 250 and both have been with the system for over 30 years. These physicians would make a lot more in private practice. The professors in the nursing school are not even in the top half just so you know.

I was not insinuating that all department chairs make a million dollars.... I stated they are making millions to say that accumulatively they make a lot of money, accounting for much of the bottom line of most universities. To be clear, there are several department heads head who make millions individually, especially athletic directors, head coaches an deans of medical schools. Not to mention presidents, VPs and others. If you would like to argue semantics, surely you cant say that some of these people aren't making outrageous salaries, and that it is certainly a "for-profit" endeavor? OMG the lowest paid professor on UCSF makes almost $300,000 per year.

[Mark Hill BSN]

I would also like to add that academia has a pyramid approach to salaries. The very few senior professors who make the big bucks are chiefs of departments. The vast majority of faculty are on the low end of the salary scale. It takes a lot of time invested in the institution and a lot of national and international reputation to reach the top.

I am not begrudging them their salaries, I am simply making the argument that much of this so call "non-profit" money goes to someone's profit, and that the largest expense for a university goes to exorbitant salaries.

[Corey Narry, MSN, RN, NP]

OMG the lowest paid professor on UCSF makes almost $300,000 per year.

Are you serious? don't make assumptions on a school you're not familiar with. That data only shows you the top 250 salaries. UCSF is a large health sciences university. That top 250 are physicians (professors in the medical school with active practice in the medical center). That list does not include lower paid professors from the pharmacy, dental, and nursing schools. Also, please be familiar with the San Francisco cost of living.

[Mark Hill BSN]

I stand corrected on the top 250 thing, but as far as the cost o living thing goes, it is just one more reason I would never live on the west coast. I have a brother and other family who live there, and I wont even visit. As far as making assumptions about schools one is not familiar with, isn't that what you are dg in regard to Walden University?

[Mark Hill BSN]

No wonder Cali is on the verge of bankruptcy.

[Mark Hill BSN]

This conversation has resorted to chasing rabbits down badger holes. My original point was to say that the non-profit schools are spending their money somewhere, and that somewhere is obviously on massive amounts of income for educators. So call it what you will, for-profit, or non-profit....Somebody is making a lot of money!

[Corey Narry, MSN, RN, NP]

No wonder Cali is on the verge of bankruptcy.

I disagree with these salaries contributing to California's bankruptcy as it pertains to the top 250 list at UCSF. These are senior physicians who perform highly specialized procedures only tertiary medical centers can offer! professionals that bring revenue to the medical center. I can tell you majority of those are surgeons with high revenue procedures. Some of these are names that are recognized as experts in their field nationally. These people contribute to our global understanding of disease and its treatment. That you can never put a price tag on. Can for-profit institutions with padded salaries for their "salespeople" claim the same? And BTW, we should be talking nursing degrees here. You still haven't given accurate quotes of what nursing professors make.

[Mark Hill BSN]

If your recall we never specified what field we were talking about. We just simply spoke of for-profit vs non-profit. Football teams bring in millions of dollars to there prospective schools, does that justify the outrageous salaries that head coaches make? Maybe so...but that still doesn't detract from the fact that non-profit schools still spend their money on for profit enterprises like "big salaries". it looks like at first glance that the average salary for the top 250 at UCSF is around $500,000, if that is he case just to pay those top 250 per year cost the state of California $125,000,000 per year, and that does not include the other thousands of $ spent on the rest of their staff. That is just one university in one state. Education is big business no matter how anyone tries to justify it, or categories it. I'm sure that nursing professors make much less comparatively, which is a disgrace in itself. Who should make more money, the dean of a nursing school who teaches students to take care of the infirmed or a coach who teaches students to play football, and major in physical education? But I digress, this isn't about who should make more money it is about the difference between profit and non-profit, which is simply a matter of tax code.

[Corey Narry, MSN, RN, NP]

You're missing the point. You're arguing the salaries of professionals who would have earned more if they were working in private practice or involved in industry. I'm actually proud that UCSF's highest paid people are those physicians who bring prestige to the institution because of their cutting edge research and breakthrough treatments. On top of that, these are people with active clinical practice and see patients day in and day out. If you don't know, UCSF's Neurosurgery, Vascular Surgery, and Transplant programs attract patients not only within the US but sometimes internationally. If you're going to pick on a specific establishment for padded salaries, you're looking at the wrong institution. For once, this is an institution whose highest paid employees are not football coaches or shareholders.

[Mark Hill BSN]

Regardless of anyone's opinion, online, for-profit school are here to stay, and will likely take over education in the future. Just as for-profit hospitals aren't going anywhere, and in many cases do medicine just as well and in some cases better than non-profit for profit schools aren't going anywhere. Anyone can site scandal about profit schools, but all schools have some kind of scandal, fraud and abuse. In the end, there is a place for the online profit school, especially for some like me, who don't have access to a university, because of career and family demands. I need a university that is fully accredited, that will allow me to sit for my state board of nursing's NP exam. No school will teach me everything I need to know, but I will graduate with the ability to find out what it is I need to know. I imagine, just like with nursing school, I will learn much more about being an NP on the job than I ever did in school.

[Mark Hill BSN]

You are mistaken I'm not picking on anyone, I am just simply arguing the finer points of profit vs non-profit. You picked the school that we are currently critiquing. I would really have preferred to keep it generic in nature.

[Corey Narry, MSN, RN, NP]

I actually we prefer we stick to nursing. You are enrolled in a nursing program and this is a nurse practitioner forum.