I am currently in the Occupational Therapy Program at the "old" campus (Telegraph & 30th St)! We will be moving to 12th St in Downtown Oakland in 2026. Coming to Samuel Merritt was one of the best decisions of my life. There a number of factors of why I chose SMU and why I love it more everyday. First: Why did I choose SMU? - Prior to starting at SMU, I attended SMU's immersion day, countless zoom info sessions, school tours, and meet n greets. When meeting the students and faculty they really made me feel welcomed and supported. I felt like I belonged at SMU and that I wasn't just another person joining a program. I liked watching the current students interact with the faculty. Everyone knew each other's names and talked like old friends. This made me feel excited and comforted when thinking about which university I wanted to choose - Campus is located a short drive away from my family home yet is also far enough away to experience personal growth. The location was ideal for me because I wanted to stay in the bay to be with my friends and family. - Campus is safe. There are many people walking around every day and I haven't heard about any crime on campus. Students, Healthcare workers (Alta Bates), patients, faculty, and security guards are always around. SMU has shuttles to take students to Bart and there is a guarded parking garage. Each building has security and sometimes Oakland police are on campus patroling. - No GRE - Great reputation and alumni I heard that many alumni end up in prestigious hospitals like Stanford Hospital - Many of my old high school classmates came to SMU for various programs and they enjoyed it Second: Why do I love SMU more everyday? - My cohort is amazing!! I truly love all my classmates. We have great respect for each other and we all get along. Outside our individual friend groups within our cohort, we still want to see each other win. Every day we laugh, chat, connect, and grow together. I really love that we all think of each other. Like how we celebrate each others birthdays by signing birthday cards and hanging out after class. - There are many fun events on campus!! We've had multiple fun events throughout the year. Note that each SMU campus have different events. At Oakland campus, so far, I've experienced.. * Free Taco Day * Free Yoga * Free School Supplies * Free Coffee/Tea * Free Gelato * Free Fenton's Ice cream * Free Pantry * Etc... TBD - SMU OT Staff are very supportive and have great personality! Myself and the cohort love the faculty! They bring great energy and want to see us win! Overall, I feel like the program is going by fast because we're having so much fun. Every day is a new experience and I look forward to the rest of my program. read more

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Everything is subpar at this school but they definitely have the worst and incompetent financial aid team available. If you're not new and incoming, good luck to actually getting someone to address your issues. Dr. Larsen is officially the only good director in administration but one person can't make up for the kind of subpar education and lack of support this expensive scam of a school provides read more

Avoid the nursing program at all costs. There is no support for students and we had racists teachers and bullies. I have never had such bad professors. "Professor Canvas" was the only teacher because most the professors here do not lecture or teach classes, unless you count recordings for years ago. They call it "flipped classroom" but it is actually "teach yourself everything" classroom Also, they have been online for last few years first they blamed COVID-19 but the truth is there isn't enough classroom space or actual concern for students. Only school I know of that refuses to go back to in-person learning. I only went here because it was close to my grandmother who was very ill, I should have gone to one of my two other schools where I was accepted. They barely get placements for clinicals and they lie about the hours. read more

Avoid this 'school' at all cost. Waste of money, effort, and time. You will end up teaching yourself everything, and learning barely anything from zoom. Professors are generally burnt out and do not seem happy. It is baffling at this point this school has refused to return to in person classes especially for a program like nursing where in person/hands on learning is imperative. Many other nursing schools in the Bay Area have returned to in person lectures/labs, and have gotten much more hospital clinical time. Administration is not helpful and it's unorganized. Myself and others who have attempted to advocate for ourselves were just returned with backlash. Good luck getting any legitimate in person clinical time. I'm in my last semester here (1.5 years in) and haven't even had 15 shifts of proper in person patient to patient hospital clinical time. read more

Looking back I am more and more happy I went to Samuel Merrit for several reasons. First, at the end of senior year we had a class spend time on resume writing and mock panel interviews. It really helped me prepare for my job hunt. The school understands that working your tail off and the pricy tuition is an investment that should get you a job. Within 6 months after graduation I'd say 99% of my class passed the Nclex and had jobs. The school has a great reputation within the Bay Area. I have had interviewers comment about how they hired other new grads from the school before and were very happy with them. That made me feel great about the interview! I am also very happy I got my BSN and not an ADN from a junior college. That's not to say other local schools are not good because there are some fantastic programs out there at a great price. It's because more and more hospitals prefer BSN prepared nurses. A BSN is more competitive. There are RN to BSN bridge programs but who wants to go back to school again? That is additional time and money wasted. All in all, it was a really great investment to go to school there. I am paying off those student loans just fine. read more

