Samuel Merritt University ABSN, Oakland Campus - Summer 2025

Jewel68 · Feb 16

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kscot7

HI- that's actually not the case, because I was accepted to Oakland two days ago and I have both pathophysiology and pharmacology in progress.

OK..thank you for clarifying

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Nuria Garcia said:

Hi, I am currently in progress in pharmacology, pathophysiology and English 2 and I received an offer on Friday. However, I did submit my application early November so that may be why.

OK...Thank you!

Murphy82 · Feb 16

Oh okay thank you , maybe they are sent out the notices in Phases .

Sahiba · Feb 16

Jewel68 said:

OK..thank you for clarifying

Hi they are actually correct, I have statistics and the second part of anatomy and physiology in progress and I got accepted to the Summer Absn program. So I wouldn't worry so much, and you can always follow up with the admissions counselor as well. Good luck dear 😊

Jewel68 · Feb 16

Thank you!

GuyInMarin · Feb 16

Anyone know what the start date for the Oakland Summer cohort is? Also, is there pre-work to be done?

myqcheese4u · Feb 16

Nuria Garcia said:

Hi, I am currently in progress in pharmacology, pathophysiology and English 2 and I received an offer on Friday. However, I did submit my application early November so that may be why.

I agree with this because I got in and submitted my application mid November and I'm still in progress for one class.

GuyInMarin · Feb 17

I was notified of admission probably the same exact time everyone else was (we all got emailed the same time). I submitted right before the deadline, so I don't think that had anything to do with it. However, I was in constant contact with my admissions contacts ((MODERATOR EDIT OF NAMES - PLEASE DO NOT POST IDENTIFYING INFO ABOUT OTHERS)). I probably 'contacted' them way too much LOL.

Libster · Feb 17

I just got accepted to the Oakland campus. However, I been seeing some bad stuff about SMU does anybody know more about that?

Sahiba · Feb 18

Libster said:

I just got accepted to the Oakland campus. However, I been seeing some bad stuff about SMU does anybody know more about that?

Hey @Libster so I have colleagues that I have work with at Kaiser and they have gotten their bsn from SMU they honestly didn't have anything bad to say however they did say that you have to pull out time to study and if you have questions don't be afraid to ask them. Everyone's experience is different and I hoping yours and mines will be good. Honestly there are good and bad qualities to any bsn program, I would say definitely build a community and surround yourself around people because the accelerated program or even the regular program is a lot but we can do this. Hope this helps, reach out if you have anymore questions 🙂

Aspiring RN25 · Feb 18

I applied to SMU, Summer 2025 start, Fresno location (first choice), and San Mateo location (my second choice). I have not heard anything yet.

I still have not received a decision letter from SMU; I submitted my application on November 15th. I only have pharmacology in progress. Should I be concerned? Is there a website I can go to to check my application status?

Sahiba · Feb 18

Aspiring RN25 said:

I applied to SMU, Summer 2025 start, Fresno location (first choice), and San Mateo location (my second choice). I have not heard anything yet.

I still have not received a decision letter from SMU; I submitted my application on November 15th. I only have pharmacology in progress. Should I be concerned? Is there a website I can go to to check my application status?

Hi @Aspiring RN25 so I applied for Spring 2025 and was waitlisted then I applied for Summer 25 and I am in the April cohort. I have 2 pre-reqs in progress, I honestly would not worry if you have questions contact admin I think his name is (MODERATOR EDIT OF NAME - PLEASE DO NOT POST IDENTIFYING INFO ABOUT OTHERS) or give them a call they are quite helpful. You can have upto 2 pre-reqs in progress so please don't stress out. Let me know if you have any questions 🙂

nursee2b · Feb 18

Here is a copied and pasted alumni post from Reddit:

"

Samuel Merritt University ABSN program 2022-2023

To whom it may concern -

As a recent graduate of the SMU Accelerated Bachelor's of Science Nursing program 2022-2023, I'm writing this to provide an insight on the program so future students can make a more educated decision regarding their choice in ABSN.

