Does prestige of program matter?

In my experience, No. I don't have any knowledge of the "nurse resident" hospital-affiliated programs, though. But if you're just applying for nursing jobs (and later applying for graduate school), they just want someone with a license and the skills/personality for the job. I've worked with graduates from Yale and from the local community colleges, and it seems like everybody's experience after graduation was about the same.

I would encourage you to explore the opportunities available to you. Aside from finding a reputable program, financial considerations and schedule of courses are also considerations.

Talking to graduates of programs I was interested in gave me some perspective. You likely will get varying opinions but if you talk to several people you may identify trends/ patterns.

I was fortunate to find a local private college that offered a nursing program that is well-respected locally as well as being accredited. I initially thought I'd never be able to afford this program and was VERY surprised to discover it was actually the most affordable program in my area. I'm so glad I thoroughly researched my options, including that one which I had almost disregarded because I thought it would be expensive. I had a great experience. It was a lot of work but so worth it.

I'm currently applying to grad school, the biggest considerations that grad schools seem to be looking at are my GPA and if the school where a prior degree was obtained is accredited.

On 5/19/2020 at 11:55 PM, Sour Lemon said:

Avoiding a school with a bad reputation is important, but attending a "top" school is not.

This. 100 percent. Also state schools are usually more affordable and also higher quality.

As blueskies have said, I’d go with NCLEX pass rate. There are two local schools where I work. One ADN, one BSN. Many nurses I work with come from either while some are not locals and therefore attended schools of their choice elsewhere, both ADN and BSN. Not a statistician but I could not distinguish a prevalence toward one school from my coworkers.

My suggestion is to go with ADN, then do RN to BSN online. As ADN and passing NCLEX, you are a RN. The RN to BSN program is pretty much as rehash of the ADN program. Why? Both ADN and BSN program teach you to be a RN. RN to BSN program teach you to be a RN, which you would already be from the ADN program. Imo and experience.

What does matter is the quality of the Nursing instructors. I am and always will be very grateful and thankful to ALL my nursing instructors / advisors.

While there may be some advantages to more prestigious NP schools, there's really no advantage on the RN level. I did my ABSN at my state's main public university. At least two of my cohort have gone on to get their NP from the ivy league university located in our state.

At my hospital, we have a combination of BSN, ADN, and even some diploma RNs. The nurse who got her ABSN from Duke works alongside community college grads. If your goal is NP and you have a BS/BA already, then an ABSN makes sense, if you can swing it financially. But you don't have to go nuts trying to get into a top 10 school for your RN. Any public college should give you a solid reputation at a reasonable price. Especially, if you think you're going to want a really prestigious NP school, save your money for that, and don't go into debt becoming an RN.

On 5/19/2020 at 9:15 PM, ad2020 said:

I just graduated college but I am looking to get a second degree in nursing. I would like to apply to an ABSN program, work for a few years and then go back to NP school. I guess I'm wondering if there is a huge difference in the education and opportunities offered at the big-name schools such as Emory or Duke or if it's all just branding and cost. Any advice or opinions would be appreciated!

To a Duke graduate, whether or not you graduated from Duke is the most important thing on your resume. To non-Duke graduates, the rest of your resume is the most important part. Most people who will ever be in a position to hire you or work with you didn't graduate from Duke.

On 5/22/2020 at 12:09 AM, FullGlass said:

First, avoid for-profit schools! These are the "crappy" schools that will accept anyone with a pulse. And they are often far more expensive than reputable schools.

I do not necessarily agree with this. I attend a for-profit school and I can tell you our NCLEX pass rates for the BSN program are on par with the national average. It is a more expensive school, but I would not call it "crappy."

To the OP, I am also a second-degree nursing student attending an ABSN program. The things I looked for when choosing a school were:

1. NCLEX Pass Rates

2. Accreditation

3. Distance from my house

When it comes to jobs or furthering your education, attending a "top" or well-known school may be beneficial in terms of opening up doors or networking, but I do not think it is the end all, be all. You can network on your own, and you decide how good of a nurse you want to be.