My review is of the ELMSN-FNP program. I agree with the reviews below. We got our education online during covid, and many professors worked hard to get us materials and content in creative ways to meet board requirements. We had limited clinical hours due to many sites dropping students during covid. Carmen Ward-Sullivan, the program director of nursing prelicensure, does NOT care about leading her staff and supporting students. She is incredibly rude and dismissive and does not provide solutions or listen to ones you or your classmates provide. When contacted repeatedly regarding important subjects or issues, she simply doesn't reply or tells you to handle it with someone else. The administration, in general, does not listen to you, and many professors also express feelings of frustration and lack of support. Three have quit during our prelicensure that simply asked for more resources, such as TAs . Clinical rotations are good. Unfortunately SMU just broke their affiliation with Summit, which means that hospitals like Alta Bates and Summit Oakland, for example, are no longer accepting SMU student nurses. A word about final preceptorships: I lined up a senior preceptorship with a med-surg nurse who happily agreed to precept me. I got sign off from the unit manager and hospital, and I provided documentation early. The school not only assigned me to a group rotation with no preceptor, they gave my nurse contact to someone else! This is not what my preceptor agreed to nor fair. When I replied to the SMU administration about how Unprofessional this was, not only was I ridiculed for not knowing "my place" as a student, but that if I had a problem with it, they would "be happy to make an example of [me] in front of the cohort and explain that you all are a minuscule piece of a large puzzle in the process of preceptorship placement." As much as I wanted to write a rude response back, I was professional and asked for that meeting to commence because I was certainly not the only student encountering placement issues. No administration ever replied. I think the skills lab is great. I think there are a handful of really talented professors and some that should clearly retire. The reason with sticking with the program is the financial investment already made and exclusive rotations at places like John Muir and UCSF Children's hospitals. Just know going into the program you will have zero support from the administration. Just put your head down and work through the nonsense! Lastly, HEADS UP!!!!!!! For the Entry Level MSN-FNP or CM programs, you are NOT granted a BSN even though you technically meet ALL board requirements to have one. You get a ridiculous BSN-equivalency letter, which is like a fancy piece of toilet paper that employers scoff at when reviewing your application. read more

Be warned. This school does not have your best interests in mind. Administration is an absolute joke. There is no 1-1 preceptorship, you cannot go out and find your own preceptor for senior synthesis, there is a serious issue with scheduling/placing students with clinical instructors, and worst of all, zero accountability or acknowledgment of these deficits by the administrative team. Major turnover in staffing has occurred in my year here. The only upsides are that a lot of the professors are cool and that you will be able to sit for NCLEX, through their determination to continue applying for COVID waivers with the BRN so that they don't have to follow up on their promises they made before we were admitted. I'd urge you to go somewhere else, anywhere else, especially for the $80K+ price tag (ABSN). Be more FLEXIBLE about where you choose to go to nursing school, seriously. read more

Worst educational experience. Worst nursing school. Save your precious earned money and go to a community college or state school to get your RN license. You will thank yourself and will have less crippling debt. Not worth the +90k for solely the academics. Worst professors that are unsupportive and don't know how to teach. If you're going to spend 100k go to Stanford or a prestigious school. read more

7 Days! It took someone that long to return my call. They even went against their own promise of calling people back within 72 hours. When they finally did they call their interviews "GOLD". I wonder if this is a school nursing people wanna go to. How will they manage your need for questions or at least some basic customer service for that matter? Second thoughts about them now.... read more

This is the second review written on this nursing college. I was disappointed the first time but decided to go forward with admission. I entered the Masters program in Nursing FNP program. What a disappointment. The director ,Dr.Ward-Sullivan turned out to be more of a politician then someone to go to for help. The nursing instructors she hired to teach us were sub-standard and most seemed to be desperate choices because of poor faculty retention. If your looking for a preceptorship, not happening here. Also many practicals are simulated because lack of clinical instructors. These are probably the most important parts of any program. During my stay I experienced favoritism among cohort, faculty taking advantage of their positions by sleeping with the students (have actual resources so not made up), bullying, and being a disabled military veteran discrimination and poor veteran support. SMU is good at getting you to pass the NCLEX, but do poor job of educating the students. Please do your research before attending. They are charging a pretty price for admission. Look at San Mateo Community College which has a reciprocal with SF State program or UCSF, which also has a top notch program. Good luck with your search. read more