**1) Opportunity Cost**

The total tuition for the 12-month ABSN program as of 2022-2023 is: **$84,885.00 + $2,085.00 fees**

Other ABSN school tuition:

\- Drexel University ABSN (11-month): $58,288.00 (out-of-california)

\- San Francisco State ABSN (15-month): \~$37,800.00

\- CSU LA ABSN (15-month): \~$31,535.00

\- CSU San Marcos (24-month): \~$44,890.00

\- CSU Stanislaus (17-month): \~$40,000.00

\- CSU Northridge (15-month): $46,400.00

As you can see, the SMU tuition far outpaces other schools. From what I've been told by other students in other ABSN programs, the curriculum is practically the same and the quality of education is relatively equal in terms of instruction, clinicals, and skill labs. The biggest difference that I've observed is the number of available seats per application cycle. For example, SF state only offers 32 spaces per year compared to SMU which has 3 application cycles that offer roughly \~100 seats per cycle for their 4 campuses (SF Peninsula, Oakland, Sacramento, Fresno). In other words, the SMU cohort sizes are bigger (\~50 students). We were also told that SMU is planning to increase tuition by an additional 5% per year starting in 2023.

**2) Curriculum (52-units)**

**A) Semester 1 (\~4-months)**

\- Section 1 (1-month)

N138 Intro to Nursing

N125 Health Assessment I + Skills Lab

**\*\*Break\*\* (1-2 weeks)**

\- Section 2 (1-month)

N120 Managing Care of Adults I (MCA I) + Skills Lab + Clinicals

N126 Health Assessment II + Skills Lab

\- Section 3 (1-month)

N136 MCA II + Skills Lab + Clinicals

N128 Healthy Aging

**\*\*Break\*\* (1-2 weeks)**

**B) Semester 2 (3-months)**

\- Section 1 (1-month)

N164 MCA III + Skills Lab + Clinicals

\- Section 2 (1-month)

N158 Pediatric Nursing + Skills Lab + Clinicals

\- Section 3 (1- month)

N144 Care of Childbearing + Skills Lab + Clinicals

N108 Nursing Research

**\*\*Break\*\* (1-2 weeks)**

**C) Semester 3 (5-months)**

\- Section 1 (1.5-month)

N129 Psychiatric Mental Nursing + Skills Lab + Clinicals

\- Section 2 (1.5-month)

N170 Community Health + Skills Lab + Clinicals

\- Section 3 (2-month)

N181 Senior Synthesis + Skills Lab + Clinicals

N160 Leadership

The clinicals start at two days per week (weekdays or weekends) and can range between 4-8 hr shift depending on your clinical instructor and how busy your clinical site is. The school tries to pair you a clinical site based on your geographical location and preference, but there have been many instances of students being placed in sites like San Jose when they live in San Francisco even though there are sites in San Francisco. As the program progresses, your clinicals can be 1-day per week but longer hours (I.e. 10 hr/day)

The skills and simulation labs start off as a large part of the program in the first couple months, but drop off towards the middle-end of the program. You might have labs cancelled but are still charged for them when you pay your tuition (no refunds).

You will have medication calculation exams for your MCA I-III series and you will need at least a 90% to pass the exam and be cleared to pass medications during clinicals. You get up to four tries and then you speak to the professor or clinical instructor to figure out ways for tutoring.

You need more than 73% cumulative grade average to pass the course. Grade breakdown:

100-93% A

90-93% A-

87-90% B+

83-87% B

80-83% B-

77-80% C+

73-77% C

70-73% C-

You have a HESI exit exam at the end of each course that is worth 10% of your overall grade. You get 1-2 points back by doing remediation (2-4 hours coursework). HESI score breakdown:

\>=900 - 10 pts

\*\*1pt remediation\*\*

850-899 - 9 pts

800-849 - 8 pts

750-799 - 7pts

\*\* 2pt remediation \*\*

700-749 - 6pts

650-699 - 5pts

600-649 - 4pts

550-599 - 3pts

500-549 - 2pts

<500 - 0pts

There's a cumulative exit HESI exam towards the end of the program that used to be required to pass in order to pass the ABSN program. Getting a passing score (850+) was considered a good indication of preparedness for taking the NCLEX exam. The school recently decided to no longer require the cumulative exit HESI exam to pass the program. Instead, we either get a pass or no pass for Senior Synthesis course requirement. You get three tries for the exam and are required to retake the exam until you get a passing score. However, if you didn't get a passing score on all three tries, you were not held back in the program. Weird system, but honestly if you make it to this point, you were motivated to take the exams to make sure you understood all the material you learned in the program. The school does provide a HESI review that is hosted by an Ellsevier employee. It was incredibly dense and hard to pay attention to because they try to condense a year's worth of information into a few days. The review is hosted online from 0900-1630 for three days (brutal).

