Chamberlain Student Services: Details, Pros and Cons

Chamberlain is a for-profit, nationally accredited Nursing college headquartered in Addison, Illinois with many campuses throughout the United States. Previously known as the Deaconess School of Nursing, it was purchased by DeVry (now known as Adtalem Global Education) and renamed as the Chamberlain School of Nursing in 2005.

Current students of Chamberlain can contact the student services team at 888.556.8226 or login to the Online Student Portal with their student ID for additional services. New students can fill the Request Information form on the website or contact the Admissions team at 877.751.5783.

Students pay a student services fee of $3,500+/ $1,000+ for the BSN/ RN-BSN program, but it’s unclear whether they receive adequate support from the student services team.

Chamberlain Nursing Student Services: What You Need To Know

Nursing is an intensive program but the payoffs for a good job and steady career are quite high! So knowing more about Chamberlain’s Nursing Student services can be critical for successfully completing the degree program at Chamberlain.

For new students, the services revolve around meeting with an Admissions counselor who will answer your questions and who will be your point of contact for additional information on the program, financial aid and so on.

Admissions staff will also be part of the student services team, so you can continue to work with them from the initial admissions all the way until you graduate from Chamberlain.

Whereas for currently enrolled students of Chamberlain, there are a few different ways you can access the student support services or get additional help:

1) Access the Chamberlain portal for personalized records, documents and updates

2) Interact in the online student and faculty community on the Chamberlain portal

3) Reach out to the student services team by phone at 888.556.8226

4) Ask course instructors and teaching staff for assistance and guidance

However, there are several issues with the operation of the student services as follows:

1) As per numerous employee reviews, the student services team as of 2021 has found that, though their starting pay and benefits are good, the information flow is disorganized and so they are unable to provide adequate student support.

2) Students frequently ask help from their course instructors who are generally able to get them the required information from top management. In this case, the student services team is totally left out of the loop.

3) Student services team is frequently overworked, micromanaged and fired at a moment’s notice without adequate performance reviews. This has led to a lot of attrition as most experienced student services members quit Chamberlain within a few years for better opportunities elsewhere.

New student services members are hired frequently to replace the ones who leave or get fired unnecessarily, and they undergo a steep learning curve and training. This can cause further delays in student support services.

4) The computer systems provided to the Student services team at Chamberlain are outdated, all over the place and frequently breakdown. To add to this, their software systems are supported by an outsourced provider overseas that does not know much about their software systems.

Chamberlain’s Nursing Program: Pros and Cons

The key advantage of a Chamberlain education is that the college has a long history of imparting nursing knowledge and in serving patients, ever since the Deaconess Home and Hospital was established in 1836.

Though the institution went through numerous changes, it continues to have the strong tradition of imparting a nursing education. Chamberlain also has a good reputation with employers which makes it easier for Chamberlain nursing graduates to get multiple job offers to boost their career.

Chamberlain currently boasts a first-time test takers’ NCLEX pass rate of 90.71% as of 2020 and students as a whole are satisfied and appreciative of the Nursing program’s coaching and rigor.

Additionally, there are over 20 college campuses throughout the United States and this makes it easy for students to attend the college right from where they live and work.

On the other hand, here are the key disadvantages of Chamberlain:

1) Chamberlain is nationally accredited and does not have regional accreditation in the US. Regional accreditation is considered the golden standard for accreditation and therefore Chamberlain graduates will not be eligible for Masters programs at any regionally accredited colleges.

2) The cost of a Chamberlain degree is extremely high and students can expect to pay about $85,000 for 3 years (or 122 credits) of Chamberlain’s BSN program. However, for a RN licensed nurse, the RN to BSN program’s cost is much lesser at about $30,000 (or 45 credits).

Here are additional ways to reduce the cost of a Chamberlain degree:

• Apply for all the federal, state and private scholarships and grants that Chamberlain offers. Be sure to enroll into Chamberlain only under the condition that atleast 60-80% of Chamberlain tuition is covered by scholarships and grants.
• Take or transfer your previous college credits from CLEP, DSST or AP tests prior to enrollment in Chamberlain and also take or transfer in your ACE-accredited courses. This will reduce the cost and time duration of a Chamberlain degree.
• Signup for Chamberlain’s work-study programs for earning any remaining college tuition expenses for your nursing degree program that are not covered by any scholarships or grants.

3) The student services, though generally helpful can sometimes be erratic and disorganized. This issue is an organizational problem at Chamberlain, though most of the student services personnel themselves are dedicated and helpful.

This information disconnect can further increase the cost and delay the completion of your degree program at Chamberlain. In case of issues that are not resolved in a timely manner, ask your course instructors for assistance with such matters.

4) Chamberlain is an accredited (nationally) career school and if you are looking for clubs and other campus activities, there is none of that here. There is neither the campus infrastructure for anything other than a nursing education, nor are there any other activities or clubs.

5) The minimum high school GPA required for admission into the BSN at Chamberlain is 2.75, which is quite low. This also means that the college is not selective and gives admission to many students irrespective of a lower GPA of 2.75+.

However, there is a HESI admissions test that all incoming students need to pass before they can be admitted to a nursing degree at Chamberlain. There is also an exit exam that all students need to complete after all the required course credits have been earned. Passing the exit exam qualifies students for receiving the diploma or degree from Chamberlain.

Chamberlain’s Student Services Team Feedback

The student services team at Chamberlain put on multiple hats and are required to work not only as a student support representative, but also frequently as an admissions coordinator, registrar and as an administrator that resolves student/tutor related issues.

So they are frequently overworked and there is tremendous burnout and the work is also monotonous with no room for career growth. Most student services members at Chamberlain feel underpaid, overworked, micromanaged and there is little to no attention given to their concerns or suggestions.

In fact, some employees even get fired if they bring up suggestions for improvement in the departmental operations, software applications and so on.

The student services also reports that their benefits are good, but the salaries and pay raises are much below market for the amount of workload that each of them has on their shoulders.

Chamberlain Student Support: What You Need, When You Need It

Since there are some obvious gaps in the operation of student services at Chamberlain, students are advised to use the following steps to address any concerns they have while studying at Chamberlain:

1) Contact student services on the phone, via email and via the Chamberlain community portal. Follow up with them periodically for updates to your queries.

The student services at Chamberlain are known to be helpful and they enjoy helping students with the completion of their nursing programs at Chamberlain. However, due to organizational issues at Chamberlain that are beyond their control, the student services employees are sometimes unable to help students in the best way possible.

2) In case of issues that do not get adequately addressed in a shorter time frame, ask your class tutors and professors for additional help.

3) Your fellow students can also be helpful, so be sure to also ask other students for advice on how they have been able to navigate their way through any issues they have had in completing the degree at Chamberlain.

Chamberlain: A For-Profit Nursing School

As per numerous employee reviews, the management at Chamberlain is far removed from the daily operations and the college is growing rapidly and undergoing all the issues relating to scaling up too fast.

Also, many student services employees have reported how the Chamberlain management is only concerned about how much money they make from students and this profit motive is what drives Chamberlain, more than the welfare of any of the students or employees.

Since Chamberlain is not regionally accredited and only has national accreditation, the high cost of a Chamberlain education also seems quite unjustified.

Nevertheless, due to the long history in Nursing care and education, most Chamberlain graduates are able to enter the nursing workforce and build strong nursing careers for themselves.