The best BSN programs in the United States

For the list, U.S. News ranked 657 undergraduate BSN programs that met the following eligibility requirements:

• Have accreditation at the bachelor's level from either the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education or the Accreditation Commissions for Education in Nursing
• Be a regionally accredited institution that has awarded at least 40 BSN degrees, according to 2020-2021 data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System Data Center

The rankings were "based solely on the judgments of deans and senior faculty members of nursing schools and departments at institutions around the country who participated in a peer assessment survey," U.S. News writes.

Deans and faculty members were asked to rate the academic quality of peer institutions on a five-point scale: outstanding (5), strong (4), good (3), adequate (2) or marginal (1). If a respondent was unfamiliar with a specific school's program, they were asked to answer "don't know."

A program's average peer assessment score was determined through a trimmed mean that eliminated the two highest and two lowest scores given by respondents. The average scores were then sorted, and BSN programs were ranked in descending order.

In the overall BSN rankings, programs with an average peer assessment score of less than 2.0 are listed in alphabetical order in a ranking range based on the number of programs that also received scores below that number.

The top 10 BSN programs in the United States, as ranked by U.S. News, are:

1. Duke University (Durham, NC (tie)
1. University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA) (tie)
3. Emory University (Atlanta, GA)
4. The Ohio State University (Columbus, OH) (tie)
4. University of Iowa (Iowa City, IA) (tie)
4. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Chapel Hill, NC) (tie)
7. University of Alabama at Birmingham (Birmingham, AL) (tie)
7. University of Michigan – Ann Arbor (Ann Arbor, MI) (tie)
7. University of Washington (Seattle, WA) (tie)
10. Boston College (Chestnut Hill, MA)

According to MedPage Today, this is the third year that the University of Pennsylvania has received the top spot in the BSN program rankings. Duke University moved up to first place from third in 2022 and from second in 2021. (Henderson, MedPage Today, 9/18; Morse/Brooks, U.S. News & World Report, 9/17; U.S. News & World Report's Best BSN Programs rankings, accessed 9/19)

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