Simmons University

This has been the worst experience of my life! They have double standards for themselves vs. students. Their clinical placement team is a joke! They have no heart and don’t give a crap about their students all they care about the students, nor the blood sweat and tears they put into their work. They are less than forthcoming and will say and do anything to keep you from leaving until you are trapped. I feel like I’m a number and not a person! Some major hospitals chains refuse to take Simmons University... Read More students. They don’t care about your life, your situation. Sometime find myself wanting to cry because I was excepted into so many wonderful and highly rated FNP programs and I turned them down because I believed the lies. I you have other options, go elsewhere! Run for the hills. Their curriculum Is rigorous and I respect that, however, their teaching methods could be updated because they don’t understand the first thing about what a reverse classroom means! Don’t fall into their trap or believe their lies.

I was recruited by Simmons within the past year or so to attend their FNP masters program. The program was sold to me as a virtual classroom with many class options and available times to attend, which was perfect for a full-time worker with a family. There are two tracts the part time and the full time. I was interested in the part time, which would allow me to work while going to grad school.
As soon as I was accepted there was a contingency of attending a refresher course. I felt a little odd... Read More about this but agreed and took the class. It was a great class and I enjoyed the instructor. Very professional and cared if you gained knowledge from the material presented in the async. Fast forward to entering the program, this was not the case. The credit load was low but still required 3 classes. For example, one semester on the part time track, 7 credits. Full time is 9 credits. Expectations of working 40 hrs. a week and taking 3 classes is an unreal expectation. Then came registration time where apparently, they fail to tell you that all students in the entire school are pooling for the same slots as you. Also, you do not have priority in registration. Its a credit-based system, meaning the more credits you have the better position you are in to get the class you need. As one can tell, if you have work hour needs and are trying to ger a specific class, makes it difficult. I asked for help from the registration dept and student retention. They were nice in communication but still was met with the its not my problem attitude.
Once registered for class the instructor/professors have been subpar. When asking for clarification on the material, your question is met with this is grad school and were not here to teach during session you should already know this. That is not an acceptable answer. Especially when you get to listen to the audio files that are being taught in the brick and mortar. There is teaching and kindness there. The material that is provided as async or bi directional does not answer all your questions. As you would expect to go over that in class it is met with resistance when asked. In fact, the section instructor only wanted to do case studies, reading verbatim from the answer sheet.
Another issue has been the high turnover in online instructor and student success advising. Administration fired an instructor in the last 4 weeks of class and didnt disclose this. An email came out from the fired individual who was in shock.
I would be willing to answer any questions if you are thinking of attending Simmons University. There were some very scathing reviews of the college and some very kind ones. I do believe by the most recent ones which are not good, are the most current of the administration and professors. There is disorganization, low quality educational experience and unprofessionalism.

I have recently started my program at simmons in social work. Thus far it is an expectional program the proffessors are competent and the material is very engaging and prepares you to work in the social work field. This program is perfect for people who want to work in a therapeutic setting it is a clinical focused program so it is about the micro level of social work. So if you want to be a macro level social worker its probably not the best fit. My only compliant is that some professsors will take... Read More a whole semster to grade one assignment and it can be nerv racking that you have no clue what your grade in the class is until the end.

This university calls itself diverse, when caring little for its actual minority students. I stayed for a whole year before transferring out. The academics are boring, mindless, and effortless. I did more work in high school than I did at this college. I had far too many bad experiences with professors who were strict in ways that didn't matter outside of their class. I felt like every class I took for my major (english/cs) was worthless, and the opportunities were far and few between. It felt impossible... Read More to make real friends, or any real connections. Reslife is awful and the dorms are too expensive for what you get, and the food options were miniscule. They try to promote their small school experience, but what you actually get is low quality half-a**** academics that disguises itself as distinguished.

I will warn you now: if you are looking for a good education look at Boston University not Simmons. This place is crawling with people who cant handle varying opinions or ideas. The professors are all unbelievably conceited for no reason. For example, I was told I was special needs in a GRADUATE SCHOOL PROGRAM by a professor who simply did not like me. Mind you, I graduated with a 3.8 from undergrad and have had no diagnoses prior. The school will promise internships but will not give you an internship... Read More that is 1) remotely close to your specialty 2) easy to get to 3) adjust schedules for people who work on the side. If I were to give you a tip: this school is a business only and will suck the money out of your wallet. They do not care about you or your success and unless you enjoy wearing tails around and howling at every person you see, this is not the place for you. Do not waste your money, time or education at this school. You are better than this school even without a college degree. I did not learn a single thing and I've heard this from fellow students who are also debating on leaving because of 1) price and 2) lack of support. Spend your money elsewhere. Simmons is a sorry excuse for a school. Simmons, you are a disgrace to the education system. I hope for the benefit of humanity this school is shut down.

