UCSF ranks high in the top nursing school list while halting some programs.
Bay Area University is listed as sixth best school nationwide for aspiring nurses while pausing its popular master’s degree programs

The University of California San Francisco (UCSF) School of Nursing is among the best in the nation according to a recent study from an online vocational school that places UCSF’s nursing school just behind Yale University’s as the school undergoes program pauses and restructuring.

UCSF is the sixth best destination for aspiring nursing professionals according to the rankings from the U.S. Career Institute (USCI), with Yale in fifth place, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill in fourth place, University of Washington in third place, John Hopkins University at second place, and University of Pennsylvania at first place.

Rounding out the top 10 behind UCSF in the ranking are New York University, Columbia University, Duke University, and the University of California Los Angeles.

“Although the acceptance rate for top schools is very strict and can be extremely difficult to get into, the education these institutions provide has produced some of the most highly equipped and trusted nurses in the U.S,” said Holly Cook, VP of marketing for UCSI in a press release issued May 28.

For the UCSF School of Nursing, however, a dwindling applicant pool last year made their admission rates less than cutthroat for some programs. According to student performance data published to their website, the acceptance rate for their master’s in science program in 2023 was 65%, and 64% for their Ph.D program – compared with 48% and 37% respectively in 2022, and 39% and 71% in 2021.

As of 2023, however, both the Master’s of Science program and the Master’s Entry Program in Nursing (MEPN) – the latter of which had been the most competitive program in the nursing school with an acceptance rate of 16% in 2022 and 15% in 2021 – were on pause through at least 2025.

“As a leading academic institution, the UCSF School of Nursing continuously evaluates how well our educational programs are meeting the contemporary needs of our students and our ability to address the demands of the ever-evolving health care environment,” UCSF officials said in a statement on their webpage on June 6, 2023. “To meet these goals and advance our educational mission, the school is excited to expand our doctoral education opportunities in 2023 to prepare more nurses to lead innovations in health care.”

The reevaluation of existing programs and the goal of expanding doctoral offerings were also behind the decision to close admissions for the Master’s of Science and post-master’s certificate programs, according to a statement posted June 2, 2023 and updated Sept. 7, 2023. While the master’s and post-master’s programs are now off the table at UCSF, a new entry program to the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program is being launched for the 2024 to 2025 academic year, aimed at offering a pipeline from an Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree directly into the DNP program.

“The Post-Baccalaureate Pathway to the DNP prepares nurses who hold a BSN to become experts and leaders in an advanced practice specialty and health policy-public health,” UCSF said on the new program’s website.

The pathway program offers a range of specializations and three different advancing nursing roles to pursue – nurse practitioner, clinical nurse specialist, and health policy and public health nursing.

The first cohort began their studies last month for the 12-quarter hybrid program, with training continuing for previously admitted master’s students throughout the duration of their studies. With its MSN program on hold through at least 2025, however, that means UCSF is not an option for students pursuing the popular degree that generally offers BSN students and practicing nurses a pathway to advance their skills and pursue a specialization.

Four out of the top five nursing schools listed on the USCI ranking – all except for University of Washington – continue to have active MSN programs, meaning Bay Area students might have to travel a bit further from home to pursue those degrees in top programs.

UCSF’s move also means that it might be difficult to compare it with other schools in future rankings, with the nursing school now offering only doctoral degrees, making it an anomaly among the top 10 nursing schools in the UCCI list, all of which offer masters-level programs with the exception of University of Washington, which does offer bachelors-level programs. However, putting its doctoral program into the spotlight might aid UCSF in attracting students to those programs, with the nursing PhD having yielded just 22 applicants in 2023, down from 30 in 2022 and 24 in 2021, whereas its masters programs yielded hundreds of applicants annually over the past three years.

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