AlmostNurse90

SMU will lie you straight in the face. Especially the program director of the prelicensure nursing program. She is a total politician and appears concerned in a public setting otherwise she is dismissive and treats you like a high schooler. This school is far from their public image. There is no predictability, you often won't get your schedule until few weeks into the semester! Financially you'll be trapped. Just this year they raised their tuition by 5% which is way above the national average of increasing your tuition. Though we are paying more, you are not guaranteed a clincal and stepping foot I to a hospital. I have had multiple hospital clinicals cancels and the school will just lie and inflate your hours in front of the board of registered nurses. This might give you more time to study but nursing is a hands on job and you need to be comfortable to be a safe nurse. like I said, the school will not give you the time of the day to hear you out or actually try to solve any problems. They have gotten away with this for quite some time and they will keep going as long as we keep paying hundreds of thousands of dollars. Also, while hospitals might still think highly of SMU, the moment you step into any hospital they will see that you have barely any hands on experience, that is something you won't be able to hide, making it harder for you to get any kind of competitive position.

OMG, I couldn't agree more with all of your accounts and stories about their disorganization. It's the same in the ELMSN program. We stopped believing anything they tell us. Especially when it comes to clinicals. Students who had previous clinical experience already taken from them were promised by Ward-Sullivan multiple times that they would receive priority for their preceptorship! Guess who got preceptorships??? Not us! Others in the cohort who were not on the priority list. How does it happen that the school does not care communicating this to this one person who is in charge of placing us? My classes are started May 1st and we have signed up and paid... however, SMU is stonewalling us on who will be teaching and what time or day of the week. This is extremely difficult for anyone with a job, kids, or any other commitments (I.e doctors appointments etc). we also had a similar story if no one talking to one another... where the school administration did not tell our professor that her class was happening on Thursdays instead she thought she was going to teach Monday afternoons. By the time they told the students we all have to attend on Mondays, we had already scheduled commitments into our Monday afternoons. It was a big mess. the amount of lying from the very top of administration is just surreal and it feels like the dumb leading the blind or just pure gaslighting. I think my ultimate trigger word from this program is "self care" they preach practicing self care and making it a priority but it is impossible and becomes laughable due to their inadequacies and disrespectful way of treating us students. This is not community college tuition you'll be paying... they will get you into deep debt and are not afraid to fail you and make you retake a class again (thus getting more money from you)

Hi, I saw that some of you have expressed worries about the ELMSN program. And as a current ELMSN student, I want to promise you anything you are reading about this program on yelp or this forum is true! SMU is way over their head and does not have nearly enough qualified staff to support your journey of becoming a nurse or provider. My cohort had next to no clinical exposure, which should be the center of becoming a nurse. The school instead gave us online simulations, which would teach us nothing. Your clinical hours will be lied about to the Board of Registered Nursing (something they can't ever admit to since it would threaten their accreditation). For example, most people in my cohort never set foot into a psych clinical; instead, they had to spend some hours at a soup kitchen. My group also did not receive any hours in an ICU or ED setting. What is even worse is that professors have been leaving the school due to these circumstances... of course, only the good ones are leaving, professors that have been there for many years. So instead, they are hiring either DNP students who have no time to teach and are no educators or they are hiring burned-out nurses who also have no business being an educator. You can probably tell by their email correspondence or lack thereof that the school is disorganized. And it starts with the head of the program. The director is condescending to students. We are all adults, and many have had careers or have families, but she will treat you like a first-semester college student. If she feels threatened by your intelligence, she will gaslight you or try to make your life miserable. She has tried to fail people and have them pay for repeating a class. This program will not support you, especially if you have anything going on in your life besides school. They will also tell you that school happens during normal business hours, so they don't care if they schedule parents on the weekend to do things or if a class will happen in the evening hours. Please look into any other program. I get that former students say it might be OK. But most administrative shifts have happened recently, thus, you are seeing all these current students trying to warn you. SMU used to have a good reputation, but this is fading; nurses are becoming aware of our lack of education. UCSF and East Bay or San Jose are all able to give you some clinical exposure. SMU does not manage to do so. This school is too expensive to have; it ruins your experience of becoming a safe nurse/provider. The amount of fluff classes you will have to take is unreal! I wish I had had outspoken students when I applied. Please do the work and look around the forums and yelp, and at least apply somewhere else if possible. I know that I am speaking on behalf of many students currently attending SMU. Good luck in everyone's journey of becoming a dedicated nurse/provider.

