Nclex Pass rate for your school

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The closest community college to me has a rate of about 75%..and the state average is 84%.

the second closest has a pass rate of 87%..they are about 60 miles from my house.

In your opinion is 75 way to low to be a good school?

what is your schools pass rate?

Specializes in Hemodialysis.
That's wonderful that your school is so hands on. That's amazing that they have the ability to have someone double up on clinicals. I don't know that that would be allowed or even possible in our program.

Have you checked your BON website for the raw data on NCLEX scores? Our school doesn't publish retention rates, but you can pretty much figure them out if you know the number of students admitted in a cohort and compare that with the annual number of first time NCLEX takers. If you have 35 starting and have approximatley 35 taking the test every year, then that's a pretty good indication of the retention rate.

For example

My school admits 105 to the traditional program, we generally have 120 start (the other 15 are from previous cohorts who need to retake for whatever reason). They admit 2 classes per year and we have about 175ish taking the NCLEX each year. So, we have about a 70% retention rate, give or take.

Yes, that's how I knew that so far this year we have 100% pass rates. The list is posted in our lobby, but I just looked it up online. Of the 71 schools listed 8 of them had 100% pass rates. The number of graduates from those programs varies quite a bit, with some of them coming in with only 8 graduates, 11 graduates. Ours is more than twice the number of graduates of any other with a 100% pass rate at 76. Now that being said, of course when you have 76 graduates you have a better chance of passing all of them than say East Carolina University who has the most at 265 graduates and a 97% pass rate, which is pretty darned good. I'm probably going to get blasted for this from people lurking the board (LOL) but we are talking numbers here, and these are raw facts, when you look at UNCC who had 108 graduates and had only an 85% pass rate, and Duke University with 68 graduates and a 99% pass rate (and I only use UNCC and Duke because everyone knows who they are and they're very respected BSN programs). Now I know everyone loves their school and has pride in their school, and I'm not saying ANYTHING derogatory about any other program in our area, but every hospital I've been to says that our graduates are more prepared than graduates from other programs and they're so happy to see us when we come in, and we have a really high hire rate after graduation (I think it's 93% right now? Not sure though). Now all this I think I can narrow down to simply the number of clinical hours we're subjected to, then the preceptorship we do before we graduate, the professional development (continuing ed class with actual nurses) that we're required to do, community health and research projects, and of course the caliber of the faculty because they really do rock.

Now, all that being said, I have to tell you that we are also a diploma school of nursing. And I know how people feel about diploma schools of nursing sometimes, but we're eligible to get our bachelors just like everyone else is, and I think it says a lot about a diploma program (which is often looked down upon) to have better statistics than a lot of the BSN programs that are on the list there. I feel very confident in my ability to pursue my bachelors after graduation with the preparation I've received.

Calculating those retention rates. I can see how you did that formula for yours, ours is a little more difficult I think. Our entire school is limited to 140 students. So far we have had 2 classes graduate this year, we graduate 3 regular classes per year. We also have a night and weekend program that only starts one time per year, but they shouldn't factor into this year's numbers yet because they only graduate in December (it's 7 semesters) if they only start in the fall. Each class used to start with around 30 (at least those people graduating this year should have) (they've increased it, my class had 35 I think and it seems there are a lot of students in the current fundamentals class, I think 37), but there is also an accelerated program that shaves a semester off and you graduate with another class, so for me to figure out exactly how that worked I'd really just have to go to admissions and have them tell me exactly what's published in the consumer disclosure, LOL But when you look at the numbers, it's got to be pretty correct because even if they did have a standard 35, which I know they increased my class size, two graduating classes at 35 students each would be 70 from two classes and we had 76 take the NCLEX this year so far, so if you add the accelerated students in there (10 is the max for accelerated, we have 8 in ours, there's another bunch of deciding factors there) then that would be about right.

Doubling up on the clinical, yeah not standard practice, but in certain semesters you only have 1 clinical day and there are two clinical days scheduled that different groups go on so the groups aren't too big. She was in her second semester during a regular semester (not a condensed summer semester when you feel like you LIVE in the hospital) so she only had 1 clinical day and attended 2 clinical days per week when it got closer to her due date to get them done. We also have the option to sign up for a clinical elective to add on to our schedules (4 credit hours) if we want. Who would subject themselves to that is beyond me, but I think that's more like an additional preceptorship and some students who need full time status because of insurance or financial aid reasons do that. I'm already full time so thankfully I don't have to do that to myself. I've done enough choosing to accelerate and double up on classes and clinicals to graduate early.