This program is absolutely terrible. The asynchronous work is outdated and the mandatory 2 hour weekly synchronous sessions are a waste of time. Only about 50% of my instructors seemed to know anything about practicing as an APRN. The course leads could care less how you do and at times it seems they hope a few students will fail because they are only interested in taking your money. Also, the most difficult courses in the program are only 2 credits which is absurd. When you begin Advanced Health... Read More Assessment you find out the first day that you'll need to spend between 8-12 hours of studying and writing SOAP notes and that you should consider going part-time at your job or just not work altogether. They don't give you any heads up prior to the class starting that it will take over your entire life. PLEASE LOOK ELSEWHERE! I'm actually considering switching to another FNP program.

I attended for 2.5 years in a Masters program, part of a career change late in life. I ended up abandoning this idea because the school is producing FAR too many graduates for the very few available jobs in this field, and I could see I was unlikely to be hired without moving to a far less desirable part of the country. While a few of the classes were good, and I picked up a few skills (basic coding, for example, which one can learn online for free), overall the instruction was uninspired. What really... Read More motivated me to write this review, however, was the utter and complete lack of responsiveness on the part of the administration. Usually if I had a question, no one responded to it, or if they did, it was only perfunctory. I NEVER had the feeling that anyone cared about how I was doing, how things were going, etc. When I withdrew from one class and submitted a scathing review internally, NO ONE ever got back to me about any of the points I raised. I am forced to conclude that Simmons exists solely for the purpose of making money, extracting tuition payments from all comers, even if they know full well that there are few jobs in that field, and that you would be unlikely to be able to pay back your student loans (for the record, I paid upfront, using savings, so this was not an issue for me). I'd say that this was NOT a positive experience overall, although certain small aspects of it were amusing (doing projects with classmates, for ex).

I recently graduated and passed FNP/AANP boards within 3 weeks of graduating. I will be the first to admit that I was overwhelmed with the learning and I had to struggle to keep up at times but it was all necessary information. I chose a program that was accelerated on purpose so that I wouldn't spend the next 3-4 years in school- because it was condensed then the workload was fairly heavy. I worked part-time and school full-time. I am a single mom, depended on financial aid and studied hard. I graduated... Read More on time and didn't fail. I have been a nurse for about 10 years and in my opinion any online school will require you to know a certain amount before even getting accepted. New grads who come into an online class and expect it to be similar to their BSN etc... which it is not. You must be self-motivated and stay on-task. I did not have a dating life, social calendar, or much sleep for that matter... lol... but I passed and now I am an NP. That is the end goal and I'm happy to have gone to Simmons. I made friends due to live class sessions. The videos were long but ALL necessary info- it was either for clinical practice or for testing reasons. I watched them any time I had 5 mins. I would watch them 2 times- once for class and once for the test... again I passed all the classes even though one class was CLOSE! Whew- thank goodness for studying. Please consider this school. I have friends at other schools who are now jealous... I started after them and have completed before them (they are in 3.5 year programs, part-time), I have passed boards and now FNP... I would have student loans no matter what so just getting done was first priority! Good luck to everyone!

Please stay away from this school. The videos are poor quality, you have several to do in one sitting and the technology is the worst platform I have encountered. The videos to do homework stop in the middle and this means you have to get out and start all over again. In some cases, you have up to 65 slides to view. Not good. I have complained about it to the tech support and they make you feel as if it is your problem or an isolated case then come to find out there is a Simmons FB feed where students... Read More are talking about it. I mention this to my student support your student advisor they say they will do something but it's not fixed. This in itself will take you an additional 1 hour to just get through the slides aside from trying to accomplish your homework. Just be aware of this school they are charging a lot in tuition for something that is not working efficiently or effectively. This school is not worth your money. The instructors have emergencies they have to tend to then you are backed up with two weeks of work. It is okay for them to do this, but if you are late on your assignment with the synchronize (aka online quiz assignment) they knock off 50% with no hesitation. In all my life of thus far having a good academic education, this has been the worst! If I were you stay away from this school. I should have seen all the red flags from the beginning it started when I put myself on the wait list and it was not moving for weeks, I was down to one week before classes. I had to get answers from faculty in admissions to assign me. The registration is backwards you cant register for any courses while on the waitlist. otherwise, the first term I would have been left out now, I wish I would have been left out and not wasted my money on my first term!!! I am not going any further with the second term, not worth it! You should have second thoughts and research other schools that do not charge high tuition for c***** service!!! This school will shatter your dream!

