370 Hawthorne Ave.
Oakland, CA 94609

Located across the bay from San Francisco in Oakland, Calif., Samuel Merritt College has campuses in Sacramento, San Francisco and San Mateo. Established in 1909, specializes in the health sciences and is affiliated with Sutter Health and Alta Bates-Summit Medical Center.

Samuel Merritt College has grown substantially in the past 10 years, adding 5 new programs. The college currently offers degrees in occupational therapy, physician assistant, podiatric medicine, nursing and physical therapy. All of the programs are regionally recognized and graduates from Samuel Merritt College are in high demand, giving them a high rate of reporting employment after graduation.

The Master's degree in occupational therapy program were established in 1994 and graduates of the program go into the field in entry-level positions. The college believes in teamwork between people practicing medicine. Therefore, students in this program share coursework with those in the nursing and physical therapy programs.

The physicians assistant program has a high 98 percent pass rate for graduates taking the Physician Assistant National Certification Exam for the first time. This exceeds the national standard of just over 90 percent.

The podiatric medicine program is one of the oldest at Samuel Merritt College and is known for sending students into hands-on practice early during their education. Clincial rotation begins during a student's second year.

Students wanting to obtain a degree in nursing have several options: The Bachelor of Science in nursing, the accelerated Bachelor of Science, entry level Master of Science, Master of Science -CRN, entry level case management or family nurse practicioner.

The physical therapy program is an intense 34-month program that combines both classroom and clinical experience. The small class sizes, as low as 8:1 student teacher ratio, helps guarantee a student's success.

Quick Facts:

The student to teacher ratio in the occupational therapy program is 1:9.

National Certification Exam scores for the physicians assistant program consistently ranks at least in the top 5 percent of the exam scores nationally.

The average cumulative grade point average of a student in the podiatric program is above 3.2.

The first time pass rate for students in the physical therapy program was 100 percent in 5 of the past 9 graduating classes. The average pass rate is above 90 percent, compared with the national average of 78-92 percent.

The top floor of Bechtel Hall is open to students who wish to live on campus.

Over 98 percent of students at Samuel Merritt College receive some form of financial aid.

This school profile has been compiled and updated by The CollegeBound Network. The school is not affiliated with The CollegeBound Network and shall not be considered a sponsor of this program.