UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Penn State College of Nursing moved up six places to the 24th spot on the U.S. News & World Report annual ranking of nursing graduate programs for on-site master’s degree programs.
Penn State tied with University of California–Davis for the No. 24 spot in U.S. News’ 2022 "Best Graduate Schools" rankings. The Penn State College of Nursing was evaluated on its residential Master of Science in Nursing degree program with the nurse practitioner option. Three nurse practitioner options — adult gerontology acute care, adult gerontology primary care, and family/individual across the lifespan — are offered across six Penn State campuses: Fayette, Hershey, Schuylkill, Scranton, Shenango and University Park.
“Our upward trend highlighted by these rankings underscores the quality of our faculty, staff and students,” shared Lisa Kitko, associate dean for graduate education and associate professor of nursing. “Their commitment to excellence is also illustrated by our 100% nurse-practitioner certification rates of new graduates and by the U.S. News & World Report rankings. We are proud to be among the best.”
U.S. News sought information from more than 597 accredited nursing schools with master’s degree programs, of which 258 provided the data the media outlet needed to calculate its rankings. The rankings are based on a weighted average of 15 indicators. Factors include research activity, faculty resources, program selectivity, and a peer assessment in which various nursing school Deans ranked other accredited programs against each other. The total dollar amount of grants from the National Institute of Health, the number of faculty who are actively practicing nursing, faculty to student ratios, and newly added, health care professionals’ assessments of each program’s quality on a scale of marginal to outstanding, all contributed to the overall ranking.
The 2022 Best Graduate Nursing Schools rankings can be viewed at this link.
For more information on Penn State Nursing programs, visit the website at nursing.psu.edu.