I would be nervous about it since the school of nursing is struggling in all of its programs. While it is awesome to be accepted into a program, and it is a huge milestone, I would highly suggest waiting for other schools' acceptance. This school is so expensive, and they give computer simulations instead. This is not what anyone envisioned for their schooling experience. In addition, many of the good professors are leaving as well, leaving us with either inexperienced DNP students or burned-out nurses who now want to teach (but are not educators at heart). Please weigh your options before committing to SMU. Best of luck!

Please consider other more affordable programs! I had the same disappointing experience in their masters program. It’s one thing to put up with their disorganized and understaffed program but it is a whole other thing to be subjected to a program director who will gaslight the students and embarrass faculty in front of their students! Please check out other forums as well as their yelp page. These are not rare instances this had become the norm at SMU.

Not sure what you are trying to contribute with this comment?

Yes, all campuses have problems placing students into clinicals. SMU competes for hospitals with UCSF, USF, CalState East Bay etc. however, SMU is notoriously last to the party and is unable to place us. This is not a one-time occurrence for one class or my cohort. This is happening in all cohorts on all campuses. Preceptorship is going away for all...and if you are in the last class for a preceptorship, you have to be super lucky. We have half of our cohort not placed in a 1:1 preceptorship while we are in our senior semester. Sac might be slightly better (but maybe there is a Sac student who can speak to this)?

Unfortunately, I am. if you look at some other Samuel Merritt forums regarding the ABSN and BSN students etc, you’ll see other students also speaking up. I don’t want to come across as a single disgruntled student… this is an across the board sentiment. All nursing programs

Please, everyone who has not accepted.... find another option. They just pulled all preceptorships for the BSN and ABSN cohorts. The preceptorship won't be a thing anymore. This school will only suit you if you want over 50% of your hospital experience behind your computer doing virtual simulations. Trust me when I say they don't help you with becoming a nurse... they will only help as a justification for the school to submit your paperwork to the Board of Registered Nurses. I know everyone has worked hard to get into a school they knew to have a good reputation. The school is changing quickly and will lie to you even if you ask what your program will look like. I know people are excited but take a good look at the other schools you got in. The feeling of frustration, disappointment, and anger you will get once you start with SMU is terrible.

It doesn't matter if you are San Mateo or Oakland... SMU won't be able to provide preceptorships for you! They told our cohort that the larger idea is to phase those out completely and start calling the class something completely different. Essentially, they are petitioning to the Board of Registered Nursing that it will be better to have a project-based class with powerpoint presentations, case studies, and virtual simulations. In reality, this will look like a lot of time behind your computer gaining no learning. None! I have done countless vsims across multiple semesters, as they could not provide me hours for many semesters. Get used to your emails being ignored or if you get an email back be prepared for them to flat-out lie! I am really not exaggerating here and I am glad that other students are speaking out. I know it is exciting to be accepted into a school that once had a good reputation and especially if everyone worked so hard on their pre-requisites but trust us when we say that this feeling will not last past your first week at SMU. State schools might not be perfect or schools more inland but at least you are not going so deep into debt about out. SMU is willing to lie to the Board of Nursing to justify the lack of actual patient exposure you will get. I can't tell you how much they are inflating hours of patient-exposure that has never happened. Thay might be nice in some undergraduate programs but not if you are going to be a nurse of any kind. You need to know what to do and how to be a hand-on nurse.

