What is going on with funding at UCSF?

Published

Does anybody know exactly what is happening in terms of funding for UCSF? I've been accepted to their MEPN program, but it's very disconcerting to know that masters specialties are being cut for lack of funding, and that funding for the program overall has gone way down (and consequently, that tuition has gone way up). It's a bad sign when only 60 students are being admitted, when in past years they've had the funding to admit 75 or even 90.

Will my specialty (CNM/WHNP) still be admitting new students a year or two in the future? Will more and more of the classes be totally online? Who knows. I tried to get some information about UCSF's financial situation on the interview day but basically nobody gave me a straight answer. No matter how good a school's program is, without enough funding the quality of the education they can offer will necessarily suffer, and if I'm going to spend tens of thousands of dollars on an a degree I'd at least like to know that the program is still going to be around 5 years from now.

Anyone have any insight on this?

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I don't know, but it's frustrating. I am trying to decide between UCSF and Penn, and although I'm almost certain I will go with UCSF, part of me is very concerned about the funding issue. I know Penn has plenty of money. I do know that once we've been admitted to a specialty, they have to allow us to finish it... so if your specialty gets cut, it's only for future students/applicants and won't affect you. Also, maybe the fact that they cut back this year is a good sign in that it means they really want to make sure that those admitted get a good experience? I've heard about about issues with clinicals during the RN portion from some of the years when the class was significantly larger. Maybe a smaller class is a good thing? I don't know.

I'd love to hear thoughts from current MEPN students about this issue, or just thoughts from other admitted students as well. I know the class is smaller this year, but it seems like barely anyone is posting about UCSF and the facebook group is tiny, lol. Where are all the other admitted students?

What is this about online classes...? That's news to me. I thought UCSF didn't have any online education? That's seriously concerning. Ugh, I hate online education (I've taken 2 classes online before and seriously learned next to nothing).

The school is still ranked very highly and I think it's #1 in NIH funding... so that has to mean something, right? It's still one of the best nursing schools in the country, despite CA's debt crisis.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

What I heard about online education was from some current CNM students - basically that they have online classes (they were divided as to whether this was a bad thing or just a sort of neutral thing), and that some of them had even gone to faculty members and unsuccessfully asked for more classroom time (?!).

I'd like to think that the smaller class size is a good thing - but honestly, the class size seemed plenty small before. It seems like this is simply an issue of not having been given enough money by the Regents to admit more students.

The NIH funding issue is reassuring, first of all because it isn't a fluke (they're often #1 in NIH funding), and obviously because it provides a stable source of income outside of the UC system. But the US News & World Reports rankings seems pretty meaningless to me, and not at all protective against program closure - just look at how the University of Washington, #1 ranked nursing school, is closing it's midwifery program.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I wish you the guys the best of luck and I don't know if it is helpful or not but I went to a UC for my undergrad quite a few years ago. California has been struggling on funding for major programs for many years and you see this in cuts all the way from kindergarten to college. At the time, I went, the CSUs were majorly struggling and people I knew who went to one would have the classes they needed for their major cut or even their major was entirely cut. The UCs were fairly lucky and didn't seem to have the same type of issues. The economic strain though seems to have affected the UCs and it seems like they are having the same issues as well.

If I were you, I'd definitely be cautious about attending. Although reputation is nice, you may get more bang for your buck elsewhere.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion