Personalized nursing-school rankings
Put the four factors in your order. Your school results update instantly.
2,440 RN programs across 51 jurisdictions · public NCLEX, cost, completion, and earnings data
Move the factors up or down. #1 matters most.
Search broadly, then choose as many states as you want.
2,440 programs · NurseSavvy score · NurseSavvy ranking
Check each program's prerequisites, application calendar, and entrance-exam policy. If the TEAS is part of your rubric, NurseSavvy's free four-section diagnostic turns one practice test into a section-by-section progress baseline and a clearer study plan.
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Each component becomes a 0–100 score using fixed real-world anchors, then your selected weights are normalized to 100%. We do not use percentile ranks, so a school’s score does not change just because the comparison set changes. Only public data goes in, and no school can pay for placement.
0 points at 70% pass · 100 points at 100% pass
The latest first-time NCLEX-RN rate, steadied for cohort size: where the board prints how many students tested, the rate is scored as if 10 more students had tested at the national average, so 12 of 12 no longer outranks 200 of 208.
Source: State boards of nursing
100 points at ≤5% of state RN pay · 0 at ≥45%
Annual average net price—or published in-state tuition if you choose it—divided by the median RN salary in that state. Lower burden scores higher. Not published → a labeled fill-in at the 33rd percentile of published scores for the same degree.
Source: College Scorecard + BLS OEWS
0 points at 55% of local RN pay · 100 at 100%
Median earnings one year after completion for the school’s nursing graduates, divided by its state RN median. This reduces the advantage of simply being in a high-wage state. Not published → a labeled fill-in at the 33rd percentile of published scores for the same degree.
Source: College Scorecard field-of-study data
0 points at 40% finishing · 100 at 95%
The nursing program’s own on-time completion rate, from state boards (California, Kentucky, Mississippi, Illinois so far) and the program’s own published disclosure. A program that has not published one is scored at the 33rd percentile of programs that have — below typical, until it publishes.
Source: State boards of nursing · program disclosures
Each row is a specific prelicensure RN program with a published pass rate—not a university’s general reputation. Direct-entry master’s programs are excluded because federal master’s data combines them with NP and CRNA outcomes. Multiple ADN or BSN options at one school may appear separately.
We never invent a price, salary, or pass rate. A program missing a cost, graduates’ pay, or completion figure stays in the ranking, scored at the 33rd percentile of programs that publish it (same degree) — below typical, so publishing helps — and every such score is labeled “fill-in.”
Clinical sites, waitlists, schedule flexibility, commute, campus support, and your actual aid offer can change the decision. As our NCLEX guide explains, pass rates are best used as a floor detector, then balanced with price and fit.
Latest approved-program lists and first-time pass-rate reports published by each state board of nursing. Every school detail page links its exact board source and capture date.
Browse all board sourcesU.S. Department of Education College Scorecard, Most Recent Cohorts, June 10, 2026 release. Tuition and completion are institution-level; earnings are nursing field-of-study medians.
College Scorecard dataU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025, Registered Nurses (SOC 29-1141). State medians cover all RNs, not only new graduates, and exclude overtime and shift differentials.
BLS occupation dataPut NCLEX strength, students who finish, cost-to-pay value, and early-career earnings in your preferred order. Your top two count 33% each, the third 20%, and the fourth 14%, so the score always adds up to 100%. Every input is public data; the full formula is on our methodology page.
Open the near-me ranking and allow location access to select your state automatically, or choose one or more states yourself. Then order the four ranking factors around your priorities and compare the resulting programs.
A program needs a published first-time NCLEX-RN pass rate to enter the ranking. Every other figure it has not published — cost, graduates’ pay, or completion — is scored at the 33rd percentile of programs that publish it and labeled “fill-in” wherever it appears. A fill-in is never presented as the program’s own number.
No. The score organizes comparable public evidence; it cannot measure clinical placement quality, schedule fit, waitlists, campus culture, individual financial aid, or whether you can realistically commute. Use it to build a shortlist, then verify those factors with each program.
Yes. A pass rate only counts students who reach the exam, so a program that loses many students before graduation can still post 100%. The nursing program’s own completion rate counts as much as its pass rate in the default score, and we show the start-to-license rate: of every 100 students who start, how many finish on time and pass the NCLEX on the first try. Programs that have not published a completion rate are scored at the 33rd percentile of programs that have.
No. Rankings are computed only from public government and accreditor data with a published formula. Schools cannot pay, partner, or advertise their way into a better placement, and the same formula is applied to every program.
No. Graduate earnings are the federal median for that school’s nursing-program completers one year after finishing. State RN salary is the BLS median for all registered nurses in that state. The ranking compares the two so high-cost, high-wage locations do not win on raw dollars alone.