Welcome to the disorganization of Samuel Merritt! This is just a first glimpse of their lack of communication

I am not at the Sac campus but a "little messy" has to be the understatement of the year! SMU has been messy for the last 3-4 cohorts/years... I am in my second year, and my heart goes out to all the students who just started their journey in September. They did make changes to the curriculum, now you get to take a mindfulness class for 5k. Who needs this in a professional nursing school, and they dress it up with some fancy words. Most of the time you won't even have your schedule until 2 to 3 weeks into the semester. Whatever you are planning your responsibilities around and personal life such as work or children, have to be so flexible that it is quite rude of SMU. Your clinical sites won't be set in stone and change around and so will the day and time of your classes. The only positive of SMU has been my cohort, the people I have by my side to endure this inadequacy of the school. The problem with the ELMSN program is that you are on the hook for years. If you decide to drop out then you won't have anything and transferring to other schools is nearly impossible. SMU knows that they can exploit the ELMSN students that way. Talking to faculty members, I get the sense that there is so much shifting and replacing in leadership that the morale has suffered tremendously. I am in the FNP track and as I have mentioned before, I think the only program at SMU that is somewhat OK, is the ABSN. Get in and get out. Get your license within a year and then run and get experience and money! Get your CM or FNP later. Many nurses work in CM positions without having the CM masters degree. Good luck with your journey this is a big decision and I should not be the only one you rely on but I hope other students will speak up. Also, read the Yelp Samuel Merritt University page. It is quite telling and students have quite accurate accounts of what is happening. Did yo apply to other programs?

Hi, I don’t know why things get deleted but please read my post! And if you have more questions please let me know. sac campus is a bit better than Oakland in terms of getting clinical placements and caring and teaching their students. But Oakland is such a mess, please don’t get trapped by SMU!!

Hi, I can not agree more with the student from the ELMSN program in Sac! I am an ELMSN student at the Oakland campus and regret my choice of attending SMU. As a graduate student you are locked in for the time of the program, you can't just stop after you get your RN license or if you do, you won't get a BSN only the RN license. The program is very poorly run by the program director. She takes no accountability for her leadership and will blame the teachers or students instead. She will smile at you but at the same time either fail you or intimidate you with poorly cited references. The director feels extremely challenged by anyone who advocates for themselves or questions her leadership, which just further proves my point. She tells you to critically think unless this will be applied to her. I believe that the school had a good reputation for a long time hence so many are still applying. My cohort and me made the same mistake. If we could do it all over again, we would do the 1 year ABSN and get the hell out of SMU. SMU is really bad at finding clinical placements for its students. You maybe get half the time in the hospital that they promise you. They have used a waiver from the board of Registered Nurses to get away with less time in the hospital, so instead you will sit at the computer and do virtual simulations. This will not prep you for your future job. SMU will absolutely deny any of this and promise you a great time. This is not true. I would not take the time out of my day, if I would not feel so compelled to do so. I really want to prevent others from being scammed into this school. I was lucky that some of my professors had been with the school for many years, but three of my wonderful professors also left the school since they were fed up with the leadership and how the program has been run by the director. New and inexperienced professors are being recruited now who have no teaching experience and don't know how to advocate for you, which is a problem. IF you have outside responsibilities such as a job or family, you will have a difficult time to attend to those. The school will change her schedule constantly and they will do this last minute much to the contrary of what they promised you. Even if you tell them you have to work on the weekends or have no childcare, they do not even consider such and will still place you on the weekends for the hospital. The poor cohort who just started now in Oakland has to pay roughly $5k for a mindfulness class, which blows my mind. I don't know how this will get you closer to passing your boards but the school makes sure they will receive their $5k per student. Please believe me that the other student from the Sac campus and me are not two individuals who are bitter and are venting, but we are representing the majority of our cohorts who truly want to warn people about this declining program. There are other programs out there that are much more affordable, and even if they might have their flaws, at least you won't be $180k in debt.

This is from someone attending SMU... Definitely take Miami. SMU is known to accept more students than they can accommodate. What that means is, that if you are lucky you'll get 50% exposure to the hospital environment and the other 50% is spent doing online work to keep you busy. The school is unable to secure hospital placements for its students and keeps blaming the pandemic and the lack of availability. This is not completely true. Other programs (much cheaper as well) are able to provide placements. Please don't put yourself in deep debt over this school! I wish I would have known all these before starting school with SMU. It seems unethical to sell future students on a great education when they can not provide such!