Nursing is of the hottest bachelor's degree programs in the United States, coming in as the #2 most popular major in the country. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.
College Factual reviewed 91 schools in the Southwest Region to determine which ones were the best for bachelor's degree seekers in the field of nursing. Combined, these schools handed out 21,602 bachelor's degrees in nursing to qualified students.
Choosing a Great Nursing School for Your Bachelor's Degree
The nursing bachelor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality nursing program can vary widely even among the top schools. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
Quality Overall Is Important
A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
Average Earnings
To determine the overall quality of a graduate school, one factor we look at is the average early-career salary of those receiving their bachelor's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their bachelor's degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.
Other Factors We Consider
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
Major Focus - How much a school focuses on nursing students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - The number of nursing students who choose to seek a bachelor's degree at the school.
Educational Resources - The amount of money and other resources allocated to students while they are pursuing their degree. These resources include such things as number of students per instructor and education expenditures per student.
Student Debt - How easy is it for nursing to pay back their student loans after receiving their bachelor's degree.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized nursing related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for nursing students working on their bachelor's degree.
Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Nursing Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Southwest Region list, to help you choose the best school for you.
In addition to College Factual's rankings, you may want to take a look at College Combat, our unique tool that lets you pit your favorite schools head-to-head and compare how they rate on factors that most interest you.
When you have some time, check it out - you may want to bookmark the link so you don't forget it.
Best Schools for Bachelor’s Students to Study Nursing in the Southwest Region
The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing a bachelor's degree in nursing. Only those schools that rank in the top 15% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
13 Top Southwest Region Schools for a Bachelor's in Nursing
Any student who is interested in a bachelor's degree in nursing needs to check out Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. TTUHSC is a medium-sized public university located in the city of Lubbock.
Students who graduate with their bachelor's from the nursing program report average early career earnings of $64,946.
It's difficult to beat The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in nursing. UTHealth is a medium-sized public university located in the city of Houston.
Nursing bachelor's degree recipients from The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston get an earnings boost of around $4,687 over the average income of nursing majors.
It's hard to beat The University of Texas Medical Branch if you want to pursue a bachelor's degree in nursing. Located in the fringe town of Galveston, UTMB Galveston is a public university with a small student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the nursing program at The University of Texas Medical Branch earn $3,856 above the average college grad in this field shortly after graduation.
The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a bachelor's degree in nursing. UT Health San Antonio is a small public university located in the large city of San Antonio.
After graduation, nursing bachelor's recipients generally earn an average of $57,929 in the first five years of their career.
West Coast University - Dallas is a small private for-profit university located in the medium-sized city of Richardson.
Nursing bachelor's degree recipients from West Coast University - Dallas receive an earnings boost of approximately $16,408 above the average income of nursing majors.
UOPX - Arizona is a fairly large private for-profit university located in the large city of Phoenix.
Nursing bachelor's degree recipients from University of Phoenix - Arizona get an earnings boost of around $22,382 above the typical earnings of nursing majors.
Located in the city of Arlington, UT Arlington is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the nursing major at The University of Texas at Arlington make $7,603 above the average college grad with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
These are some additional schools worth mentioning that are also great but just didn't quite make the cut to earn our top Best Nursing Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Southwest Region award.
The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).