College of Nursing secures national ranking second year in a row
With more than one-third of its final rank coming from success in retaining and graduating students, the Texas A&M College of Nursing climbed to the number 11 spot in the U.S. News & World Report’s 2020 rankings for online graduate nursing programs offered at accredited institutions.
The College of Nursing offers three different Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) programs—family nurse practitioner, nursing education and forensic nursing—all of which have course instruction delivered online with clinical hours completed primarily in the communities where nurses seeking to advance their education currently reside and work.
“Our commitment to quality outcomes for our online graduate programs is reflected in this outstanding national ranking,” said Nancy Fahrenwald, PhD, RN, PHNA-BC, FAAN, dean and professor of the college. “We are proud of this exceptional ranking earned within the first five years of establishing our graduate degree programs delivered online.”
As a component in measuring the successful retention and graduation rates of students, U.S. News & World Report also reviews social mobility, dialing in on the number of students who received federal Pell Grants that successfully graduated from a college’s programs. Resources available to faculty—including student-to-faculty ratio and faculty salary—as well as expert opinion, per-student spending by the college, student excellence prior to admittance and alumni giving make up the remaining portion of the ranking.
In 2014, the college’s MSN degree programs were approved by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, and the inaugural class of MSN in nursing education cohort began their advanced education. Since 2015, when the MSN programs were initially accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE), the family nurse practitioner and forensic nursing master’s programs have been formalized with additional graduate degree and post-graduate certificate programs currently in development.
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