Just graduated from the BSN program at the Oakland campus. LOVE the faculty, the financial aid counselors and all other staff. Program is hard, as it should be. Cost is high, but I feel like I got my money's worth. The faculty are genuinely invested in your success. Two problems I had that did not affect my rating: 1. PM shift clinical students were not automatically assigned the later classes. I had PM clinicals on Wednesday and Thursday and had to make it in at 8:00 a.m. on Friday morning. This class was assigned based on rotating alphabetical priority groups. The faculty is aware and they are working with registration to stop this from happening. 2. Preceptorship assignments are usually not confirmed until after the beginning of your Senior II semester. Personally, I believe that this can and should be ironed out before the semester starts, especially when there is a 4 month break between Spring and Fall. That being said, I still received my assignment with plenty of time to complete my hours. This delay only caused my anxiety levels to rise. If you haven't already completed your prerequisites and you are considering pursing nursing as your future career, I highly recommend visiting one of SMU's partner schools. I attended Mills College for 1.5 years, maintained the required GPA and passed the TEAS and had GUARANTEED admission into SMU. Some argue that this is costly, however, my class size at Mills was 10 or less for nursing only classes, and I believe I saved money by saving time. Had I completed my prereq's somewhere else and then applied to SMU or another nursing program, I ran the risk of not being accepted and having to continuously apply for a spot. In an era where time = money, this is money well spent. Also, please know that SMU is highly respected and people think a lot of their graduates. You receive a quality education with quality resources and the prestige of top-rate school. read more

While most of the professors are kind and caring, the school administration spent more money and effort on remodeling and marketing than giving the students a good education. With students spending at least $60k/year, where is all the money going? As a former grad, I am ashamed to give this school a one star. Yet I feel it is the my moral obligation, however painful, to tell the truth to prevent other prospective students from making the same expensive mistake as I did. There are much cheaper and even better nursing education out there. read more

This review is based on my experience through the CRNA Program. I decided to go to grad school after already having a BSN and working full time as a critical care nurse, the first step was to check out the school website. Their website was easy to use, I made a free appointment with a counselor, Rosa, who answered all my questions and even made a list of all the requirements I still needed and emailed it to me after our appointment. She told me about the open house that the CRNA Program hosts once a semester. The application process was smooth and straight forward. Rosa and the application process deserve 5 stars. The program and university itself was slightly above average. The sim labs were excellent. The study rooms and library hours were not flexible especially during finals. There were no coffee shops/ many food options on the actual site. The professors were CRNAs that were working in the community. There were a lot of volunteer presenters during class, we didn't actually have professors who were qualified which was the biggest disappointment. For the cost of tuition, I would have expected more from the professors in a graduate program. Yes, it is still adult learning and everyone is responsible and accountable; you get out of it what you put into it. There was limited support for those students that have kids, military families, and special circumstances. My husband was in the Army and stationed in Monterey for the first year I was in the program and my clinical site was placed in Sacramento for 4 months. 3 days in Oakland and then Sac for clinical left me with only seeing my family 1-2 days/week plus the weekly commute from Sac- Monterey. I was sent to rotations 2-4 hrs away for more than 9 months of the program. They only have housing at one location and the rest is on you to find a place. They never placed me at the site nearest my home so that I could potentially get a job there, despite putting in multiple requests. The campus is not well- designed and very spread apart, sharing space with Sutter. There is a small patch of grass where students can have lunch and play volleyball/frisbee. The gym is tiny with a few older- model machines and some free weights in a room that feels much like a dungeon. The location is not in the safest area. The reputation of the program in the community was really good which facilitated getting a job after graduation. All- in- all it really is the only CRNA program in Northern California so if location is important, SMU is fine otherwise it is very expensive and I'm sure there are other programs that cost less for comparable quality. read more

