Opening for BSN programs

Most people "hedge their bet" and apply to multiple places. If several schools accept you then when you get an email from them they usually ask you to accept admission or decline. You accept the one you want to go to and decline the rest. The schools that you decline will go to the next person on the wait list.

The schools that I applied to:

One had a rule that if you got 80 or better on their preadmission test and you wanted in, you're in. First come, first served, no points ranking. They filled the class up and then waitlisted the extra students. If there were seats open at the start of classes, they went down the waitlist to try to fill them.

One ranked applicants in three tiers: Immediate Yes, Immediate No, or Waitlist. Then they point-ranked the waitlist and tried to fill up the class, then if they didn't fill every seat or they had last minute dropouts, they opened the remainder up to everyone who met their minimum qualifications.

Others ranked students competitively by points, and then went down the ranks to fill the class. They waitlisted some students and tried to fill cancellations with them.

eta: Those were diploma and associate degree programs but all nursing schools and departments probably do some variant of those three.