NCLEX Pass Rates (CSU, UC, Private)

akulahawkRN, ADN, RN, EMT-P · Nov 5, 2012

You should look for a school that has a high pass rate, but the pass rate itself is not the only criteria you should have. You might also want to look at the school's reputation for programs that have prerequisites that are similar to what nursing requires. The higher those programs are rated, the better the overall chances that their prerequisites are also extremely good too. Among the other things you need to look at are things like program cost, cost of living for the region the school is in, distance to clinical sites, and so on. Although it is not likely, it is possible that you could have a very good, highly rated, program that costs a lot because the clinical sites for a fair distance away, the tuition cost is high, and the cost of books is high.

In the end, what you get is what you put into it. You could attend a rather poor school, do your best to learn as much as you can, and ultimately pass the NCLEX – RN. Conversely you can go to a highly rated school, barely pass the courses, and fail the NCLEX – RN. It's really all on you!

I probably succeeded in confusing you more, but I'm glad that you're doing your homework now rather than waiting until the last minute. Good luck, and choose well!

jkm07 · Nov 5, 2012

Another thing you may want to consider is where the nursing school has you do your clinical rotations. There's a world of a difference between a university medical center vs. a community hospital (exaggerating a bit but still).

perioddrama · Nov 5, 2012

In the end, what you get is what you put into it. You could attend a rather poor school, do your best to learn as much as you can, and ultimately pass the NCLEX – RN. Conversely you can go to a highly rated school, barely pass the courses, and fail the NCLEX – RN. It's really all on you!

So very true.

akulahawkRN, ADN, RN, EMT-P · Nov 5, 2012

Another thing you may want to consider is where the nursing school has you do your clinical rotations. There's a world of a difference between a university medical center vs. a community hospital (exaggerating a bit but still).

I would broaden that out a little bit to whether or not your clinical rotations occur at a teaching hospital vs. a nonteaching hospital. One of those facilities is going to already have mechanisms in place to support students, the other one typically will not. Medical centers that have a lot of tertiary services that happen to be teaching hospitals would probably be an excellent choice for a student, whether medical or nursing, because of the wide variety of services that the students can rotate through. That can be something that you should take into account when you are considering the educational program you go to. Of course, having so many services to rotate through could also make for a rather dizzying experience because you change from one service to another so quickly that you don't have much time to get used to how things work on particular service. In that regard, a community hospital might be a better choice because they do lots of med/surg and if that's the type of nurse you want to start out being, you would get a lot of experience doing that at a community hospital. These are all things that you should consider when deciding upon which school you want to go to.

sd-ace · Nov 5, 2012

I'll take it one step further and suggest you look into schools who have contracts with hospitals for employment since that is your ultimate goal as an RN. Many hospitals have support systems in place for new grad RN's and networking with hiring managers as a student is always a good idea. It's admirable that as a junior in high school you are thinking so far ahead, but things change. Currently with our economy, employment for RN's is minimal especially new grads. It's a challenging field. Try volunteering at your local hospital for a few months to get used to the hospital environment.