AVOID AT ALL COST. It's a waste of money. This review is for the ABSN program at the San Mateo campus. As I'm sure many students have wrote about on and on again due to the lack of change, I can am reiterating the lack of professional staff in keeping organized and responding to students in a timely manner. Again, MCA3 needs more than one professor. The way Professor Bowman teaches is not by the book, and goes against what she says. It is almost as if the plan is to intentionally fail students. Students have to pay the school more money to retake the course. Students are getting scammed, getting cheated on the tuition based on one class where the teacher makes the exams outright unfair. It doesn't make sense that students have to get on a waitlist to get back into the program which can take up to a year. This is wasting people's time and money. This is only for the benefit of the school. We are already paying 80k a year, where is the money going? The staff are so unprofessional in filing paperwork on time. If it was done early and on time, we would be placed in clinicals earlier.. not scrambling to finish hours before graduating and worrying about not graduating. If I can give the school a 0, I would. I am disappointed how these reviews were not written before and how no one warned me about the school. Please fix the system. read more

One Star: Small Classes Two Stars: Convenient/Easy commutable location via BART (catch a shuttle to Alta Bates/Summitt and get dropped off in front of school) no star for: tuition --- really expensive; no lockers (at the time I went to school here couple years back - lugged everything around); parking sucked - if u didn't get there early u were assed out and had to find parking on the street) aah, 5 stars because they helped me w/ my career & several hundred other people I know and now we're all banking!! hahahaha ... right, it goes back to the student loans .. damn it - ok Four Stars read more

This is for the Physician Assistant Program (MPA). My real rating would be 4.5 stars (minus half a star for the cost). This program is excellent and has many great aspects that other more well-known programs do not have. I have heard positive things about the PA program (not so much about the nursing program) and I am very impressed so far. What sucks right now is all the construction at the hospital next door. Here's what SMU has: -Great teachers -small classes -awesome anatomy lab -tiny library but good for studying -easy access location -study abroad -volunteer abroad -very high 1st time pass rates on the PANCE -good reputation -hard as hell to get into (acceptance is 3% for the PA program) -very pricey tuition (but it will be worth it) -decent classroom facilities -awesomely awesome SIM lab! -no student cafe though :( read more

The instructors were supportive; the most significant negative is the unsupportive administration. I felt discrimination, inadequately prepared and overworked staff, ageism, and complete feeling that the administration did not care about their job or the students as customers. I'm glad to have graduated with my master's, but I would not have chosen to do so here had I known better. read more

Suppose to graduate and complete 200+ hours of preceptorship by 12/10, today is 10/11.... still don't have an assignment.... are you serious SMU? you've been working on this since June!! How am I suppose to complete so many hours this late into the semester???? This is the worst college I've ever attended. The BSN program is $62K/year, I've been unsatisfied from the very first semester, all the way to the last semester. The dramas between staffs are never ending, and the students suffer. Avoid this school! read more

Currently getting my education here as an FNP (ELMSN) While some of the classes and teachers are top rate, some are pathetically awful and need of serious re-staffing. When you are paying over $1k per credit you hope that the person teaching you has an IQ greater than 60, but this is unfortunately not always the case. Also, my class took the NCLEX on several dates in late December and early January, and we have yet to get licensed because the school did not send in our final grades to the BRN in a timely manner. This is just inconsiderate and frankly, a possible career-buster for a few people waiting on interviews. On the positive side, some of the faculty are life-changingly amazing and will inspire you to become a better person and will stuff your head so full of knowledge you wont be able to stand up straight. It is also across the street from Oasis and close to Commonwealth, so a few good places to eat and feed your brain. Shuttle from BART to campus makes it easy to commute here (and bike racks are abundant). read more

