Last updated October 2, 2026 · Version 2

How we rank nursing schools.

Public data, one published formula, the same rules for every program. Here is every number that goes in, where it comes from, and what it cannot tell you.

Our independence pledge

No paid placement. Schools cannot pay, partner, sponsor, or advertise their way to a better rank. A business relationship with a school never changes its data or score.
Public data only. Every input comes from a state board of nursing, an accreditor-required disclosure, or the federal government. No reputation surveys, no reviews, no opinions.
No guesses. We never invent a figure. A program that has not published its completion rate is scored at the 33rd percentile of programs that have, and labeled “not published” — disclosure is rewarded, not assumed.
One formula, in public. The same anchors and weights apply to every program, and every change to them is logged below with its date.
Corrections come from the source. We change a number only when the official document changes, and we link that document on the school’s page.

The formula

Each factor becomes a 0–100 score on a fixed scale, then the four are weighted by the order a student puts them in: 33%, 33%, 20%, 14%. The top two count equally. The default, the NurseSavvy ranking, puts the two outcomes that decide whether you become a nurse on top — passing the NCLEX and finishing the program — at equal weight:

Score = 33% NCLEX + 33% students who finish + 20% cost-to-pay value + 14% early earnings

Fixed scales, not percentiles: a school’s score never moves because weaker schools joined the list. Prices and pay are compared with the state’s median RN salary, so being in an expensive, high-wage state neither helps nor hurts on its own. A program enters the ranking with a published first-time NCLEX-RN pass rate; by default it also needs every other selected figure.

Students who finish: why a pass rate is not enough

A pass rate only counts students who make it to the exam. A program that dismisses half its class before graduation can post a 100% pass rate, and a ranking built on pass rates alone would put it near the top. So where the nursing program’s own completion rate is published, we score it, and we show the start-to-license rate: completion × first-time pass rate, or of every 100 students who start, how many finish on time and pass the NCLEX first try. A program finishing 51% of its students with a 100% pass rate puts 51 of 100 starters into a license on time; one finishing 90% at 95% puts 86.

There is no national program-level completion dataset. Today we use these published sources, each labeled with its own definition wherever its number appears:

California Board of Registered Nursing — attrition and on-time completion rates
Students who completed in the academic year ÷ students scheduled to complete that year. We use the median of the three most recent reported years; the board reports one figure for all of a school’s prelicensure degrees.
Kentucky Board of Nursing — Prelicensure Program of Nursing Benchmarks
First-time nursing enrollees who graduate within the program’s standard length (board benchmark: 60%). Median of the three most recent academic years, per campus.
Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning — Nursing Annual Report, degree completion rates
Share of the entering cohort that graduated within 100% of program length (2023–24 cohort). Bachelor’s rows may include RN-to-BSN students.
Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation — nursing annual report data sheet
Students who started in the last graduating cohort ÷ how many of them graduated, pooled over the 2024 and 2025 reports.
The program’s own published completion rate (ACEN accreditation requires programs to post it)
On-time completion as the program reports it for its accreditor — for ACEN, students who finish within the program’s stated length from the first nursing course. Each school page links the program’s own page.

ACEN accreditation requires every program it accredits to post its on-time completion rate on its website; we are collecting those disclosures program by program. CCNE requires a 70% completion rate but not publication, so many bachelor’s programs show “not published” until they choose to share it.

A program with no published rate stays in the ranking, scored at the 33rd percentile of programs that do publish for the same degree (today 62% for associate-degree and 75% for bachelor’s programs). That is not an estimate of its rate — it is the score for not disclosing, and it sits below the typical program, so a program that publishes a typical or better rate moves up. Programs can publish on their own outcomes page and send us the link.

We do not use the whole-college graduation rate as a stand-in. Across the programs where we have both numbers it barely predicts the nursing rate (correlation 0.16), and at community colleges it runs about 35 points lower because students transfer and attend part time.

Small cohorts

Twelve of twelve is 100%, but so is a lucky year. Where the board prints how many students tested, we score the pass rate as if 10 more students had tested at the 87% national first-time rate (pooled across every program with published counts). Large programs barely move; tiny perfect years stop looking certain:

Published	Test-takers	Scored as
100%	12	94.1%
100%	60	98.1%
96%	200	95.6%
80%	15	82.8%

Programs whose board does not print counts keep their published rate; school pages show the count wherever it exists.