3 minutes ago, Future_NICU_Nurse_Casti said:

I attend a for-profit school and I can tell you our NCLEX pass rates for the BSN program are on par with the national average.

I would encourage you to verify the information your school provides on NCLEX pass rates with the official state BON data on your school's pass rates. I have seen quite misleading advertisements for for-profit diploma mills that tout high pass rates, but in fact the state's BON report speaks a much different story.

7 minutes ago, blueskiesandsunshine.PRN said:

I would encourage you to verify the information your school provides on NCLEX pass rates with the official state BON data on your school's pass rates. I have seen quite misleading advertisements for for-profit diploma mills that tout high pass rates, but in fact the state's BON report speaks a much different story.

The state BON is where I looked. I know all schools try to bolster their stats to recruit students.

On 5/19/2020 at 10:55 PM, Sour Lemon said:

Avoiding a school with a bad reputation is important, but attending a "top" school is not.

Thank you, this is great!

16 hours ago, blueskiesandsunshine.PRN said:

I would encourage you to verify the information your school provides on NCLEX pass rates with the official state BON data on your school's pass rates. I have seen quite misleading advertisements for for-profit diploma mills that tout high pass rates, but in fact the state's BON report speaks a much different story.

Usually it's accurate and confirmed by the state BON. But that doesn't mean it isn't misleading. There's way more information people need to look into than just pass rates and CCNE accreditation. The rest of this post is assuming the school IS CCNE accreditied.

A common practice now is exit exams. That exam that makes sure you've learned enough to graduate. Isn't that exactly what the final you just took was for since every class builds on what you leaned in the semester before? Here's the thing, there's evidence that certain minimum scores predict better outcomes. Now, you've completed the credits, you graduated. You're a part of that statistic about your program's graduation rate. But you only got a 58 instead of a 60 on your exit exam. You didn't complete your nursing program, so you don't sit for your boards. Most schools will give you a couple attempts, but they won't send your information to the state unless you score high enough.

So what's this mean? You have a 98% graduation rate and a 98% NCLEX pass rate. Sounds like a great school. But when you look into the numbers, 49 out of 50 students graduated. But 10 graduates got below the minimum on their exit exam. So only 39 of those students were allowed to sit for their boards, and 1 person failed. 10 of those graduates didn't even exist on that NCLEX pass rate. So the information that you're not seeing is that out of 49 graduates, only 78% got licensed as an RN. Oh, and non-profit schools aren't required to give that exact information like for-profit schools are.

And going a little off topic from your post, but it came up in this thread: Really, the difference between a for-profit and a non-profit is marketing. Ultimately, yeah, the non-profit spends a bigger percent on their revenue on your education, but their revenue is also lower. The dollar amount that the two types spend on your education is actually pretty close to the same. They know people misunderstand "non-profit" as meaning they don't make money. Non-profit just means that they have a limit to what they can report in profits every year compared to their revenue. They solve that in 2 ways: Either they invest it directly into building up the school, which increases their federal funding every year. Or they invest in stocks and bonds, which increases their revenue every year. All of this, by law, has to be public information. You can look up any non-profit's tax forms that they filed. Though, not every school is required to make that public. Duke, the school that came up in this thread, you can see where they gained almost a billion dollars in one year. But people don't know to look that up, they just see non-profit, they're not making billions off of my tuition. They have staff making in the millions every year.

EVERYTHING told to you has a marketing reason. And yes, that includes that page that SO MANY nursing schools have where they compare their program to a for-profit school.

Watch The Simpsons. Find the episode where marge became a real estate agent. It's season 9, episode 9. Listen to how he teaches her the difference between the trooooth, and THE TRUTH! That difference is why there's such a huge bias against for-profit schools. You're not being lied to about any information given to you, but you're being presented in a way that makes the non-profit automatically seem like a better choice.