I am completely dissatisfied with this social work program. I went to this school with such high hopes and it is so incredibly disorganized. The classes listed on their website are actually not the classes that you take, and are even assigned to the wrong year. Everyone seems aloof. I literally have no idea what classes I am taking next semester. One of my professors is a self-centered jerk who does not listen to or support his students. The funniest thing is that he doesn't even teach! I came to... Read More this school to learn and my professor claims he is "so busy" and has the students teach the course. Is that legal? I want my money back. There are so many other schools of social work that pay you to go because they actually care. This is definitely a third-tier fallback school. Who and what is Simmons? I am disgusted. If you are going to a social work school in Boston or MA, there is a significant reason why there are at least 3 schools that are rated way higher than this one. What a joke.

Simmons is improving their program, but I'm not sure if it's for the best. The original program that I just graduated from was not what I was sold when I enrolled. The live classes were not helpful, they basically were time wasters. Only a select few professors actually taught and made sure you knew the content. They state it's a flipped classroom model...but it's not really. The idea of the flipped classroom is for students to get their lecture component and their didactic component prior to class... Read More and then come together for a guided discussion to solidify the information for the week. However the asynchronous material did not provide actual lectures it was just recordings of teachers reading slides filled with errors. Not to mention those weren't even updated in years and much of the material was outdated. Then there was of course lots of reading, to be expected and to be completed prior to live class. But in live class there were no directed discussions it was half the time spent in breakout groups where you frantically tried to copy and paste enough information to complete vague and pointless "case studies"...which is in quotes because they were not cases they were a sentence and the rest the group would make up so no real direction as to how to approach, work a differential and come up with a diagnosis and treatment, which would have been helpful, but why do that. Then the other half of class are the groups reading them out loud. If attendance were not mandatory no one would have gone to these live classes. I was fortunate enough to get several professors who actually cared enough to teach, but most were just place holders sitting there biding their time each week for a pay check. Clinical sites are placed for you, which is great because they are hard to come by, but some students didn't even get that benefit depending on where they lived. There is no understanding for actual family emergencies, hospitalizations, birth of a child, deaths....they expect you to take your exams, turn in your papers and be in class no matter what...and it doesn't need to be that way. They have since I started (but I didn't get the benefit of this) implemented tutors for some classes....this has brought the passing rates up by a large percentage. The only problem with that is the people who are passing because of tutors are less prepared to actually practice, so this is not a good change. Being more flexible with students who are passing on their own makes more sense to me. But that is Simmons, always chaotic. I just graduated with a 3.8 cumulative average, so I have done well in the program, but the stress they impose on their students is not needed in order for their students to succeed. If I had it to do over again I would have chosen a cheaper school because what I was sold on (and why I was OK with the extra money) was not delivered, so buyer beware.

Where do I even start? Simmons College lacks sympathy. They claim to want to empower women and that their online course matches the in classroom experience. Some serious false claims. Don't get me wrong Beal is such a lovely women and does her best but this online FNP needs great TLC!!! The program is like healthcare ever-changing. This semester the passing rate is 79%. Next semester passing rate is 83% No such things a consistency. I have experience something similar during my undergrad at another... Read More institution. However, they at least kept the passing rate the same for students admitted prior to x date/year. I do not understand how you are going to pay for a program to receive clearance for clinicals when you have yet to 1) pass the health assessment class & 2) pass immersion. If you fail health assessment and/or immersion you paid to be cleared for clinicals and you will not use it. I have left the program as have many (2018). I wish current and graduating students all the best. I am disappointed in Simmons College.

I would strongly suggest to anyone looking to attend this program to just go elsewhere. There are many programs out there that are half the price and are rated much much higher. I don't know where to start, but overall this is the worst educational experience I have ever had and I hold several other degrees. The asynchronous platform that they pride themselves on is horrendous at best. Some of the information is outdated and most of the professors just read off the slides. In fact, they often mispronounce... Read More terms or erroneously say mg instead of mcg. It really makes you believe that they don't know the material themselves. These lectures also only skim the surface of the material and they require you to read hundreds of pages of material every week. There is nothing wrong with being rigorous as they call themselves, but at least have the decency to actually teach the material. The readings should be supplemental and not the complete basis for learning. They love to collect their $10K a semester that it costs to go there, but they are not willing to update their learning materials to reflect current treatment guidelines. Oh, but they did have the money to publish a full color high quality magazine with Michelle Obama on the front. They clearly are more invested in advertising than their educational materials. The testing is terrible as they won't give you any clue as to what is going to be on the exams. You are not allowed to review your test afterward, so you will never know what you missed. They will review missed concepts with you at your request, but because they haven't changed their tests in 4 years, they won't tell you the actual questions that you missed. Here's a suggestion, change the tests each semester and you won't have to worry about the questions getting out on the internet. I could go on and on, but it is not worth my time. Bottom line: go elsewhere unless your goal is to get a sub-par education.

