The U.S. News Short List, separate from our overall rankings, is a regular series that magnifies individual data points in hopes of providing students and parents a way to find which undergraduate or graduate programs excel or have room to grow in specific areas. Be sure to explore The Short List: College, The Short List: Grad School and The Short List: Online Programs to find data that matter to you in your college or grad school search.
There may soon be more nurses than there are jobs.
By 2025, there will be nearly 3.9 million full-time equivalent registered nurses compared with the nationwide demand of 3.5 million, according to a report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Nurses with a master’s degree, however, shouldn’t have a problem finding a job. Nurse anesthetists, nurse midwives and nurse practitioners, for example, are expected to see employment growth of 31 percent from 2014 to 2024, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And some schools are helping just about every aspiring nurse who wants a master’s degree reach his or her goal.
[Boost a nursing career with a master’s degree.]
At eight nursing master’s programs — including the programs at Clemson University and Regis University — 100 percent of applicants were accepted in fall of 2015. The programs had the highest acceptance rates among 228 institutions that submitted these data to U.S. News in an annual survey.
Among the eight schools, the average number of applicants was 42. Many schools with low acceptance rates — such as Seattle University and University of North Carolina–Charlotte, which each accepted just 21 percent of applicants — had much larger applicant pools. Seattle received 344 applicants and UNC–Charlotte had 298.
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Below are the 10 schools that accepted the highest percentage of nursing master’s students for fall 2015. Unranked schools, which did not meet certain criteria required by U.S. News to be numerically ranked, were not considered for this report.
| School name (state) | Number of applicants | Number of applicants accepted | Acceptance rate | U.S. News rank |
| Clemson University (SC) | 21 | 21 | 100% | 149 (tie) |
| Nebraska Wesleyan University | 45 | 45 | 100% | RNP* |
| Northwestern State University of Louisiana | 103 | 103 | 100% | 133 (tie) |
| Prairie View A&M University (TX) | 33 | 33 | 100% | RNP |
| Regis University (CO) | 52 | 52 | 100% | 168 (tie) |
| Southeastern Louisiana University | 38 | 38 | 100% | RNP |
| University of Central Arkansas | 23 | 23 | 100% | RNP |
| University of North Carolina–Pembroke | 22 | 22 | 100% | 192 (tie) |
| Monmouth University (NJ) | 80 | 79 | 98.8% | 124 (tie) |
| University of Kansas | 47 | 46 | 97.9% | 48 (tie) |
* RNP denotes an institution that is ranked in the bottom one-fourth of all master’s nursing programs. U.S. News calculates a rank for the school but has decided not to publish it.
Don’t see your school in the top 10? Access the U.S. News Nursing School Compass to find acceptance rate data, complete rankings and much more. School officials can access historical data and rankings, including of peer institutions, via U.S. News Academic Insights.
U.S. News surveyed 519 nursing schools for our 2015 survey of nursing programs. Schools self-reported myriad data regarding their academic programs and the makeup of their student body, among other areas, making U.S. News’ data the most accurate and detailed collection of college facts and figures of its kind. While U.S. News uses much of this survey data to rank schools for our annual Best Nursing Schools rankings, the data can also be useful when examined on a smaller scale. U.S. News will now produce lists of data, separate from the overall rankings, meant to provide students and parents a means to find which schools excel, or have room to grow, in specific areas that are important to them. While the data come from the schools themselves, these lists are not related to, and have no influence over, U.S. News’ rankings of Best Colleges, Best Graduate Schools or Best Online Programs. The acceptance rate data above are correct as of Aug. 16, 2016.
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10 Graduate Nursing Programs With the Highest Acceptance Rates originally appeared on usnews.com
