rjay01

SMU fraudulently inflates the clinical hours we do in their reports to the board, and there's nothing we can do about that. There's no transparency there and students are not involved in that process. There's no official reporting option for nursing schools, just for individual nurses. I also looked into reporting to the accreditation bodies, but no options there either. Until SMU has to repeatedly delay students' graduation on a larger scale, I don't know if their accreditation will ever be questioned. I and some of my classmates have been looking for a way to hold the school responsible for months- gone through every word on every covid waiver related to clinical education, and everything else we can find regarding curriculum. The BRN keeps it so vague what is required each semester or each course. SMU uses this to their advantage. This is what we've come to accept is the only way to change the school's reputation: widepsread alerting in all public and non-public forums. You'll see students from different campuses and in different programs in the school of nursing on yelp, reddit, and here. The school has a chokehold on local media, so even as the school is spending billions of dollars on a new campus in Oakland where they publicly state they intend to quadruple their enrollment, there's no fact-checking or corroborating evidence to suggest that their quality of education has remained or will remain up to par. This is literally our only option. I hope you read the sincerity and desperation in all of our writing, because we're miserable and trapped. Oh, and we're more broke/in debt than any other nursing student in the area. So that adds insult to injury.

I can corroborate the previous two posters about the seriously lacking clinical placements and senior synthesis/preceptorship at SMU. I am in my 5th semester of the ELMSN program at the Oakland campus; the first 5 semesters are all pre-licensure so essentially what the ABSN does in 12 months we do in 16 months. My observations and experiences are that since Samuel Merritt's disaffiliation from Sutter which went into effect Jan 2022, the school now no longer has good relationships with Sutter hospitals. Sutter was previously SMU's main connection to good, reliable clinicals. Sutter took a $200million loss from SMU disaffiliating, so there are legitimate reasons and palpable resentment from Sutter hospitals towards SMU. Further, SMU's clinical coordination team, and the administration as a whole are at best incompetent, at worst neglectful. They are unable to process documents timely, which means they turn in documents to hospitals for clinicals late, they've turned in documents to the BRN late, etc. Every semester we learn that other local nursing schools have snagged clinicals months before SMU even begins to ask for them. Lastly, SMU doesn't have the clinical instructors to support the amount of students they admit. Clinical instructors are sick or unavailble- it falls on the student to somehow make those hours up which can include coming in to clinical during academic breaks or during other courses entirely. And god forbid you get sick- they don't follow their syllabus or student handbook policies for makeups. If you don't believe me or the other two posters, check out the yelp for all of the consistent feedback being given. https://www.yelp.com/biz/samuel-merritt-university-oakland?sort_by=date_desc If you have ANY other options: you got into another program at a public school, you're on the waitlist/lottery for a local ADN program, or you have a good job you can keep working for a few years while you reapply elsewhere... DO IT. I wish I had done anything but go to this school.

I just finished my first year in the ELMSN program at the Oakland campus, and my experience has been really poor with clinical placements. If I even got placed, it was never in Berkeley or Oakland. I live <2 miles from campus and I’ve never been placed anywhere closer than 12 miles away, the farthest was 50 miles away (Santa Rosa). I don’t know any ABSN students but I do know traditional BSN students and they’ve had the same problems. If you got into any other schools, I’d really recommend going there. SMU cannot provide enough clinical opportunities and doesn’t have enough clinical instructors to support the amount of students they admit.

Congratulations! Yes, please join the facebook, link here: https://m.facebook.com/groups/457617822355756/?ref=group_browse Or search Samuel Merritt ELMSN Fall 2021 Oakland

I was admitted to the CM program and I am also feeling the anxiety about $$$. I haven’t received any information directly about financial aid. I’m in the middle of filling out FAFSA, and I emailed someone in Financial Aid earlier this week with questions about if SMU would like to see certain specifics on the FAFSA app. Haven’t gotten a response yet, so... not feeling super supported in the financial aid aspect and I sense they kind of leave the graduate students to fend for ourselves. Maybe they just wait until they receive our FAFSA and then reach out to us? Who knooows.

If you look at our curriculum (on the website), our first clinical is in the first semester- psych/mental health nursing. My interviewer said they expect to have the clinical resume as usual, maybe with less site options though and TBD if Covid surges again.

I’m not looking for housing either, but I want to pass on the two best resources (in addition to Craigslist) I’ve used for finding an affordable room in shared homes in Oakland the last 5 years I’ve lived here. Lord knows we could use something affordable as we’re about to enter years of no income :( Both are facebook groups, the first is “Affordable Housing for OK people: Bay Area” link: https://m.facebook.com/groups/945920215452910?group_view_referrer=search and “Bay Area Rooms and Apartment” https://m.facebook.com/groups/390478684333910?group_view_referrer=search and word of mouth/ friend connections is super helpful. I’ll keep an ear out for any of my friends with openings in their home. Hope this helps!

That sounds great! I'm not attached to FB at all. Maybe we'll all discuss once we have the final cohorts?

I did! This is the link https://www.facebook.com/groups/457617822355756 If any trouble with the link, search "Samuel Merritt ELMSN 2021 Oakland" Everyone else who was admitted, please request to join the FB group ? Looking forward to meeting you all.

hey everyone, I also received an admission email on Saturday for Case Management. I was stunned! I interviewed just a few days prior. Congratulations to everyone who has been admitted so far, and for the FNP folks- thinking of you as you interview this week. I'm wondering if anyone has any objection to a facebook group that is for both FNP and CM students? Since we'll be doing the whole first year together, it may be super useful for us to get to know each other and create study groups and support each other. I'll wait til the end of today, and then make it and post link here ? Can't wait to meet you all!

I also applied to Case Management, and I have not received any emails from them about a preliminary application review. I'm wondering if that email is for the FNP track?

is anyone else a UC graduate? I never had to take an English Literature course, and I'm realizing now I may have to take that as a pre-req if none of the other courses are satisfactory. I'm so confused it's a pre-req but not so common that I had to have taken it to graduate a UC... ? .. just things I realized the day the application is due!!

hello all! I am wondering if anyone has insight as to the exact deadline our references have to upload their letters of recommendation to the system in nursingCAS? This is my first nursingCAS application, so I'm a little confused. Do they have to upload their reference letters by the Dec 1st 8:59 PM deadline or do they have time after? Trying to give my references breathing room this week if it exists ? they are full-time healthcare workers during a pandemic, and we're all of course getting slammed.

Hey, I just came upon this program. I've only been to public, non-religious schools (high school, university, and community college classes), so I've never taken any religious classes like the ones I see on the prerequisite list for Concordia. Have you taken those already, or do you plan to take them before the start of the program? Did they say anything about that?

Hi, has anyone who applied for the Fall ABSN after the Oct. priority deadline hear back yet?