Data dictionary

2,440 prelicensure RN programs (associate, bachelor’s, and diploma) in all 50 states and D.C.

First-time NCLEX-RN pass rate: Score: 0 at 70% → 100 at 100%. Weight 33% by default.
Source: Each state board of nursing’s 2025 report (exact document linked on every school page) · Coverage: 2,440 programs (entry requirement)
First-time test-takers: Steadies small cohorts: scored as if 10 extra candidates tested at the 87% national rate.
Source: State board reports that print candidate counts · Coverage: 1,398 programs (57%)
Nursing-program completion: Score: 0 at 40% → 100 at 95%. Weight 33% by default. Not published → scored at the 33rd percentile of published rates for the same degree (ADN 62%, BSN 75% today).
Source: California BRN, Kentucky BON, Mississippi IHL, Illinois IDFPR; programs’ own disclosures · Coverage: 375 programs (15%) and growing
Annual net price: Divided by the state’s median RN pay: 100 at ≤5% → 0 at ≥45%. Weight 20% by default.
Source: College Scorecard (June 2026 release) + U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025 · Coverage: 1,544 programs (63%)
Nursing graduates’ pay, 1 year out: Divided by the state’s median RN pay: 0 at 55% → 100 at 100%. Weight 14% by default.
Source: College Scorecard field-of-study data (the school’s own nursing graduates) · Coverage: 1,314 programs (54%)

What we leave out, and why

Reputation surveys. Opinions of deans and administrators measure fame, not what happens to students.
Acceptance rate. Rejecting more applicants is not a service to students, and it would reward selectivity over teaching.
Reviews and ratings. Self-selected and easy to game.
Things we cannot measure yet. Clinical placements, waitlists, schedules, and your own aid offer can outweigh any score. Use the ranking to build a shortlist, then ask each program.

Refresh schedule

Board pass rates and approval status refresh each year as boards publish (most in the first half of the year). Completion figures refresh with each board’s annual report. Federal cost and earnings refresh with each College Scorecard release; RN pay with each BLS wage release. Every school page names its exact board document and capture date.

Changelog

2026-10-02 · Version 2 — students who finish
- Replaced the whole-college graduation rate with the nursing program’s own completion rate (California, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Illinois boards, plus programs’ own disclosures), weighted equal to the NCLEX pass rate.
- Programs that have not published a completion rate are scored at the 33rd percentile of programs that have, for their degree type.
- Added the start-to-license rate: of every 100 students who start, how many finish on time and pass the NCLEX on the first try.
- Steadied NCLEX pass rates for cohort size where boards print test-taker counts (10 national-average candidates added).
- Weights by priority: your top two count 33% each, then 20% and 14% (was 45/30/15/10). Negative federal net prices (aid above cost) are now treated as $0.
2026-09-16 · Version 1 — launch
- First-time NCLEX-RN pass rate (45%), annual price versus state RN pay (30%), nursing graduates’ early earnings (15%), and whole-college graduation rate (10%), with student-chosen priority order.

Questions

Can a nursing school pay NurseSavvy to rank higher?

No. The ranking uses only public government and accreditor data and one published formula, applied the same way to every program. Schools cannot pay, partner, or advertise for placement, and a school relationship never changes a number.

Why can a school with a 100% NCLEX pass rate rank below one with 95%?

Because a pass rate only counts the students who reach the exam. A program that loses half its class before graduation can still post 100%. Completion counts as much as the pass rate in the default score, and very small testing groups are steadied toward the national average.

What happens if a program does not publish its completion rate?

It stays in the ranking, scored at the 33rd percentile of programs that do publish (for its degree type) — below the typical program. That is not a guess at its real rate; it is the score for not disclosing. A program that publishes its rate on its own website, or whose state board does, is scored on its own number.

Do nursing schools publish their dropout rates?

Some do. There is no national program-level dataset. California, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Illinois publish completion or attrition figures for each program, and programs accredited by ACEN must post their on-time completion rate on their own website. CCNE-accredited programs must meet a 70% completion standard but are not required to publish the figure.

How can a school correct or add its data?

Publish it where students can see it — the program’s own outcomes page, or a state board report — and email david@nursesavvy.com the link. We use a figure only from a public official source, never from a private submission, so every number on the site can be checked by anyone.

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