2024 Rankings: The 15 Best Nursing Schools in the St. Louis Metro Area

Goldfarb School of Nursing at Barnes-Jewish College was the first school in the nation accredited by the National League for Nursing. The college has also been recognized as a Laerdal Center of Educational Excellence. Barnes-Jewish College conducts BSN, MSN, DNP, and PhD degree programs across two campus sites, one at Washington University Medical Center and one at Missouri Baptist Medical Center. Approximately 400 BSN graduates sit for the National Council Licensure Examination annually, and they have passed this test at a 90% first-try rate over the past decade. More than 40% of graduates land positions at Barnes-Jewish Hospital.

The Catherine McAuley School of Nursing at Maryville University has a considerable collection of program offerings for aspiring nurses. Maryville offers traditional and degree completion BSN programs, as well as a fast-track BSN for students who have completed 65 hours of liberal arts and science coursework. Across the prelicensure BSN pathways, the school graduates approximately 125 students annually. They have consistently scored stellar marks on the NCLEX licensure exam, averaging a 92% first-time pass rate over the past decade. Maryville’s MSN and DNP programs have five specialty NP tracks: family nursing, adult-gerontology primary care, adult-gerontology acute care, pediatric nursing, and psychiatric mental health.

The SIUE School of Nursing provides traditional BSN, accelerated BSN, and RN-to-BSN degree programs for undergraduates. It also offers three distinct MSN tracks (healthcare informatics, nurse education, healthcare and nursing administration) and a DNP program with two specialization options (nurse anesthesia, family nurse practitioner). BSN graduates have maintained a solid 84% NCLEX pass rate over the past decade. SIUE students learn in active classroom settings and a high-technology simulation laboratory, and they are guaranteed clinical placement among the school’s 28 community partners in the St. Louis metropolitan area. SIUE pursues a federally funded program called SNAP, which is designed to recruit racially, ethnically, and culturally diverse high school graduates.

Chamberlain University is one of the largest nursing schools in the St. Louis metropolitan area. Approximately 150 students graduate annually from the campus’s accelerated three-year BSN program. These candidates have passed the NCLEX-RN licensure exam at a 90% first-try rate over the past decade. Part of Adtalem Global Education, Chamberlain also offers a wide breadth of online nursing programs. Options include RN-to-BSN and RN-to-BSN-to-MSN degree completion programs; an MSN curriculum with specialty tracks for nursing education, nurse executive leadership, family nursing practice, nursing informatics, and healthcare policy; and a post-master’s DNP program.

Beck School of Practical Nursing’s LPN program combines classroom theory with clinical experiences at local hospitals and facilities. The course sequence is divided into five 9- to 10-week blocks for a total of 1,440 clock hours over 11 months. The curriculum covers topics like anatomy, community health, growth and development, maternity nursing, and pharmacology. Although the Beck LPN is a daytime program, students may also attend some meetings, seminars, and clinical practicums during the evenings or weekends. Over the past decade, LPN graduates achieved a noteworthy 87% pass rate on the NCLEX-PN exam. Recent classes have also boasted an 86% job placement rate.

CALC is a nationally accredited career institution that provides training for in-demand careers such as administration, engineering, and healthcare. The school’s practical nursing program integrates theory, laboratory work, and clinical experience to prepare graduates for initial LPN licensure. Since the program’s launch, students have achieved a near-perfect 99% first-time pass rate on the NCLEX-PN licensure exam. The 15-month LPN curriculum is a fulltime course of study, comprised of four 15-week terms and one five-week term. Clinical experiences take place 24/7 during the program, so students must be available for all work shifts.

The Washington School of Practical Nursing conducts a highly regarded LPN certificate program at the Four Rivers Career Center. The program offers daytime classes every Monday through Thursday, with a new cohort of approximately thirty students entering each August and graduating the following July. Students complete 863 theory hours, 45 lab hours, and 456 clinical hours. Successful graduates are prepared for a range of employment opportunities including long-term care, urgent care, school nursing, and home healthcare. They may also advance their studies by entering an LPN-to-RN bridge program at a local institution. The Washington School of Practical Nursing has a stellar track record of success on the NCLEX-PN licensure examination, posting a 93% first-time pass rate over the past decade.

St. Louis Community College is the largest college in the region. The school has 14 campuses and education centers throughout the St. Louis metropolitan area that provide more than 80 career training programs, 20 college transfer options, and 700 continuing education courses. The Center for Nursing & Health Sciences offers both a generic ADN program and an LPN-to-ADN pathway. The curriculum emphasizes intensive clinical experiences at local healthcare facilities like Mercy Hospital St. Louis, SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital, St. Luke’s Hospital, and Barnes-Jewish Hospital. On campus, STLCC nursing students learn and work in state-of-the-art classrooms and simulation laboratories. The nursing program is large, graduating approximately 150 students annually across both tracks. Over the past decade, these students have averaged a noteworthy 89% first-time NCLEX pass rate.