We had a good number of students who were single parents and working part-time to full-time. However, it was noted that having extra curricular commitments was associated with a noticeable decrease in school performance. If you are considering higher education later down the road (I.e. MSN, CRNA, NP, etc.) where having a high GPA can help your application, then having a strong support system and time management is a must. The curriculum is relatively fast-paced with exams and care plans every week, but you get used to it after the first couple months. We started with 50 members in our cohort and ended with around 43 students. If you do poorly in a course, the school will give you the option to retake it with another cohort. This will obviously lengthen the program duration and cost extra money in tuition, and you will graduate with another cohort. So while we ended with 43 students, that number represents people either leaving the program entirely or being replaced by other students from cohorts ahead of us needing to retake certain courses.

There is tutoring at SMU and a large part of it was run by students going through the program. The cohort ahead would tutor students in cohorts behind. The recruitment process was very lax, so anyone could be tutor despite not having a strong grasp on the subject material. Also, while the program did pay tutors a salary (\~$20/hr), the schedule was determined by the student tutor's set availability. I believe the school is starting to transition away from relying on students and is choosing this new program called BrainFuse. Not sure how much of a difference this program is as it was implemented towards the end of our cohort program. Don't get me wrong, I had a lot of good student tutors that made a positive impact in my education, but there were some that I felt didn't understand the material well enough to teach others.

There are very few professors that will make a positive impact on your educational experience at SMU. It's the sad truth and a problem faced by many ABSN programs. Out of the 10 professors I had, only 3 had an organized, well-constructed curriculum. The other professors were a disorganized, unprofessional mess that made learning significantly more stressful than it needed to be. Some of the issues included: outdated powerpoint lectures, lecture recordings that were hard to listen due to background noise or were missing entirely because the professor forgot to record, and conflicting information on canvas that made time management a nightmare because you didn't know when certain assignments were due or how to complete them. To me, it seemed like SMU lacked standards in terms of how classes should be run and allowed the professors free reign to teach it based on their personal, albeit low, standards. However, I later understood why some professors were doing more poorly than others. Most professors not only teach but also are clinical instructors and/or concurrently attending school for their Ph.D or Master's. Therefore, they just manage the course and don't bother updating it for the students. The students are left to mostly figuring out the material on their own, which is a shame given the amount of time and money invested into the program.

**3) The Preceptorship**

The topic of preceptorship is probably the most disappointing part of this program. SMU sadly has dropped preceptorships from the curriculum and replaced it with senior synthesis. For those who don't know, the preceptorship was a program that paired you with a department of your choice (I.e. ED, ICU, Med-Surg, etc.) with a preceptor who would shadow you as you performed all the nursing duties on a patient. You would essentially be working as a full-fledged nurse and put all the nurse knowledge you learned during the year into practice. This was also a great opportunity to network and have a sort of probationary period with the hospital during which time the hospital could offer you a position once you got your license.

The reason SMU got rid of the preceptorship program was because not all of the affiliated SMU hospitals had a preceptorship program. Many hospitals were phasing out of preceptorships starting around COVID and have opted to focus more on new-grad programs instead. SO even though some hospitals still had their preceptorship programs intact, SMU could'nt guarantee placement for all SMU students and therefore decided to cancel preceptorships entirely.

We've tried everything to get preceptorships back. Here's a list of what has been tried so far:

\- Some cohorts have attempted to sue the school to refund some of the tuition

\- Presentations have been done to try and convince the school leadership to bring them back

\- Townhall meetings have been held to directly talk to SMU leadership about preceptorships

\- Talked to hospital educators to talk to the SMU leadership about expanding preceptorships

\- Seeking alternatives to preceptorships (I.e. more SIM labs, clinicals, etc.)

