coffeebeans

OMG same!! I didn't ask any questions either ? I did ask a recent hire and they said that very few PCU nurses work 12s and they are usually CN II or CN III. So I'm going to assume it's 8hr shifts :c

Just received a call from PCU! They said HR will reach out to us with an official offer letter within the next 2 weeks as long as the background and reference checks are okay!

I agree with everything @gsg92 mentioned above! I recently graduated from SMU's ABSN program and in the process of looking for a job. A lot of programs don't expect a lot from you coming out of nursing school, but not having a preceptorship really does affect your chances at certain hospitals. Sutter health prefers if you had some sort of clinical experience with them (preferably a preceptorship) and no one in my cohort got an interview with Stanford's critical care units (most likely because they would prefer someone who had a preceptorship in a critical care unit). It's not impossible to get a hospital job without preceptorship experience as long as you make the most out of your clinical experience but even then, your clinical experience at SMU is all luck. For example, I never got the opportunity to have a critical care clinical and was stuck in med surg instead and some people didn't get a full peds rotation. if you're okay with being extremely flexible and got no other choice then SMU is fine

They didn't time the individual questions, they give you 30 min total and there was 3 people asking me the questions. The questions were very similar to the first interview tbh. Good luck!

Did anyone get to ask how many people they are interviewing for PCU and how many spots there are? I completely forgot to ask ? I was told that we would find out by the end of next week if we get an offer or not.. I'm so nervous!!

I'm a new grad with no previous experience providing direct medical care to people outside of nursing school!

I received an invite to interview for the ED just this morning!

Does anyone know how it works if we have more than 1 interview invite? It seems like they are doing all the unit interviews on the same day and time.

I just got an email invite to attend PCU's interview event after receiving my ranking! Does anyone know what the interview questions are like? The email said interviews are about 25 min each which seems really short to me

Does anyone know when the latest to take the NCLEX would be if Stanford wants us to have it by July 28? Does it really take 6 weeks for us to get our NCLEX results?

One of our professors quit, and we weren't told about it until we asked the week before the course is supposed to start. We asked to be updated and constantly sent the admin emails, and they didn't finalize who was going to teach the course until the night before the course is supposed to start. Another example is how the April cohort is supposed to have their exit exam on 4/1 at 9am. This was scheduled 2 months ago but guess what. The professor emailed us on 3/31 1pm telling us that it has to be rescheduled bc no one wants to work on a Saturday to proctor us LOL. We were asked to switch up the exam when we all have something scheduled each day of the week bc they gave us hella busy work to do for senior synthesis. We did not receive a formal announcement of a confirmed change until 9pm on 3/31 LOL . here's an example of them lying to us: the Dean of Nursing told students during a town hall meeting that she will get us into the hospitals for a regular clinical for senior synthesis to replace preceptorships. A student asked if there was a back up plan if this doesn't work and the Dean said no, this plan will work. The next town hall, the Dean tells us there is no preceptorships and we will not be going into the hospitals because the hospitals don't have enough space for every student. Whatever you hear from the admins, don't believe it until it actually happens. here's an example of admin only caring about themselves: pinning is supposed to be intimate and cohort specific esp since we have never met our cohort together all at once since all of our classes take place over zoom. we already have to share a graduation with every other program at smu. We deserve a cohort specific ceremony when we graduate but no. They decided to combine April, May, and June cohorts into one ceremony on Wednesday May 31st at 12pm.... Wednesday.. they obviously don't care about anyone else's schedule. April already has to wait a whole month to celebrate the end of their ABSN journey. We asked to use our cohort budget to hold our own pinning bc we honestly don't need the admins to be there but they did not allow this bc we need to work on their schedules. Also, the ceremony is being held in Oakland. If we wanted to go to Oakland, we would have applied to that campus. If they cared, they would have planned for the ceremony to be held in San Mateo where our campus is. here's an example of admin not supporting faculty: one of our professors got into a really bad accident and that professor had to get their own professor friend to lecture us because admin didn't care about finding a sub. I have so many more examples but I can't think of them RN.. we are literally paying clowns to run the school and I'm not gonna be surprised if it crashes and burns in the next couple of years. Get yourself a therapist, you're gonna be going through an emotional rollercoaster every week and eventually develop trust issues. The word "flexibility" triggers me now.

I agree with everything mentioned here, get yourself a therapist before committing here. Things are changing up the night before and they don't care about the students' opinions. Pinning ceremony is supposed to be intimate and held separately for each cohort but SMU is so cheap they decided to combine April, May, and June cohorts into one pinning ceremony to save money and time. April cohort has to wait a whole month after they finish to attend their own pinning. Students had zero say in this. We were told pinning is on Wednesday May 31st at noon. They obviously don't care about everyone else's lives. We asked to use our cohort budget to organize our own pinning ceremony in April but admin said no because we needed to work on their schedules. On the other hand, they spent $150 million dollars on a new campus LOL. They literally don't have enough staff and resources to keep the current programs afloat yet they are still trying to expand and create new programs. one of our classmates also overheard the faculty at the Oakland campus boast about how much they are getting paid and how little they have to do. do what you will with this information, I wish you guys all the best. Im just asking you guys to share your experiences honestly if you guys do go here. Tbh I don't expect anything to change, but everyone deserves to know what they are getting themselves into when applying here.

