Jrod

I'm currently in the program. The schedule varies quite a bit quarter to quarter. If you haven't seen this page, it has the class schedules for current and past quarters https://www.ohsu.edu/school-of-nursing/course-schedules

Hi, I was accepted to CSP Portland this year but decided to attend another program. I did go through the whole CSP process and financial aid offer, so I can speak to that. As far as I was ever able to tell, there weren't any scholarships offered by CSP Portland itself. So, the cost you see is what you're going to pay, unless you can find any outside scholarships or you qualify for outside grants. Loans will be standard for college where you can max out federal loans, but due to the cost, you'll also need a significant portion of private loans. This is what the Federal loan disbursement looked like for me in CSP's dashboard. The standard Federal loan limit is $12,500/year max, so that was divided up between three semesters. The program is four semesters total, and the fourth semester isn't shown here. I would have had to make up the remainder with private loans. The ABSN program for CSP is run by Orbis Education, which is a private for-profit company that manages the program in exchange for sharing the profits with CSP, from what I can tell. My guess is that is one reason why they don't offer scholarships. Like many ABSN programs, it is expensive. If it's more than you want to pay with loans, you might want to check out other programs. You could also try pursuing work-based scholarship programs, like from the VA.

I also received the hospital fund offer, and it wasn't clear if it's being offered to everyone or not. For anyone willing to work at and commute to OHSU for two years, it seems like a great deal. The one thing I noted from the contract is that if you don't complete the requirements, you have to repay tuition plus 25%. I asked OHSU about job availability for being hired in the 90 days after finishing the program, and they said that they currently have almost 200 RN vacancies they're trying to fill and they will be opening the new hospital tower in the next several years. The implication was that they're expecting to have lots of RN job opportunities and getting hired shouldn't be a problem.

For anyone else who was put on the alternate list, there is starting to be at least some movement. I was initially waitlisted as "highly likely" and have now been offered a spot in the Portland Winter cohort. Still deciding whether or not to accept, so my spot might become available again depending on what I end up doing. Best of luck to everyone! There's still hope!

@Jay mtz Congrats on the fall acceptance! I was also accepted to the May Concordia St. Paul start. I think OHSU has been my first preference, but now since I'm on the "highly likely" waitlist for OHSU, I might be going with CSP unless something opens up in the near future. I had a friend in the program a couple of years ago during the time that Concordia Portland shut down and St. Paul took the program over. My friend had a good experience in the program, though they were still on the Concordia Portland curriculum. I've also talked with someone who was in the program this past year, and they had generally favorable things to say. However, there have also been people online talking about being frustrated with a lack of organization in the program and other issues. I haven't been super happy with how I've been treated during the CSP application process, which is one of the reasons why I'm also interested in OHSU. One thing about the CSP ABSN is that they contract with a for-profit company, Orbis Education (now owned by Grand Canyon Education) to administer the program. I think this is how the admissions counselors are employed. While it looks like there are a lot of ABSN programs that do this, I don't love having a for-profit company involved that way, and I wonder if it contributes to some of the frustrations I've had. It also looks like the CSP ABSN has expanded a lot in the last couple of years. According to the Oregon State Board of Nursing, the program went from 104 graduates in 2019 to 361 in 2021. But in the end, everyone I know in the nursing field says that the only thing that really matters is graduating from an accredited program and passing the NCLEX.

I applied to the Portland ABSN and got an email an hour ago that I'm waitlisted as "highly likely." Now to decide whether to wait for something to open up or do my second choice program?. I wish they would tell people more about where they are on the waitlist.