There are many ways to distinguish which are the best nursing schools to go to for a registered nurse program that lasts from two to four years. One of the most major online calculators of nursing schools in the US is done by the US News. They calculate the best schools according to how exceptional the faculty is and the school’s freshman retention rates and graduation rates. They look at academic excellence and other aspects to consider, like faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources and the Alumni giving rate. All of these factors are weighed in and a composite weighing score is achieved which sets universities and colleges against their peers in the league table. In this league table Walden University, the University of Phoenix, the Georgetown University School of Nursing, Norwich University and Gannon University all achieved top scores. Of course, just looking at league tables will only help you make a decision. Visiting a campus in person to find out more is the best option, as is looking at schools local to you that have performed best.

Apart from these schools there is a list of prestigious universities who offer sophisticated registered nursing degrees which will do the best to prepare the brightest students for a great career in nursing. The University of Pennsylvania offers what is considered to be one of the best nursing courses in the world. Top nursing researchers teach from here and the school offers teaching at all levels including a total of 18 Master’s courses. The US News and World Report List have put the University Of Washington School Of Nursing high up for the last 17 years. They have a faculty worthy of world class research, an innovative but quality curriculum, graduates who are highly sought after and a great faculty. Local and global partnerships make this nursing school a formidable contender.

The University of California in LA is known as one of the best public colleges to offer nursing in the country. UCLA offers students strong nursing practise in their hospitals to let them see how nursing affects patient care, the environment and the community, making them one of the best educators in the country. Meanwhile, the John Hopkins University has a partnership with the John Hopkins Hospital which has been teaching nursing for over a century now. In 2012 it was ranked as number one for graduate nursing programs in the country in the US News & World Report rankings. The administrative area of the faculty and staff side is well looked after and having such a prestigious hospital close by for students to practise in is a great advantage.

The University Of Michigan School Of Nursing aims to promote the interests of its members and the field of nursing as a whole. High quality programs are innovative and draw on the considerable experience of the local community. They have a very high standard of work that they aim to inspire students and research peers with. The University of Illinois offers a great campus for undergraduate and graduate students alike of nursing at Urbana-Champaign. Sophisticated education is provided on campus and clinical experience is available on medical sites in the local community supervised by outstanding clinicians.

The Oregon Health and Science University is a top quality school based on values of compassion, high quality care and the pursuit for knowledge. They value their educational community and offer nursing courses at all levels. The University of Maryland in Baltimore shares a vast campus area with six other professional schools from the University, including Dentistry, Pharmacy, Social Work, Medicine, Law and the Graduate School. In 2010 the school was awarded a significant financial sum to become the national leader in healthcare it is today. Good facilities are matched by an ethos of high quality scholarship. Purdue University offers an interesting alternative that offers to prepare nurses for licensure by a broad curriculum of relevant subjects on its West Lafayette campus in Indiana. Finally, the University of Pittsburgh has a School of Nursing that is recognized as one of the best nationally. They were fifth in the amount of research dollars awarded to National Institutes of Health most recently and perform well in school rankings. They only started in 1993 but their educational programs are rigorous and clinical experience offered is wide and intensive. Their students tend to perform very well academically.