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and that is what concerns me the most..is that they are the only program in my state scoring this low year after year. It would be just my luck that the school 20 mins from me would have to be the worst pass rate... all the other programs are 50-90 miles away.

I'm more concerned about the fact that people don't speak highly of the program's quality. I think that's not something to be overlooked. My school has a very high NCLEX pass rate, a high attrition rate, BUT it also has a reputation for preparing good graduate nurses. Reputation is important for a few things- I think it gives a better picture of what your experience in school will be like than the NCLEX pass rate, AND if you are in an area where the new grad openings are slim, you want a good reputation behind you while job hunting.

Would you consider relocating closer to a better program?

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I'm more concerned about the fact that people don't speak highly of the program's quality. I think that's not something to be overlooked. My school has a very high NCLEX pass rate, a high attrition rate, BUT it also has a reputation for preparing good graduate nurses. Reputation is important for a few things- I think it gives a better picture of what your experience in school will be like than the NCLEX pass rate, AND if you are in an area where the new grad openings are slim, you want a good reputation behind you while job hunting.

Would you consider relocating closer to a better program?

The ones who say its not a good program are usually grads who went to another school, or just regular people stating their opinion.

I have spoken with a few grads of this school and they had good things to say...so im not really sure what or who to believe.

I think the bad rumors have stayed around because years before the program wasnt in the best place but from what I've heard from the director they are making a turn around now and the pass rates are above state average.

We have thought about relocating but that would be to a BSN program..I think my husband is more inclined to stay here though than move since the BSN is incredibly competitive...and I would hate for us to pick up and move and then not get in...I wouldnt be ready for application for at least another year.

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My school had an approx 94% pass rate last year. I am a freshman now.

BUT, we are required to have an 80% or better grade average in order to proceed to the next semester. So, people fail out left and right. I am convinced that the nursing school administrators try to get as many people as possible to drop/fail so that they can maintain the high NCLEX pass rate, which they boast so much about.

It's a freaking nightmare here.

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Specializes in Hemodialysis.
My school had an approx 94% pass rate last year. I am a freshman now.

BUT, we are required to have an 80% or better grade average in order to proceed to the next semester. So, people fail out left and right. I am convinced that the nursing school administrators try to get as many people as possible to drop/fail so that they can maintain the high NCLEX pass rate, which they boast so much about.

It's a freaking nightmare here.

Ours is 80% too. The people make all the difference in the world. Ours could be much worse. We have a lot in common, I was on the job too. Much better suited to nursing I am. LOL

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My school's NCLEX-RN pass rate was 87% in 2009. LPN has been 100% for a long time (but probably due to the fact the people testing for LPN went through two years in the RN program). The 87% is up from the 68% they had back in 2001. So I guess that means the school is improving? I hope?!

We have a 75% cut off for progressing to the next semester at my school.

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The program Im applying to requires an 80% pass rate as well to go on to the next semester.

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Ours is 80% too. The people make all the difference in the world. Ours could be much worse. We have a lot in common, I was on the job too. Much better suited to nursing I am. LOL

Haha, yeah the people do make all the difference, that's what I was trying to day but in a whiny/complaining sort of way!

The opportunities in nursing will be much better for us compared to our former work.

Have a nice winter break!

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it might be a really good school for teaching what you need to know, and that's great. but when push comes to shove you need to pass the nclex. if the school isn't right around the state or national passing average i would really reconsider going. our school will close the year out at about a 91% pass rate, the current national average is 84%.

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My school is in the 90's for pass rate. I commute 80 miles to get there one way. I would DEFINITELY choose the one with the 12 point lead for passing rate. Even if you have a great experience at the first one mentioned - what's the use of that if they don't prepare you well for the board?

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Specializes in Psych.

My school has had 100% passing rate for the past few years. They did not require a passing score on HESI, but we had a 50% attrition rate. If I had to do it over, I would definitely consider a school that has a lower passing rate if they kept their students.

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Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.

The past couple years it's been 97-100% It was in the 80's right before I started (2008)and when they just had State Accreditation but they went through the process to get the national accreditation (got granted the accreditation in Feb of this year) and the NCLEX rates now have been pretty top level since the process started.

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