NA vs RA grad school

[jsd]

What's the RA school with the worst rep? Maybe University of Phoenix? Deserved or not they're usually the poster child for for-profit bad apples.

What's a single NA school with a good rep? I don't know if I can think of any that people outside of niches like us would know. So the NA person might make me assume that their unknown school is some RA school I haven't heard of (and therefore likely better than UoPhx at least, per popular opinion)... But if I knew it was an NA school upfront, I'd be inclined to think it was probably on par with UoPhx at best.

There are exceptions of course. The largely for-profit, NA schools for nursing I think serve the market well (from what little I know of the field), but in speaking in generalities and weighing popular public opinion, I'm still going to lean toward the bad RA.

But there's certainly a valid argument to be made that since the public has no idea what NA vs RA is, and since the public does have a bias against a place like UoPhx, you might as well go to a no-name NA, save some money, and avoid the UoPhx stigma. (my counter would be there are good options of lesser-known RA schools that are going to be just as cheap if not cheaper than NA -- JFKu, WGU, etc -- so you can have your cake and eat it too -- RA/no stigma/cheap)

Ultimately it depends on your end goal, NA could work fine for one's personal situation. And it's not like most people are set on teaching or are in fields that require certain accreditation for licensure, or want to turn their NA Masters into a RA doctorate. So it could be fine for someone. For me personally, since ultimately I wouldn't be saving time or money in most NA masters programs, would rather go with the less limiting RA option.

---

What's a single NA school with a good rep? I don't know if I can think of any that people outside of niches like us would know.

sanantone beat me to my main point