Pacific Lutheran University Rankings by Salary Score™

PROS: The nursing dept has a good reputation. Many undergrads are hired before graduation and most pass NCLEX on the first attempt. Some professors go above and beyond and take on more than required. They deserve so much more recognition. This includes clinical instructors, who have stood up for students so they’re not penalized for factors out of their control. The BSN patho class is rigorous and extremely valuable; this professor should teach across all levels for consistency. Under normal circumstances,... Read More students get more clinical hours than required (600 required, >800 offered). This is what saved the class of 2020 when they pulled everyone from clinical. The campus is well maintained, and the cafeteria is good, albeit expensive. There are good volunteer and leadership opportunities. CONS: Disorganization and miscommunication. Later in the program, we kept hearing, "in nursing, you need to learn to adapt to change," but there’s a point where the organization needs to take accountability. Senior year theory is basically self-taught; it would make no difference if it were online or in person, other than saving a trip. Preceptorships need to be reorganized to where placements, contact info, and specific schedules are determined between the school and hospitals ahead of time. Students should NOT have to panic and grasp in the dark for info. Assignments should be graded in reasonable time; if students are expected to meet due dates, professors should too. A lot of papers weren’t returned until after final grades were due. Cost of attendance now exceeds $50k/year. You’ll likely owe thousands, even if you get tens of thousands in scholarships. There are some discrepancies in financial aid here too. Classmates on a 2nd bachelor's or didn't qualify for aid had to keep calling to ask why they suddenly owed more AFTER finalizing private loans. They had to scramble and run to the bank for even more loans. One former student literally had to start a GoFundMe so they could start the semester on time. Resources are distributed unevenly. The ads are attractive, saying 90-something percent of students receive aid. However, it doesn’t make sense that there are passionate, community-devoted, high-achieving students who applied for nursing scholarships and heard nothing. Then there was one student who continuously received numerous scholarships, as many as 5 or more new awards or endowments at a time, and made sure we all knew about it. The criteria or rationale for this was ambiguous and unclear. Finally, the university offered 2021 students tuition relief but offered no relief for the graduating class of 2020, despite a massive lack of support and decline in the quality of education from March to May 2020, which we will still be paying full price for. OVERALL: I worked hard for this degree and value my education. I value the professors who supported us, and the friends who supported each other. But, I can't ignore the cons, especially how expensive it is to go here. If I could do it all over again, I’d probably go the community college route and bridge up instead. I will be encouraging my family and friends to consider this perspective before making decisions on where to apply.

What can I say. The entry level MSN is a borderline scam to get you to prepare you to be a care and outcomes manager. Except no one really hires those. There are no practical skills learned through this program. It is the equivalent of doing a first year of a nurse practitioner doctorate and then dropping out. You get the "master's" degree title, but nothing to show for it. It's like a jack of all trades degree, master of none. It's definitely a fast track program for non-nurses to get a degree fast. But the... Read More program/curriculum sets you up to take a bunch of courses that have no relevance toward clinical practice. A lot of "fluff." The only practical classes in the master's portion is advanced patho and even that was poorly taught and crammed into 8 weeks. Medical doctors have to spend a good full year of pathophysiology and they expected you to master it in 8 weeks. Rubbish. They didn't even require advanced health assessment or advanced pharmacology..... the three bread and butter courses for ANY advanced practice nurse and they only offered 1 out of the 3. This program is just a big money grab. You get a useless CNL certification at the end of the program. Why not allow the students to end with an NP license or at least grandfather everyone who took this scam of a program to continue toward taking necessary classes to get the NP? I have no clue; but I have very high suspicions that it's fueled by money. After all, it is a liberal arts private christian school. It has no public funding; it doesn't pride itself as being a research based school. It doesn't offer much nor does it invest in their nursing students. It was one of the biggest regrets of my life going here. I could have spent 1/5 the cost and just went for an ABSN and then go for the DNP for a fraction of the cost elsewhere. If you don't want to feel like you were scammed, incompetent due to your education experience (literally had to self-study content outside of class and homework in order to even hope to pass the N-CLEX), and don't want to have 6-figure debt looming above your gravestone when you die, do not go here! RUN; JUST RUN!