As I near the end of my part-time MSN/FNP program at Simmons I wanted to leave behind some positive feedback for future students. I graduate in 6 weeks and I can not be more excited and ready. With two small children at home, I decided I would select an online program so that I could have the flexibility to work part time, but still be successful by maintaining the extremely competitive grades that Simmons demands. The online research for NP programs lead me to Simmons, even though I live on the... Read More west coast, partly for the school's fantastic reputation, but also for the incredibly high, first time, board pass rates for graduates. Now that I am nearly done I can say that the rigor and quality of the program challenges students to be proficient and skilled in the techniques and knowledge required to pass NP boards and proudly practive as a midlevel provider. The work I completed in my research course was selected to be shared at a nursing conference in Las Vegas in 2017; Simmons encourages quality and inspired work, independently and with others. In order to support new and current students they developed a Student Ambassador Program that allows current students to mentor and guide those that may have questions about the program, or those that have hit a rough patch. This group is also responsible for sharing valuable advice via a live webinar to each cohort that completes the immersion weekened in Boston; adive that supports success during their clinical year. Student support specialists are beyond fantastic and I couldn't have gotten this far without them. The academics are challenging, as they should be, and every term improvements are made to the curriculum, elevating the quality of an already excellent platform. Meeting face to face once a week for each class creates a sense of belonging and this minimizes the alienation that can accompany online programs. Clinical placement specialists guide the students through the clinical year and maximize resouces in and near one's own community so that pediatric and women's health competencies are met. Working in collaboration with my placement specialist helped me organize my schedule and solidify my rotations early on, which I highly recommend. Simmons is my soon to be alma mater and I am proud to say so. I feel prepared, my skills are strong, and I am ready to start practicing.

I am writing this review to combat all of the negative ones. So far I have had a great experience. All of my professors except one (in my biology bridge class) were very supportive, answered all of my questions, and really tried to teach the material. They were personable and did things like email me back at 1 am, meet with me outside of class to talk things through, and offer encouragement. Much like a true university professor would do. I truly think that Simmons has taken the negative reviews... Read More to heart and they are trying to change (and succeeding) They have completely revamped the pharmacology course and I am the first co hort to be in it. I really like it. The content is challenging still, but it SHOULD BE. But the class itself is better and easier to understand. Simmons takes accademic rigior seriously and if you are looking for an easy program that you can just do on the side, Simmons is NOT for you. If you are looking for a rigorous education that will prepare you to be an excellent clinican, and you are willing to put in the work and sacrifice, this is the school for you. It's up to you to decide. There is a reason that this program has such an excellent pass rate. It is not for those that want an easy degree. It is NOT another "diploma mill". It is a true education. We have real classes and real exams and real expectations. But that's what I wanted and that's what I'm paying for. If i wanted a program I just did tons of discussion board posts on, I would chose a much cheaper degree. I do think a lot of the reviews on here are old and from the program just trying to work kinks out. As far as the preceptors go, I'm just finishing my 2nd semester part time and I just had someone reach out to me to formulate a game plan for preceptors so I think they are trying to be pro active and get things sorted early. Only time will tell. Basically what I'm saying is, don't believe everything you read on the internet. I do not regret my choice and I would chose this program again.

I was very pleased with the program. It prepared me all the way. While in the program, at times, I was frustrated at the methods chosen. Some of the self taught classes, the posts, deadlines, the constant paperwork, team projects, trying to figure stuff out, and documenting every detail all prepare you for practicing in the real world. I realized it more when I was out. Not everyone made it and I dont think it is designed to be that way, but when it comes to taking the exam that counts all of my... Read More cohort passed. This program challenges you to think outside the box and not just have everything handed to you. Did I like it then, NO! Do I appreciate it now, YES! And my patients appreciate it as well. I say hang in there if you are currently in the program. It is worth it in the end.

I did all my research before applying to this program. Even though it was very expensive, I was impressed with the classes. I had a horrible experience. I didn't continue after one semester and lost thousands of dollars. I'm not going to bash the school but here are some concerns; lack of support, inconsistencies among professors, some of the asynchronous lectures are horrible, the live classes are taken over by a few students who monopolize the class, (I felt invisible most of the time), if you... Read More have been out of school for a while take a writing course, there are a lot of writing assignments and no help, and if you work full time and have a family, this is a very demanding program with little guidance. I hope this helps in your decision;