San Mateo campus.. there's still no update LOL

Here's an update on how incompetent the admins at this school is: the April cohort is supposed to started senior synthesis this upcoming Monday 3/20. Professor E opened up the canvas page to the course in the beginning of Feb in order to give students a chance to prepare for the course. 2 weeks ago, the canvas page was taken down. Students thought this was so she can update the class. This week, the cohort reps emailed her asking her what's going on with canvas since class starts soon. She replies: "Please reach out to Drs. Doolan and Stanley because I'm no longer with SMU at this time.” So the cohort reps emailed them on Monday March 13 and Doolan replies with: "Yes, there will be an instructor change. Professor E is still with SMU but is leaving for a promotion elsewhere. Further info to follow". The cohort reps followed up with 2 emails since then asking for an update and there is still no update as of today Friday March 17. Class starts on Monday lmao side note: some CIs knew about this professor quitting 2 weeks ago and hinted it to the students which is why the cohort reps reached out to this professor. the admins DID NOT reach out to students to let them know. Students don't know if their graduation date will get pushed back bc SMU can't hold onto their professors. professors are leaving left and right, other cohorts don't have professors lined up and some had clinical canceled bc SMU couldn't find them a clinical instructor Apply here at your own risk. From my own personal experience, I would never recommend this school to any of my friends. SMU admins are doing nothing to improve/preserve its reputation and I wouldn't be surprised if the entire nursing program shuts down in 5 years.

You still graduate in 12 months but if you don't get placed at clinical sites, you make up the hours doing online work or virtual simulations. There are no more senior preceptorships which sucks because most new grads feel like they gain the most experience then and it's also how they network and get close with their nurse. The way the ABSN program is structured also makes students feel very unprepared to be actual nurses bc the last semester is just community and mental health. Community clinical is hanging out with different populations at nursing homes while mental health is all about communicating with patients rather than anything hands on. Since we aren't getting preceptorships, we aren't in the hospital for the last three months of the program. You basically lose all the hands on skills you learned in the first 6 months. I along with a couple faculty think that mental and community health should be the first courses in the program but admin doesn't care. again, I would only recommend this school if you are desperate and want to finish asap or if you got no other choice. please don't make this your first choice, it's not worth the headache.

I would not recommend this program to anyone unless you have no other choice. The administration is horrible, I don't understand where our $90k is going. They had over 1.5 years to figure out a solid plan for senior synthesis since they knew they were going to get rid of preceptorship and to this day, there is still no set plan as to how they want to run that class. Everything is last minute with this program. The admins won't communicate with students and on the rare occasion they do, they lie to us, lead us on, and gaslight us. They told us one week that they will get us into the hospital for senior synthesis. Someone asked if there was a back up plan and the Dean said "this will work, there is no back up plan". The next week we were told they can't get us into hospitals anymore but we can look for our own preceptorship. Two weeks later, we are told that we can't look for our own preceptorships anymore and those that have already sent their potential preceptor's contact information in had their emails ignored. No one in my cohort feels prepared at all.. please look into more reviews before you apply to this school. It's not just the ABSN program that's a mess. I was told the doctorate students had to go find their own preceptorships. I haven't met a single helpful or nice admin, they are all horrible. The professors I had are amazing but they are overworked and also trying to leave because admin is horrible to them too.

Please check out the Samuel Merritt University ABSN Spring 2023 forum and do research before you apply to this school. This school no longer offers 1 on 1 preceptorship for senior synthesis and the admins have been very vague and dismissive of student’s concerns and opinions about the matter. They refuse to disclose any information about preceptorship to future cohorts (current students have asked that this be posted on the school’s website but nothing has been posted). There is also a lack of clinical instructors so the school is overworking the professors and making them take on that role as well. I love all the professors but please be aware of what you are getting yourself into. The current ABSN students are stuck paying $90k+ for extreme disorganization, lack of communication, and lack of experience..

As far as we know now, the San Mateo campus is for sure being affected. We have been hearing mixed things about the Oakland campus. The aren’t any changes to the Sac campus. I’m currently at the San Mateo campus. Our November ‘22 cohort wasn’t told about the changes until last minute when they recently found out that there was only 14 available preceptor spots for 40+ students. The remaining students were told to do Vsim and get certifications (which the students had to pay out of pocket). The January ‘23 cohort were told that there would be no preceptorship for them and they would all be doing Vsim and certifications. The April ‘23 and June ‘23 cohort have been trying to reach out to the admin to find out what the plan is but several admin have been ignoring their emails. We don’t know if these changes have been approved by the Board of Nursing and we don’t want our degrees to be at risk. The lack of communication is absolutely frustrating and we know this issue isn’t being shared to upcoming cohorts/people applying to this program so we want to spread the word.

Hey guys, just wanted to give you a heads up if you are planning to go here/apply here in the future. SMU has decided to not offer 1 on 1 preceptorships during senior synthesis. Instead they are giving us these horrible virtual simulations and projects to do. Please consider this before you fork out 90k to go here. The admin doesn’t care about the students’ opinions. The current ABSN cohorts are pissed about this change and even more upset that this change was not communicated to us. We had to hear it from students in the cohorts above us. Please spread the word since SMU is refusing to advertise this to current and future students.

Applied to the San Mateo campus as my first choice and got in, I hope to see some of you guys there!

@Panursonic I’m in the exact same shoes! I got into SJSU and accepted a seat but would rather go to SMU for the accelerated program. Have you completed SJSU’s required tasks or are you holding off to see if SMU replies? There is a health clearance due Jan 1st and it costs a lot to complete.. ideally we would hear back from SMU soon