RN to BSN Programs for Licensed Nurses
Every "best BSN programs" list is built off one federal code, and that code files an RN-to-BSN completion track and a four-year pre-licensure degree under the same number. We checked all 1,112 bachelor's programs in it against the text of each school's own program page, kept the 362 confirmed to run a completion track, and ranked the 290 that report enough to be compared.
01 The Census
The whole method, in four numbers. Each one is the population left after the previous filter runs.
- Federal records 1,112 Bachelor's programs IPEDS files under CIP 51.3801, pre-licensure and completion tracks together.
- Completion tracks confirmed 362 The school's own page names an RN-to-BSN, RN-BSN, BSN completion or post-licensure track. The evidence is kept with each record.
- Ranked 290 Carry in-state tuition, an institutional graduation rate and at least 10 degrees a year — the three inputs a score needs.
- States with a ranking 24 States carrying 5 or more ranked programs, enough to compare inside one state rather than across the country.
- Confirmed
- We read it on the school's own program page, and the page it came from is on file. This is the strongest claim anything here makes.
- Check
- You have to verify this yourself. No federal file settles it, and neither can we — it turns on your license, your state, and your shift pattern.
02 Why Our List Is Shorter
Search for the best BSN programs and you will get NYU, Penn, Michigan and Duke. Those are excellent nursing schools. They are also four-year pre-licensure degrees for people who are not nurses yet, and a licensed RN holding an ADN cannot enroll in them. The list is not wrong so much as it is answering a different question for a different person.
It happens because the federal data gives both degrees the same code. Sort that code by awards and the top of it is pre-licensure programs — the pages say so themselves, in their own titles. Rank it straight and you publish that list. Most sites do.
So the first thing this site does is not ranking. It is removal. Every one of the 1,112 records was checked against the text of the school's own program page, and 362 of them are confirmed to run a completion track. Another 712 are either pre-licensure degrees or programs whose status we could not establish. Of those, 106 involve ambiguous program wording or campus-identity questions. A further 38 named a completion track but were closed to new students or not offered at that institution when checked; they are recorded separately in the program-status review.
Absence from this site is not by itself a finding about a program. We would rather leave a real program out than put a program you cannot enroll in at the top of a list. The full filter and the weights are written up in one place.
03 The 5 Highest-Scoring Programs Nationally
In-state tuition 55%, institutional graduation rate 45%, min-max normalized against the 290 ranked programs. A score is a position inside this cohort — it is not a grade.
Confirmed Completion track read on the school's own program page. True of every program in the ranking, not only these 5.
- 1st nationally University of Florida Gainesville, FL · Public $4,477 in-state / yr · 91% institutional graduation rate · 235 degrees a year Fully online 91.8 Ref 0–100
- 2nd nationally University of Florida-Online Gainesville, FL · Public $3,358 in-state / yr · 85% institutional graduation rate · 65 degrees a year Fully online 90.1 Ref 0–100
- 3rd nationally Cox College Springfield, MO · Private nonprofit $11,772 in-state / yr · 100% institutional graduation rate · 145 degrees a year 88.3 Ref 0–100
- 4th nationally Riverside College of Health Careers Newport News, VA · Private nonprofit $14,000 in-state / yr · 100% institutional graduation rate · 29 degrees a year Fully online 85.8 Ref 0–100
- 5th nationally University of Central Florida Orlando, FL · Public $4,478 in-state / yr · 78% institutional graduation rate · 711 degrees a year 85.5 Ref 0–100
Read the graduation rate with its limit in view, because we would rather state it than bury it: IPEDS measures graduation for first-time, full-time, degree-seeking undergraduates, and an RN-to-BSN student is none of those three. It is a signal about the institution, not a measurement of the completion cohort, which is why it sits below cost. A further 72 confirmed programs are not scored at all — an input the score needs is missing from the federal file, or the program confers too few degrees a year to compare. They are listed on their state page, with the reason shown.
The full national ranking — all 290 programs, or the complete program index.
04 By State
24 states carry 5 or more ranked programs and have their own page. Position is the best national placement any program in that state holds. Lowest tuition is the cheapest in-state figure among that state's ranked programs — across the whole cohort it runs from $970 to $51,569 a year.
| State | Ranked programs | Best national position | Lowest in-state tuition |
|---|---|---|---|
| Florida | 32 | 1st | $1,750 |
| Texas | 22 | 64th | $1,170 |
| Ohio | 14 | 62nd | $6,362 |
| Pennsylvania | 14 | 20th | $7,716 |
| Missouri | 13 | 3rd | $8,120 |
| California | 12 | 10th | $6,084 |
| New York | 12 | 40th | $7,070 |
| Georgia | 10 | 31st | $2,424 |
| Colorado | 7 | 107th | $4,058 |
| Indiana | 7 | 115th | $7,536 |
| North Dakota | 7 | 39th | $6,517 |
| Washington | 7 | 24th | $4,205 |
| Wisconsin | 7 | 6th | $7,378 |
| Illinois | 6 | 92nd | $8,232 |
| Kentucky | 6 | 120th | $9,875 |
| Louisiana | 6 | 41st | $4,922 |
| Massachusetts | 6 | 9th | $970 |
| Michigan | 6 | 132nd | $12,930 |
| Mississippi | 6 | 60th | $8,105 |
| North Carolina | 6 | 7th | $4,422 |
| Utah | 6 | 23rd | $5,621 |
| Virginia | 6 | 4th | $6,160 |
| Arkansas | 5 | 72nd | $5,685 |
| Tennessee | 5 | 75th | $7,272 |
05 What the Ranking Cannot Tell You
Check Five things decide whether a completion track is finishable around three twelve-hour shifts. Ask the admissions office about each one, in writing.
