USFCA VANAP BSN Program Reviews

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Hi everyone, I'm interested in applying to the University of San Francisco's VANAP BSN program in Sacramento, California and wanted to know if any current or past students would be willing to give me their honest review of the program? This is one of my top choices for nursing schools since it is close to where I live.

Some of the questions I have include:

  • How much are you paying for tuition and is it worth it?
  • I know nursing school will be rigorous, so how are the exams?
  • Are the professors supportive and helpful throughout the program? 
  • What resources are available at the Sacramento campus? 
  • How have clinical rotations been during the pandemic?

And anything else you are willing to share. Thank you in advance! 

Hi there, current student here. I cannot recommend enough against attending this program. I have not had a good time at all and personally feel that the quality of education does not come close to matching the cost. 

To answer some of your questions:

  • I have a prior bachelors in something else, so I have to utilize private loans to pay for my BSN. By the time I graduate, I will have accumulated over 130k in debt. 
  • Nursing school will be difficult, this is not something new and will be the same for all programs. All of the courses are information heavy, however these classes are all manageable. Take your time to truly understand everything.
  • Not all "educators" are good professors. Throughout this whole program, I have felt that I was paying to teach myself everything. Youtube University has been extremely helpful to my learning of some of the topics. I feel that many of the professors here do not know how to present information in a way that encourages learning. From the beginning of our program, we have had professors that have straight up read from the textbook-generated PPT slides word-for-word. When questions arise, some professors do not even try to explain things to us and will make you feel dumb for even asking a question that "you should already know". Other professors here are extremely unprofessional. The saying "nurses eat their young" is the vibe of many of these professors at this campus. I have seen professors belittle and argue with their students over the smallest things. One professor even likes to talk down on students to other students. It has been very difficult to trust professors as it feels like they all seem to not care at all. I do not feel supported by leadership at this campus. 
  • There are little to no resources at the Sacramento campus. I believe there is a small gym in the building that just opened up last semester or pretty recently. However, most of the resources are only available at the main campus. They have recently opened up the campus due to low covid cases, and students are expected to come to class and were asked to test beforehand. At the main campus, vaccination booths and free testing sites were available, but at this campus we have had to find our own resources to test and vaccinate. 
  • Luckily, we have been able to go to the Sac VA Medical Center for our clinical rotations. However, the population here is made up of majority male patients with the same diagnoses. I have had maybe one female patient throughout the whole program and no children.

I truly regret attending this program, however these are just some of my experiences. 

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