Average Pass Rate in ADN program

shiftingtides · Nov 22, 2018

I think the national completion average is under/around 50%. A family member of mine had around 70% of his community college class drop or fail out by the end.

Luchador, CNA, EMT-B · Nov 22, 2018

I was accepted into an ADN program and my local community college for spring 2019. I found on the programs website that their pass rate within 7 semesters (for a 5 semester program) was around 40%. Does anyone know if this is par for the course? It honestly just seems really low to me. Thanks for any insights anyone can give me!

I'm in my first semester of an ADN. My cohort started at 32. We've lost 3 before Thanksgiving. Apparently next semester, with peds and med-surge is tough and we'll lose some more. There are photos of graduating classes in one hallway. They are tiny. 10-12 students. I don't know how many they started with but I know that if my class ends up that way it will mean 2/3 didn't make it. .

TheDudeWithTheBigDog, ADN, RN · Nov 23, 2018

Just remember that it's only tracking completion rates, not pass rate. So while it looks like a lot are failing, there's a lot that decide to put off school after starting because of life, and even more who start clinicals, see what nursing really is, and decide it's not for them, some transfer to other schools. Some stress themselves out so much that they have to drop out for their sanity (you know them, they're the ones telling you that you're going to be studying 60 hours a week). They're all factored into that completion rate. Then a lot of the failures are just bad students. Kids in their early 20s are very commonly bad at college.

It's typically a low pass rate, but it's usually a high pass rate for the people who try.

angel0309, ADN, RN · Nov 24, 2018

Kids in their early 20s are very commonly bad at college.
It's typically a low pass rate, but it's usually a high pass rate for the people who try.

Lol, I'm only 18, so what does that say about me? Just kidding! But really, thanks everyone for your replies, it definitely gave me some insight into what these numbers really boil down to. I talked to one nurse who graduated from my school in May and she said that her graduating class was 90 people and her cohort started out with 120. Of course, quite a few of the 90 people were people that had to repeat 1-2 classes, but that's encouraging to me. I'm super nervous, but I know I can do it if I put my mind to it!!

shiftingtides · Nov 24, 2018

Lol, I'm only 18, so what does that say about me? Just kidding! But really, thanks everyone for your replies, it definitely gave me some insight into what these numbers really boil down to. I talked to one nurse who graduated from my school in May and she said that her graduating class was 90 people and her cohort started out with 120. Of course, quite a few of the 90 people were people that had to repeat 1-2 classes, but that's encouraging to me. I'm super nervous, but I know I can do it if I put my mind to it!!

Not every 18 year old is the same. You've got this!

Oldmahubbard · Nov 24, 2018

When I went, those who made it through A and P had a 80-90% success rate.

PudgeMC, ADN · Nov 25, 2018

My school has a graduation rate of 42% in 36 months from a 24 month program. NCLEX pass rate is 97% though. My first class had 165 people. I'm currently in the final class and we have about 65.

angel0309, ADN, RN · Nov 25, 2018

My school has a graduation rate of 42% in 36 months from a 24 month program. NCLEX pass rate is 97% though. My first class had 165 people. I'm currently in the final class and we have about 65.

That's almost exactly the same figures that my school has posted online. Good luck finishing up this semester and then the NCLEX!!

angel0309, ADN, RN · Nov 25, 2018

When I went, those who made it through A and P had a 80-90% success rate.

I hope this holds true at my school!

BagelBomber, ASN, BSN, RN · Nov 26, 2018

I'm in the tail end of my first semester of nursing school. We haven't "lost" anyone as of yet, but there are definitely people who are in danger of failing first semester. We also have pictures of the graduating classes along the walls of the hallways and I expect we will be losing quite a few people if the trend remains constant. We started with 50; the graduating class photos of the program I'm enrolled in seem to average around 15 people. When I looked into my nursing program before applying, I noticed a completion rate of 32%- but an NCLEX pass rate of 98%. Nursing school has been rough so far and I imagine it will only get more intense as we progress; but if you make it through, it seems like the NCLEX will be a breeze.

rzyzzy · Dec 6, 2018

I think the whole point of publishing a "completion rate" is to poke holes in the myth that an associates degree is a "two year" degree. You can't do seven semesters in two years.

Doing an adn in five semesters would only be possible for top achievers (who came into the community college able to test out of the math & science pre-reqs).

Publishing completion rates is a first step towards academic honesty on the part of the academic institution- community colleges make a lot of money stuffing students into remedial math and science classes.

The 40% "pass rate" doesn't mean the students are defective, it means the expectation of getting an adn in two years is often not realistic. Stretch that completion rate out to 9 or 11 semesters & you'll see that many more students get through.