USF Admission Statistics for MSN CNL

Fiji Islands · Jan 30, 2009

Hi there, don't know their stats but I applied for the Summer 2009 semestre. Ihave heard that it is very competetive. The other program that is very similar to the USF one is Sonoma State University....they call it the DEMSN program, you can check it out here: http://www.sonoma.edu/demsn/

Alison123 · Aug 25, 2009

Hey Fiji Islands,

Thanks for your reply. If you don't mind me asking, were you accepted in to the Summer 2009 cohort? If yes or no, would you mind sharing your stats? Did you have a lot of volunteer hours? Sorry for the all the questions, I have spoken to advisors at USF and they won't really tell me what the are looking for! It would be nice to know the stats of people they are accepting or denying.

Thanks again! :)

KimmbaFNP, MSN, APRN, NP · Jan 9, 2011

I realize this is an old thread, but for anyone who may pull it up because of the University of San Francisco (USF) to Sonoma State (SSU) comparison I really want to add my two bits.

I've attended BOTH schools. I would steer anyone towards Sonoma state over USF. The Nursing dept at Sonoma state is made up of wonderful individuals who truly want each student to succeed and are super supportive. Not so with USF.

Unfortunately, USF has more of a sink-or-swim, like it or leave it attitude. I found the quality of instruction at USF to be poor compared to SSU. The Director has purged good instructors who do not have doctorates and brings in individuals with doctorates whether or not they have teaching ability. My OB instructor actually said "Back in the 1960's when women would use midwives, a practice that you don't find anymore"!!! Seriously?? Found out she hadn't worked in Ob for many years and obviously wasn't current with the times. Instruction consisted of students taking turns reading sections from the text aloud to the class, or her reading the text to us while writing parts of it on the board. Terrible! We, as a class, complained. We, as a class, were labeled as "whiners" and the issue was not addressed.

Complaints are routinely not addressed, instead a cohort will be labeled "whiners" or "complainers" if they bring concerns to the administration (this occured to our cohort and the one previous to ours as well). There is also no consideration for students what so ever - Do you live in Petaluma? Tough luck if your clinical site is in the South Bay. Do you live in Mountain View? Tough luck if your clinical site is in Richmond. No switching allowed.

This was the experience of the last two cohorts of the management & leadership focused Masters Entry Option (MEO) MSN cohorts. USF now only offers the CNL at the Masters level with the Management & leadership as a doctorate, or an FNP doctorate. I also had a course with the first CNL cohort at the Santa Rosa branch of USF and they also experienced the same issues, although the staff at the Santa Rosa branch tries harder to please.

I had transferred in from Marquette University in Wisconsin, another Jesuit University like USF. I had a good experience at Marquette and was expecting a similar level of quality from USF. I was shocked and appalled by the difference.

Sonoma state is completely different - fully supportive, with good quality instruction. They listen and try to work with you - they realize we have lives outside of school, many of us with kids, families, jobs, etc. They actually treat you with the respect and caring that we're taught as nurses to have for others.

It was like leaving a nightmare forest of darkness and despair and entering the peace, beauty and bliss of Shangra-la when I transferred to SSU from USF.

I left USF mid-program (after completing all pre-licensure courses and passing my NCLEX) and switched to the Sonoma State FNP program. I was also accepted to UCSF, (it was actually a professor from UCSF who suggested I transfer out of USF) but elected to go with SSU because it is a reverse commute from where I live, so less traffic, plus SSU has easy parking, compared to NO parking provided at UCSF (seriously! you have to park in the neighborhoods around the university or ride a bus) something to consider if you're thinking about UCSF.

If you have a choice, go with SSU or UCSF over USF - I'd say anywhere else over USF as my experience and that of my cohort was so very, very poor. USF has a factory feel - push them in, push them out, "what's your number, not your name". Not at all what I had come to expect from a private university (I already had a graduate degree from a private university when I entered USF, plus Marquette and my undergrad degree, so I have many good schools from which to compare. I did not have unreasonable expectations.)

Stay away, very far away from USF. I would say to only attend there if you have no other option, and then prepare yourself for mediocre to poor instruction, no support, extreme frustration and much disappointment. (If you have super low expectations going in then maybe it wont seem so bad.)