- Whether Classes Meet at a Fixed Time "Online" is not the question. Asynchronous is, because shifts do not move. Schools state a delivery mode on 253 of the 362 confirmed programs; we show it where they say it and show nothing where they do not. The programs that state it.
- Clinical Hours Many completion tracks require no traditional bedside clinicals and substitute a community or workplace project. Some still want precepted hours you arrange yourself, at your own facility, on your own time. That is the largest hidden cost in this field and it is almost never on the tuition page.
- How Much of the ADN Transfers Including whether general education you already finished counts, and whether the nursing credits carry a currency limit. Two programs quoting the same per-credit price can be a year apart once transfer credit is applied.
- Total Cost to Finish Per-credit pricing is how this field hides the number. Our cost factor is the annual in-state tuition IPEDS carries for the institution; it is not a quote for your credit load. Get the figure for the credits you personally have left.
- State Authorisation, and What Comes Next An online program is not offered in every state. And accreditation matters most for what follows the degree: an unaccredited BSN can block admission to an MSN and disqualify you from tuition reimbursement. CCNE and ACEN are both real accreditors, and a program holding either one is accredited.
06 RN Salaries and Nursing Career Options
Two occupations from the same May 2025 BLS wage survey, printed side by side. Not two degrees, and not a before and after.
| Occupation | SOC | Median | 10th – 90th percentile | Employed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Registered Nurses Every RN, at every degree level, in one occupation. | 29-1141 | $97,550 | $68,940 – $137,470 | 3,379,720 |
| Medical and Health Services Managers A different occupation a BSN can make you eligible to apply for. | 11-9111 | $123,860 | $73,390 – $224,340 | 597,080 |
BLS counts every registered nurse in the country — 3,379,720 of them — as a single occupation, and publishes no split by degree. There is no federal figure for what a BSN earns against an ADN. Anyone quoting you one has made it up, and the median above belongs to ADN, BSN and MSN nurses together.
The second row is the honest version of the claim. Medical and health services managers sit in a different occupation with a median $26,310 above the RN figure, and a BSN is the credential that makes those postings answerable. That is access to a different job, not a raise in the one you have. Read the spread before you read the median: SOC 11-9111 runs $73,390 to $224,340 between the 10th and 90th percentiles, far wider than SOC 29-1141 at $68,940 to $137,470, because it counts hospital executives, practice administrators, nursing home administrators and clinical directors — including plenty who never nursed.
RN pay state by state, the registered nurse wage page, or what a nurse manager role actually asks for.
07 A BSN Is a Career Credential, Not a License
You can practice as a registered nurse in every state with an associate degree. The license comes from the NCLEX-RN, and the exam does not ask which degree got you to the seat. A large share of excellent nurses hold an ADN. The completion track is a step up from it, not a correction of it.
One state has moved. New York's "BSN in 10", signed in 2017, requires nurses licensed in the state after its effective date to earn a baccalaureate within 10 years of initial licensure. It grandfathers everyone licensed before that, and it is the only law of its kind in the country. If you were already licensed in New York when it took effect, it does not reach you. What the law actually says.
The 80% figure you have been hearing quoted for a decade is the Institute of Medicine's 2010 Future of Nursing report, which recommended that share of the RN workforce hold a BSN by the end of the decade. It was a recommendation. It never had force of law anywhere, and it was not met.
So the case for the degree is access rather than permission: Magnet hospitals that prefer or require it, charge and management tracks, case management, public health, and the route into an MSN. That is a real case, and it is worth making without the threat attached to it. Whether it is worth it for you depends on which of those you are actually going after.
08 Where to Start
- Online and Asynchronous Programs Which of the 362 confirmed programs say on their own page that coursework is fully online, and which say it is asynchronous.
- What Registered Nurses Are Paid The May 2025 BLS wage survey, state by state, with the degree caveat attached to every figure.
- Where the Degree Can Take You Charge nurse, case management, public health, nurse manager — what each role is and what it actually requires.
- License and Certifications NCLEX-RN, plus the specialty certifications nurses ask about alongside a completion track.
- Guides CCNE against ACEN, how long a completion track takes, and whether the degree is worth it for you.
- Working Notes Longer pieces on the data behind this site and the rules that get quoted at nurses.
Everything above is derived from the files this site publishes and re-derived every time they change. How we rank · Who writes this.