Tired of the waiting lists for CA public universities, nursing students increasingly turn to expensive private programs
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For Julio Rivera, transferring from a local community college to a bachelor’s program in nursing was always a top priority. As someone who enjoyed helping others, nursing seemed like a natural career. While caring for an aunt with renal failure and Type 2 diabetes, a conversation with her solidified the belief that nursing was his calling.
“She said, ‘You have it. You can really tell that you care about people,’” Rivera said.
The pandemic put a pause on Rivera’s education as hospitals had difficulty accommodating student nurses. Rivera applied to public programs in San Bernardino County, but many of them were severely limiting clinical training, or not accepting new applicants at the time.
Instead, the 33-year-old chose an increasingly popular option — a private nursing program that would have a six-figure sticker price but guarantee him a timely degree. After finishing his pre-reqs, he transferred from Mt. San Antonio College to the Ontario campus of West Coast University.
Private nursing schools are teaching more students each year, filling in the gaps as California hospitals face increasing staffing shortages and public, four-year universities struggle to grow. According to the California Board of Registered Nursing, in 2021 nearly 64,300 students applied for just 16,600 spots in associate, bachelor’s, and master’s degree nursing programs. About 55% of those spots were at private institutions.
Prospective registered nurses have several pathways to their career. Associate degrees typically take two years to complete before students can take the licensing exam to become registered nurses. Bachelor’s degrees take more time with more intensive training, and increase the likelihood of career advancement and preferable hospital placement.
Although public and private programs each graduated about 6,700 nurses from all levels of degree programs in 2022, private colleges graduated three times the number of students with bachelor’s degrees as public schools. Public programs accounted for over five times as many associate degree completions than their private counterparts.
While public programs cost a fraction of private school tuition, the number of students graduating from private programs has doubled over the past 10 years while the number from public programs has remained stagnant. Students who seek to complete a bachelor’s of science in nursing program in California and advance their nursing career are faced with a difficult and unpredictable cost-benefit analysis: Apply to competitive UC and CSU public nursing programs with average tuition prices totaling about $39,000 or secure an education at a private nursing program for an average of $130,000.
Qualified applicants clamor for coveted bachelor’s program spots
Sima Sadaghiani, a nursing student at University of San Francisco, knew she wanted to be a nurse after spending time in the hospital with a sick family member during high school.
“I wanted something that would help me grow and develop and change other people’s lives,” Sadaghiani said. While in the hospital, she saw how nurses play a role beyond just administering medication, oftentimes providing mental support and educating patients about health and wellness.
When Sadaghiani applied to nursing school two years ago, she applied to private and public programs all over the state. She said the process of getting into a UC or CSU nursing program felt “all by chance,” even if an applicant had perfect grades and pre-career experiences. When she did not get into the public programs she applied to, she chose University of San Francisco because of its small class sizes, proximity to where she grew up in the Bay Area, and diversity of the patients in the area.
According to the state registered nursing board, the number of qualified applicants for bachelor’s programs has nearly tripled from 12,476 in 2012 to 35,474 in 2021, the last year for which this data is available. There was only space for about a quarter of the total qualified applicants statewide. The board serves as the licensing and regulatory body for all nurses in the state and is responsible for approving all expansions to nursing programs operating in California.
West Coast University boasts one of the largest nursing programs in the state, with 3,089 bachelor’s students across its three campuses in California, plus one in Texas and another in Florida. It costs around $146,000 to complete the school’s nursing bachelor’s degree.
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