UConn nursing is excited to welcome its largest incoming class, and over the past two weekends we opened our doors to over 500 students and families for UConn Bound Days.
This year, UConn has surpassed all records with over 50,000 applications for the class of 2028. With more Huskies coming to UConn, we are excited to announce that the School of Nursing can join in on this momentous celebration.
As a nursing shortage continues to plague the nation, the UConn School of Nursing is excited to enroll its largest class for the 2024 academic year. With over 3,800 applications for the class of 2028 and a projected enrollment of 225 for this class, this makes UConn Nursing highly competitive.
According to the 2023 data released by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), the number of students in entry-level baccalaureate nursing programs decreased by 1.4% last year, ending a 20-year period of enrollment growth in programs designed to prepare new registered nurses (RNs).
There is hope, however. This year, the UConn School of Nursing saw a 32% increase in applications to their four-year undergraduate program over the record-breaking year of applications in 2023. UConn Nursing has also seen an increase in their One-Year Accelerated Nursing Degree Program known as CEIN. This January began the largest cohort with over 150 students.
“It is gratifying to see the interest in UConn Nursing and speaks to our stellar faculty and the high-quality nursing education that our graduates receive,” Dean Victoria Vaughan Dickson says. “It is a challenging time for our profession, and for healthcare in general. We need well-prepared nurses to address the complexities of patient care today. I am inspired by the commitment of our students to their nursing education journey; and confident that as UConn Nurses they will be prepared to address the patient care needs of Connecticut and beyond.”
In January 2020, the School received just under 2,000 applications, in January 2021 2,338 applications, in 2022 2,497 and in 2023 2,871 applications for its undergraduate program on the Storrs campus. This year with over 3,800 applicants as of March 4th, the school has seen the highest jump. This high enrollment draws high hope that more students are interested in nursing.
As the UConn School of Nursing continues to increase enrollment, the school is underway with its plans for expansion into their new building. According to the AACN’s report
of 2021-2022 Enrollment and Graduations in Baccalaureate and Graduate Programs in Nursing, “U.S. nursing schools turned away 91,938 qualified applications (not applicants) from baccalaureate and graduate nursing programs in 2021 due to insufficient number of faculty, clinical sites, classroom space, and clinical preceptors, as well as budget constraints.” As the population of nurses continues to decline due to turnover and retirement, the UConn School of Nursing is working with State Leaders to bring awareness to the shortage and address it with the ongoing plans that UConn Nursing has to help address the issue. The new home for the UConn School of Nursing is set to open in Fall of 2026 which will allow for a larger class size, state of the art learning and additional faculty. UConn nursing will bring more nurses than ever before into the workforce.
To learn more about the programs offered at the UConn School of nursing please visit: www.nursing.uconn.edu.
