So many... How to pick a school?

[midwifewannabe101]

Hi all!

I'm sure this has been covered before, but I'm new and I haven't been able to find the right thread. I'm in the process of searching for nursing schools, but I have very little idea of what makes a good school. My questions:

~What made you choose the school you are at?

~What is important to look for when analyzing a specific school?

~What are ways to know how a school is ranked?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Again, I'm sorry if this is an old topic.

[RNDreams]

It looks like we are in the same stages of planning for nursing school as I am currently researching schools as well, I also want to know EVERY single one my alternatives in my area shoud that one not work out.

As far as seeing the success rates of the school/programs in your area and their students success in pasing the NCLEX by year you can go to the Secretary of State website, for the state you live. You can find it by googling that State you live in (or are planing on going to school in) + Secretary of State NCLEX pass rates.

That will give you an immedicate snapshot of what schools contain the correct rigor of the nursing cours so that students pass on the first try. I read that ideally you want to go to a school that has AT LEAST a 90% success rate.

That really helped me and I was very pleased by what I sawat some of the schools I was considering and also surprised by the %'s of some programs/schools I was also considering.

That is the one of the reasons that nursing school is at the pace that it is, becasue the school knows that the proof is in the #'s and people will choose their scores according to these rates so that they can capture more students and more revenue.

I hope this helps, again I am not an RN but have been doing my research non stop since I finaly solidified my decision to go to nursing school.

I hope this helps!

Christine:yeah:

[labcat01, BSN, RN]

If the nursing school is close to you and accepts you then it is a good nursing school :)

Seriously, people are flocking to nursing school and there is no shortage of applicants. Apply to as many schools as possible and once you start getting acceptances, then you can start narrowing down your choice.

FYI, NCLEX pass rates mean NOTHING. A lot of Universities use difficult exit exams to prevent people from sitting for the NCLEX and not passing. This artificially raises the schools pass rates and does not accurately reflect how good a school is.

[Jewelsy]

I think comparing the passing rates at each school of your choice is a good indication of how good the school is. What state are you in? You can usually find the info at your states board of nursing website.