I just graduated from SMU with a BSN 12/2010. Even though the environment of getting into nursing school is/was quite competitive I was actually accepted to 3 schools in the bay area. So, if it is your dream to be a nurse, listen to your heart - you do have hope of getting into a nursing school. I chose SMU over De Anza simply because I wanted a BSN and was accepted to the other BSN degree universities. If I had not been accepted I would have been very happy getting my ADN at De Anza. I chose SMU over USF for two reasons: First, USF has fewer "returning students" in their BSN program and secondly, USF would not accept transfer units from SF State and CCSF - 2 semesters worth (such as world religions, speech, history etc.) whereas, SMU did. I would say 9 out of 10 teachers and clinical instructors at SMU are very good to excellent. In fact I loved all but 2 out of 20 of my teachers/clinical instructors here. They do care, they are compassionate, they have very high standards and yes - a few of them do have back injuries and are unable to work in clinical settings. Yet, their injuries in no way prohibit the constructive learning environment they provide. In fact I believe any SMU BSN graduate will have fewer workmens comp claims due to the diligence of these injured professors. Even with the majority of teachers being very good to excellent, this program is brutally rigorous. If you get into this program (or any program) be ready to open your heart and mind and make connections with your cohort members. The only reason I made it through this program) was due to attending almost every class, bonding with my cohort and studying more than I ever thought was humanly possible. I believe SMU gets beat up in reviews for two reasons and I hope they are reading this and take what is said in this review to heart. In my opinion (which is also the reason I am dropping a star) these reasons are in dire need of change. First, despite this being a private school, there is very little extra support when a student drops below a certain average or experiences a personality conflict with a clinical instructor. Instead of assisting nursing students who require "a little more" to make it through, SMU drops them. It is important to note - this is only the nursing program. It is a tight ship run by a tough cookie. The pain and stress associated to losing 5% of ones cohort every semester x 4 is to say the least UNHEALTHY. It hurts the class, cohort and school as a whole. So, for those of you who have made it through this long review, take head. Attending this private school does not mean you are guaranteed a timely graduation or any graduation. If you fall below a certain competency level grade wise or clinically (that is inclusive of A students), moving forward will be an issue. The second reason would be their disorganization. Support their disorganization with your own organization and you'll be fine. I do hear this latter issue is attributed to other nursing schools as well. With all of this said, I am very happy I went to SMU. SMU is one of the most diverse private schools in the area and I loved my multigenerational and multicultural classmates. As tough as it was, I know I and my classmates have gained considerable knowledge and compassion here. Just know - we did not come by it easily. To all of you reading this - I wish you blessings and luck in your future educational and nursing careers and I hope you will be joining the rest of us in this wonderful profession very soon. read more

I graduated from the BSN program in 2017. Some of nursing instructors would continuously repeat stories of how students were kicked out of the program and it was a constant underlying threat to students by the staff. After already paying upfront over 20k per semester and investing in this program, we had the added stress of instructors who did not want to see some of it succeed while other students were favored. I did have a few notably good clinical instructors and a couple good classroom instructors, but overall I wish I went to a state program instead of this program. I did not feel welcome by staff or the other students and I couldn't leave the program after already spending so much on it and signing my loan papers. To anyone considering this program think twice !!! Also they're not accommodating to any personal / family issues so take note and pray that nothing happens to you personally during the course of the program (they also raise tuition constantly and while you're enrolled ). I would NOT recommend this school based on how I was treated. The stress of becoming a nurse is hard enough, let alone having people who don't know how to teach isn't safe. AT ALL. Most of my nursing skills if not all came after I got my first job as a nurse due to lack of teaching. Please consider another school. read more

I went to school there and it was great! Wonderful people to be connecting with! Very diverse faculty and staff that really care about their students read more

Went to talk to the counselor about my prereqs...She was very nice and helpful. The ladies in the office are straight up bitches. I walked in to ask where to go since I had never been and they looked at me like I was stupid. Not a good first impression! People pay A LOT of money to go to private schools and because of that bad vibe I am looking elsewhere. I will not be going back...get some ladies with positive attitudes who want to be there. It's also not in the nicest area. read more

After finishing my junior year in the BSN program at Samuel Merritt University, I am passionate about dissuading students from attending this institution. With experience at several universities and community colleges and in the private sector at the management level, I am convinced that SMU does not live up to the standards set by other academic institutions. My most grievous complaint is the incredibly poor standard of academics. The teachers are simply nurses who have decided to leave their jobs for one reason or another. Some are pursuing teaching due to bad backs while others are teaching at SMU while they pursue advanced degrees. I attend less than 20% of classes because the classroom environment is neither stimulating nor challenging. SMU is a great school if you're looking to skip classes and teach yourself, however, why would someone pay such high tuition to teach themselves? Beyond the abominable academic standards, the school hardly lives up to its claims as technologically advanced. The "world-class" simulation lab is more of a joke than anything else. You learn by interacting with REAL patients, not by giving fake injections to fake manikins with a laughing senior student talking in the manikin's microphone. There is hardly a class that starts within 20 minutes of on time due to the faculty's inability to connect the computer with the projector. All in all, SMU is a school with an incredible amount of potential. Their location combined with their hospital connections are two vital ingredients to producing a world-class nursing program. As of 2010, SMU has absolutely failed to build any such program. I regret every day having made the decision to attend the school. I hope that my experience can help divert future students from making my same mistakes. Good luck in your search, nursing is truly an incredible profession. read more

