How many graduates were in your graduating class?

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Hi all,

I was reading the newspaper earlier tonight and I saw that a local community college had a total of 88 graduates in their nursing program and I was taken aback by this. I'm still pre-nursing myself, but everything I've ever heard and read has led me to believe that most nursing schools take a very limited amount of students and even less students actually make it through the program. Even the state university where I live (NJ) only turns out about 25-30 graduates per year, so 88 seems really high to me.

For some information on this nursing school: they have no admission requirements or tests to get into the school, and all are accepted as long as they have a 2.5 GPA.

Reading about this high number of graduates made me wonder; is this as out of the ordinary as I believe it to be? How many graduates were in your graduating class?

Thanks for any information.

RNgirly07

8 Posts

Specializes in Orthopedics, Med/Surg.

My nursing program, a BSN program at a university, admitted 75 students three times a year. I believe around 65-70 graduated. The ACT or SAT was required, and the official GPA for admission was 2.5, but you actually had to have around a 3.5 to be accepted. We also had to complete prerequisite courses and pass a math test with at least 90%. It seems odd that the program you described doesn't really have any entrance requirements.

MedChica

562 Posts

Specializes in Psych, LTC/SNF, Rehab, Corrections.

LPN, here.

I had between 38- 42 and graduated with 15-20. 2 were wash-backs.

We lost a great deal of our class in Med Surg/Pharm.

EDIT: The bridge program that I'm looking into has a 67% retention rate (92% NCLEX pass-rate).

katie92

12 Posts

My group started with 79. We ended with around 50, however - This also included LPNs who joined our program in the second semester and countless people who failed previous semesters who 'fell' into our group.

Specializes in ICU.

My class graduated 72.

Don't let low requirements fool you. My BSN program had a 3.0 requirement, but that didn't matter because the year before mine the candidates were so competitive that nobody under a 3.8 got in, as an example. In a high demand program like nursing that has more applicants than spots, the minimum requirements are essentially useless pieces of information because the average accepted student will be light years above the minimum requirements. In fact, since community colleges are cheaper, they are typically harder to get into because they have way more applicants than the BSN programs.

Specializes in orthopedic/trauma, Informatics, diabetes.

ADN program-started with 60ish; graduated 30. Each school in our state has a limited number of slots so that one school doesn't have all and that they can limit how many new nurses are turned out very year.

Knights Nurse

33 Posts

My BSN program started with 40, we graduated with 26 and have had a 100% NCLEX pass rate for the past 8 years.

allnurses Guide

Nurse SMS, MSN, RN

6,843 Posts

Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.

48 in my class with two cohorts graduating each year. A total of 96 graduates each year pumping into the local economy from this one community college alone. There are at least 15 other colleges of nursing in the area. Tons of new grads with lots of difficulty finding jobs.

BusiestBSN

151 Posts

I am in a small BSN program about to graduate. We started with 45 nursing students & now in our 4th semester are graduating 25. The class below us have even worse ~ started with 48 and by their 2nd (current) semester they only have 32. I can only imagine how many more will drop/fail out since they are in med/surg this semester.

TheCommuter, BSN, RN

102 Articles; 27,612 Posts

Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.

I attended an LPN-to-ASN transition program that accepted anyone with an LPN license who could pass the entrance exam.

The class started with about 100 students (50 in the day class, 50 in the night class) and about 80 graduated on time.

BrandonLPN, LPN

3,358 Posts

"Limited" is relative. 80-100 students admitted to a nursing program any given semester does sound like a lot. But if you consider thousands likely applied, using the word 'limited' makes more sense.

Specializes in OB.

Huh, I've never really thought about how large my graduating class for undergrad nursing was, I think close to 150. My cohort of traditional 4 year students right out of high school was the minority, about 30, and the rest were the accelerated, 2nd degree students who were getting their BSN in 15 months.

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