U.S. News & World Report Ranks Clarkson College Online Graduate Nursing Program Best in Nebraska

U.S. News & World Report ranked Clarkson College 39th out of 147 eligible institutions in the nation in the category of 2017 Best Online Graduate Nursing Programs, making it the top ranked program of its kind in Nebraska.

This is the sixth year U.S. News released a Best Online Graduate Nursing Programs list and the sixth time Clarkson College achieved a high-ranking status in the category, this year earning 77 out of 100 possible points. “This is such a competitive category, so we view both our eligibility and actual rankings year-to-year as a representation of our commitment to high-quality education,” said Dr. Patricia Coyle-Rogers, Graduate Nursing Program Director. “The caliber of the students we accept into our MSN programs goes hand-in-hand with the dedication to excellence of our faculty, and this combination yields competent nurse leaders and practitioners.”  

The rankings recognize the best online graduate nursing programs based on five factors:

  • Faculty Credentials and Training (25 percent)
  • Student Engagement (20 percent)
  • Admissions Selectivity (20 percent
  • Peer Reputation (20 percent)
  • Student Services and Technology (15 percent)

To gather the information necessary to create the 2017 Best Online Graduate Nursing Programs rankings, U.S. News compiled a list of public, private and for-profit institutions granting Master’s degrees in Nursing that were accredited by either the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing (ACEN) or the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE). Next, U.S. News collected data from these schools by sending them statistical questionnaires. Respondents were asked if they would be offering online graduate-level nursing courses in the 2016–17 academic year.

Between the start of data collection in August 2016 and the October 2016 closing date, 144 schools, or 28 percent of the schools surveyed, said they would be offering online Master's in Nursing degree programs, while the rest either said they would not be or chose not to respond.

The Clarkson College Graduate Nursing program is accredited by the ACEN and began offering distance-learning courses in 1998. The program offers specialties in family nurse practitioner, nursing education, nursing health care administration, and adult-gerontology primary care nurse practitioner. Post-MSN certificate programs are also available online. The curricula for each program prepare registered nurses to function as nurse educators, leaders, consultants, advocates and advanced practitioners.

The University of Nebraska Medical Center is the only other school in Nebraska to receive a 2017 U.S. News Best Online Graduate Nursing Programs ranking. To view the complete list of this year’s rankings, visit the U.S. News & World Report website. All unranked programs (those reporting fewer than 10 enrolled students) and Rank Not Published programs (those whose overall scores are in the bottom 25 percent) are listed but not numerically ranked.