There are many of us going back to college for the 2nd time, either to further our education or simply going into a different field/career. I believe it's safe to say that when people hear the phrase " SAMUEL MERRITT COLLEGE", the only thing that comes to mind is "THE SCHOOL OF NURSING" - although, the school offers many other degrees in health science and etc. First of all, it's a PRIVATE SCHOOL and they have 4 campus thru out the bay area. 2nd, they are NOT CHEAP (i.e the ABSN program's tuition is 50,000... without adding up all the other stuffs like books, rent, transportations, etc) - however, they are BIG ON LOANS. Last, you will sense a level of arrogant and everything appears to be SUGAR COATED. My belief: education is a GIFT and it's really what you make of it. Obviously, if everyone can get into a prestigious university/colleges that would be great but it does not guarantee you anything. As an individual, you still need to take further steps to sell yourself in your career. Personal msg to the faculty @ Samuel Merritt: As a faculty, don't speak ill of other degrees or other schools. Embrace and appreciated the people that are interested in your school but are also applying to other schools - we're just trying to increase our chances to get accepted into a Nursing program. Spend more time going over what the programs have to offer and less time what loans are available and how much we will make as a nurse. read more

Do not waste your time applying to the San Mateo ABSN campus program. Professor Bowman loves failing out people with questions that do not make logical sense even if it has been reviewed with other top professors. She also tests you on things you never even reviewed in class. As a result anywhere from 4- 17 students have failed on each cohort who went to top schools like UCLA or Berkeley. Cohorts have tried suing her, but the school does nothing about it and her husband is an attorney. This school does not care about the welfare of its students, family or finances. They just want more money. If you deliberately have such a high deliberate failure rate, the state, ombudsman needs to investigate this place. Is this place a scam? read more

We went to the admissions office today at Telegraph St, Oakland to inquire about nursing classes and an admission personnel who was just sitting pretty in the office seemed annoyed by exasperatingly sighing when we asked about the said program. I wasn't in the mood to put him in his place because we were there for an important matter. Samuel Merrit, teach your staff some good manners and right conduct!!! read more

This review is based on my experience in the ELMSN program at the Sacramento Campus. The professors and program itself is wonderful however, the utter disorganization of the administrative staff, in particular Dean Ward-Sullivan, is unforgivable. The Dean is entirely incompetent at her job and a waste of students time. Expect a two day "orientation," that teaches you absolutely nothing and involved zero pre-planning by the staff. Through out the program were given very important information, such as clinical placement, need for forms, and schedules at the last minute, if at all. There is zero respect for the students time and honestly ever interaction I had with her reinforced the idea that Samuel Merritt is a money hungry University that mills out nurses. That being said, I do not regret finishing the program there but think they need to make some major changes to get organized. read more

