Help Deciding Which Nursing School Route to Pursue

Editorial Team / Admin · Mar 21, 2020

Research the job market in your area if you plan to stay there after graduating. I would think that the Bay Area is seeing far more new grads than available positions- CA cities are notorious for new grad gluts. An ADN may not cut it there.

Mergirlc, MSN, APRN, NP · Mar 22, 2020

Your stats look pretty darn good, but as you already know California is very competitive when it comes to getting into schools.

I would strongly suggest to try for a BSN. If you plan to try to get into one of the residency programs in CA, they will only accept BSN or above. Outside of CA, there are states which will take an ADN nurse into the hospital jobs or residency programs.

As Rose_Queen already pointed out, CA is a tough market and chances are, even after you graduate, you'll need to be open to moving out of state for a year or two and getting experience elsewhere first. Then try your hand at coming back to CA as a nurse w/ some experience.

Apply to all the state schools. Ya' never know.

One school where you might have the best shot at is Samuel Merritt's ABSN program (Oakland, San Mateo, or Sacramento). I'm not in that one, but it's 12 months and rigorous from what I hear! They produce many graduates and they seem to not have trouble obtaining jobs after graduation. I believe it's around $75K (steep), so it's a definite investment. I know others will chime in on the price-tag because it is taking on debt; especially when an ADN program in CA will cost roughly around $8K and then you can bridge over to BSN. If you are lucky enough to get a job in CA after graduating SMU, you'll easily make back the $75K in one year and then some. Then again, if you need to move out of state, it might be a bit of a burden. Lots of stuff for your to weigh. I guess it would depend on the timeframe you have.

You can browse the topics already on the site about SMU ABSN and just add the year on there (ex: SMU ABSN 2018 or Samuel Merritt ABSN 2018). Perhaps ask the question on there of somebody who has probably already graduated and see if somebody responds to get their opinion.

Good luck.

b530c58 · Mar 22, 2020

4 hours ago, Mergirlc said:
Your stats look pretty darn good, but as you already know California is very competitive when it comes to getting into schools.
I would strongly suggest to try for a BSN. If you plan to try to get into one of the residency programs in CA, they will only accept BSN or above. Outside of CA, there are states which will take an ADN nurse into the hospital jobs or residency programs.
As Rose_Queen already pointed out, CA is a tough market and chances are, even after you graduate, you'll need to be open to moving out of state for a year or two and getting experience elsewhere first. Then try your hand at coming back to CA as a nurse w/ some experience.
Apply to all the state schools. Ya' never know.
One school where you might have the best shot at is Samuel Merritt's ABSN program (Oakland, San Mateo, or Sacramento). I'm not in that one, but it's 12 months and rigorous from what I hear! They produce many graduates and they seem to not have trouble obtaining jobs after graduation. I believe it's around $75K (steep), so it's a definite investment. I know others will chime in on the price-tag because it is taking on debt; especially when an ADN program in CA will cost roughly around $8K and then you can bridge over to BSN. If you are lucky enough to get a job in CA after graduating SMU, you'll easily make back the $75K in one year and then some. Then again, if you need to move out of state, it might be a bit of a burden. Lots of stuff for your to weigh. I guess it would depend on the timeframe you have.
You can browse the topics already on the site about SMU ABSN and just add the year on there (ex: SMU ABSN 2018 or Samuel Merritt ABSN 2018). Perhaps ask the question on there of somebody who has probably already graduated and see if somebody responds to get their opinion.
Good luck.

Thank you for your response, this is very helpful! I am definitely going to look more into the Samuel Merritt program, although it is expensive I think it could be worth it for me to be able to live at home and hopefully get a job in the area when I graduate!

Thanks again!

Mergirlc, MSN, APRN, NP · Mar 22, 2020

No problem. Definitely check out their website for application deadlines as I believe they accept applications 3 times a year through Nursing CAS. You're probably too late for the upcoming application which ends April 1. The next deadline will probably be within the next few months like July or August or so.

Just keep in mind that since everything is flipped upside down to the COVID-19 pandemic, cohorts might start later than what they currently have on the website. Obviously things are being taken day by day so there's no way to predict what will happen in the next few months. Not that this really matters, just apply and see what happens.

Oh yeah..SMU does require the HESI so make sure to prep for that. They have all that info on the website!

Good Luck!