The result of the meetings was the Senior Synthesis. The Senior Synthesis extended clinicals for another 2-weeks. You were not guaranteed to get a clinical assignment that matched your department of interest. We did a bunch of busy work for useless certifications and online simulations that were pointless. The one highlight was the ACLS/PALS certification, but we had to fight to get the school to fund the certification (\~$600/person). The entire process was frustrating and disappointing, but at least we got something that would've otherwise have been nothing.

The school does not fund the following:

\- NCLEX registration fees, application fees (\~$400)

\- Outside NCLEX practice programs (I.e. UWorld, Archer, Bootcamp, etc.)

\- They are currently considering withdrawing funding from ACLS/PALS certification

4) **What would I have done differently?**

\- Apply to different ABSN programs

By the time I was ready to apply to ABSN, many of the other schools application cycles were already done. I was limited to Drexel and SMU. I got into both, but since Drexel was out-of-state, factoring in the cost of living and having to take an extra step to apply for RN license in CA, SMU was a more attractive option. However, if I had gone to Drexel, I would've finished a lot sooner and would already be working as an RN. I wasn't considering the time factor, so looking back, I would probably have chosen Drexel (11-month) instead.

\- Review concepts during school breaks

There were many of us, including myself, that went on vacations during our breaks. This is recommended to help decompress and refresh for the next section. However, towards the end of the program, I realized how much information was lost due to how quickly and how dense the information was presented throughout the 12-month program. I started to make anki flashcards towards the end of the program, but I wish I had spread out the flashcards during the school breaks so that I can refer back to them throughout the program. It would've made studying for the NCLEX more time efficient and less stressful.

\- Exercise and Diet

I had trouble maintaining weight consistently throughout the program. I started off strong at the beginning, but once the more impacted courses came around (I.e. MCA series) and dealing with difficult professors/CIs, I got lazy and distracted. Looking back, I should've put my health first and stuck to my cardio/gym routine. Gaining additional weight just adds to the stress and makes it harder to get back into losing it again. I highly recommend establishing a consistent gym/cardio routine and diet plan before starting the program. Say no to junk food and skipping days, you'll thank me later come time for graduation photos. Also, taking nature walks was a huge boost to my physical and emotional well-being, wish I did more of those throughout the program.

\- Study smarter, not harder

It's helpful to go through study guides and the textbook while studying for exams. However, most exams pull questions from HESI or NCLEX test banks. So utilize the internet to find test material related to the textbook, NCLEX and HESI and just do a bunch of practice test questions to study for the exams. It's more time efficient, some questions pop up on the actual exams, and it gets you mentally prepared for how questions are structured so you aren't tricked or misinterpret questions.

Quizlet used to be the gold-standard for studying for SMU exams. But many professors have become aware of it and are intentionally throwing in questions to dissuade people from solely relying on quizlet as a source.

**Conclusion**

I was very disappointed with my experience at SMU given the large time and money investment. I did a little research into the program's taxes and the professors/clinical instructors make roughly $200,000/year. The CEO makes at least $5 million/year based on 501(c)3. Source overview: [https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/942992642](https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/942992642)

The school also recently established a new flagship campus in 2023 using $120 million of it's own reserves in addition to a $139 million bond financing for construction. There was a student-led protest at the site this year. Source: [https://www.samuelmerritt.edu/news/samuel-merritt-university-breaks-ground-new-campus-downtown-oakland](https://www.samuelmerritt.edu/news/samuel-merritt-university-breaks-ground-new-campus-downtown-oakland)

With that level of income and profit, I expect more professionalism and better customer service to the students than what I observed and experienced during this 12-month program.

But it's over. I'm done with nursing school and getting ready to take the NCLEX. I will surely not be recommending SMU to anyone and strongly advise to try applying elsewhere before going here. However, if you have no other choice, then hopefully this post can help mentally prepare you and get you through the program. Good luck!

Edits: added additional information that may be helpful to future student nurses.”