My long post of my not-so-stellar experience in applying to SMU's BSN program: After having a good experience with Karena from the SMU Chat Auditorium, I've emailed her a few more times regarding questions that came up during my application process for the BSN program. Maybe it got really busy- I'm not sure, but after the chat auditorium she stopped responding to ALL of my e-mails. I gave her at least a few weeks in between e-mails to respond, thinking that she may just be a little busy. I think it is not excusable for her to ignore my e-mails COMPLETELY, as I was in the delicate and exhilarating process of applying to this school. There was No acknowledgment to my questions whatsoever. I also tried calling a few times to see if I could just reach her through phone in case she was too bombarded by e-mails. After several calls on different days and no answer, I left ONE courteous voicemail asking her to call me back when she is available. Never received a single call back from her, and also no one followed back up with me through e-mail. I was completely left hanging throughout my application process, slowly losing excitement over applying to SMU's BSN program. I think it is very important for applicants to "buy with confidence" when they are applying for nursing school. Although SMU has limited seating for transfer students and can afford to be very "selective" through their own criteria of who they feel would be the best candidate, we are still customers at the end who may end up paying thousands of dollars if accepted into their program, and deserve to be treated as such; not treated as another number in their large pool of applicants. Their website also states that it is perfectly fine for students to apply with "courses in progress or planned." It does NOT state on their website that transfer students who have Four or more prerequisites (in my case, I was only missing Modern World History, Philosophy, Interpersonal Communication, Developmental Psychology) will be DISQUALIFIED from the application process (As far as what Rosa Alvarado told me over the phone). Prior to this knowledge I applied thinking I still had a good chance as I took Physiology, Anatomy, Microbiology and Nutrition and received A's. While I feel that may still be a valid reason to not accept a student based on not completing all their prereqs, I thought it was a sneaky way for the school to earn a little extra money off application fees from students who never had a chance to begin with. After receiving the news that I did not get accepted, I spoke with Rosa Alvarado over the phone and she basically told me the amount of prereqs I had left automatically disqualified me. What followed afterwards in our phone conversation completely turned me off from wanting to apply to the program next semester: Me: "So how many students were accepted for Fall 2014?" Rosa: "About 7 transfers were accepted for Fall. Historically, students have had a higher chance of being accepted in Spring semester. I recommend for you to reapply for Spring 2015." Me: And how many students were accepted last Spring? Rosa: *paused a moment to think*. "About 9 students. 7 versus 9 students accepted? That is not a big difference in numbers at all. In my application, I submitted a letter of recommendation from a doctor whom I used to work with, and also one from a dentist. Rosa stated that my LOR were not good enough references as they preferred LOR from nurses or someone in the medical field, or instructors to rave about my abilities to study well under stress as the program is rigorous. Since when did LOR from past employers (in my case, a doctor) not "good enough" to describe my character? Rosa failed to mention about this reference and kept telling me that nurse recommendations/instructors are the best and that mine were not the best choices to use in my application. I thought my grades in my science classes would be a good enough indicator of my ability to handle the academic rigor of the nursing program. All in all I felt that Rosa was just trying to pick at my application to seek out reasons that I didn't get accepted. In reality, they did not even have enough spaces to consider most of the transfer applicants. Afterall, they only had about 7 seats to fill in for transfers. For those who are still interested in applying, I wish the best of luck for you but as for me, I've completely lost all interest in SMU's program as I didn't feel that I received the service expected of a stellar nursing program. The absence of response to my e-mails and phone calls completely deteriorated any lingering excitement I had left. I was accepted into another prestigious BSN program closer to my home and MUCH happier with them as they are completely on top of their customer service and truly care about responding to all my questions in a timely and professional manner. Samuel Merritt University, you are no longer my dream school. read more

This is about the OTD program. After submitting my application I received an email from OTD department stating that I need to come in for a writing test and interview. After driving through the ghettos of Oakland and passing crack houses while drug dealers were dealing and making their rounds, I arrived at the school! (keep in mind the OTD program cost 150k) That day approximately 50 other people were also called in to attend the interview session. I noticed that the majority of the students who had gotten into last years program that were volunteering that day were either White or Asian whose ages ranged from 24-30. I looked around to see if there were other students with different ethnic backgrounds and age groups, possibly older like 35-40 years young, but all I could see were infants who knew nothing about life but somehow gotten accepted to the OTD program????? I did not see any African Americans or people of Middle Eastern origin. Sure they had a couple of Hispanics, but that was for pretending to have "diversity" at the school. Although hundreds of people with diverse backgrounds apply to this program, there is a slim chance of getting in. Samuel Merritt seems to discriminate on age and race and they only accept rich White and Asian applicants. Do not waste application money with them or OTCAS ! Bunch of racist crooks! read more

Terrible! one word! this is in regards to their MOT program. the admission staff are the laziest people ever! they don't ever respond to your questions (I am talking about Ms. Rosa Alvera do in particular) she is rude and has no respect for prospective students. I am wondering why a lady which such a terrible personality should in charge of the program. boooo read more

DO NOT WASTE your time at this school! This review is based on the ABSN program at SMU. Unfortunately they don't tell you exactly how the program is built, they give you HESI exams at the end of EACH CLASS, without PREPARING YOU! If you don't have enough points with your 4 exams, when you take the HESI and you get a lower grade you are at risk of not pssing that class! Just because of ONE EXAM!! That HESI are NCLEX-RN style questions, and it counts 15% toward your grade. The final and the HESI exams are usually the same day, that means you don't have time to prepare yourself to get a good grade on the final or on the HESI. It is a total of SEVEN HESIS during the entire program! Since it is a private school, they will give you a second change for 8K to retake that class you failed. However you will restart have to get on a waitlist to get back into the program when they have a spot for you in another cohort, which can take up to a year. This is wasting people's time and money. Honestly, for a program that costs 80K (tuition only) without counting books and living expenses.Communication sucks, there is no structure. ZERO STAR for poor effort and communication. Future students look they NCLEX passing grade on their webpage, that % it's only for those that COMPLETED the program, not counting those that have started and got out of the program before the end! I think SMU USED TO BE a nice school with nice programs, but in fact all they want it's your MONEY! read more