Albany State University Darton College of Health Professions, Department of Nursing

Albany State University, founded in 1903 as the Albany Bible and Manual Training Institute by Joseph Winthrop Holley, son of formerly enslaved parents from South Carolina, is Georgia's largest public Historically Black College or University and a member of the University System of Georgia. In January 2017 Albany State consolidated with Darton State College, a Two-Year community college, with Albany State retaining its name, HBCU status, and presidential leadership. The result is a single institution running both two-year and four-year programs from two Albany campuses: the historic East Campus on College Drive and the West Campus on Gillionville Road that came over from Darton. The Darton College of Health Professions is the academic home of every health profession at Albany State, with the Department of Nursing as its anchor program.

The nursing department offers an unusually full ladder for an HBCU of Albany State's size. The Associate of Science in Nursing (ASN) Traditional Track is a two-year RN preparation program meant for high school graduates, transfer students, and career changers who want to test for the NCLEX-RN quickly and start working. The Albany Healthcare-Professional-to-RN Bridge program is an accelerated ASN for paramedics and Licensed Practical Nurses who already hold active licensure and want to convert prior clinical knowledge into RN credentials. The Generic 2+2 BSN is the four-year Bachelor of Science in Nursing pathway: two years of core curriculum followed by two years of nursing coursework after a competitive entry that requires the TEAS exam at 70.0 percent or higher, a 2.8 nursing GPA across nine prerequisite courses, science grades of C or higher, and Anatomy and Physiology coursework less than six years old. The Accelerated Second-Degree BSN compresses the nursing phase into roughly five consecutive semesters, including one summer, for applicants who already hold a non-nursing bachelor's degree with a 3.0 cumulative GPA. For working RNs, the RN-to-BSN bridge completes the bachelor's. At the graduate level the MSN offers Family Nurse Practitioner, Nursing Educator, and Nursing Informatics concentrations, and the department also issues post-master's certificates.

Every one of those programs, ASN, BSN, MSN, and post-master's certificate, holds Continuing Accreditation from the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing (ACEN), and the associate and baccalaureate programs are approved by the Georgia Board of Nursing. The Department of Nursing publishes annual NCLEX-RN results against national reference rates. For the BSN program, first-time NCLEX-RN pass rates ran 78.57 percent in 2022, 100 percent in 2023, 91.67 percent in 2024, and 83.33 percent in 2025, a four-year average of 88.39 percent. For the ASN program, the rates were 72.53 percent (2022), 80.69 percent (2023), 95.65 percent (2024), and 86.13 percent (2025), a four-year average of 83.75 percent. The 2024 BSN cohort essentially matched the national BSN rate of 91.92 percent, and the 2024 ASN cohort exceeded the national ASN rate of 90.63 percent. The MSN's Family Nurse Practitioner certification exam pass rate averaged 86.67 percent across 2023 to 2025. These numbers come directly from the Department of Nursing's Accreditation and Statistics page on asurams.edu.

Costs are among the lowest of any nursing pathway in Georgia. For 2025-2026, in-state undergraduate bachelor tuition at the standard 15-credit load runs $2,610 per semester plus $745 in mandatory fees, totaling $3,355 per semester or roughly $6,710 per year. Associate-program in-state tuition is lower at $1,980 per semester at 15 credits, with the same $745 fees, around $5,450 per year all-in. Out-of-state students pay $9,900 per semester in bachelor tuition or $7,650 in associate tuition, with the same fees layered on top. The university's full published cost of attendance for 2025-2026, including housing, food, books, transportation, and personal expenses, is $24,292 for a four-year in-state on-campus student and $35,956 for a four-year on-campus non-resident. Two-year on-campus COA is $23,284 in-state and $32,356 out-of-state. These figures are published by ASU's Office of Fiscal Affairs in the official 2025-2026 Student Fee Schedule and the 2025-2026 Estimated Cost of Attendance budget. Nursing students additionally pay program-specific testing, background check, liability insurance, and skills kit fees ranging from roughly $13 to $545 per item, listed line by line on the same fee schedule.

Clinical training is dominated by Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital, the flagship of Phoebe Putney Health System and the largest hospital in southwest Georgia. The BSN catalog states explicitly that clinical experiences occur in the program's skills and simulation labs, at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital, and at other regional facilities as needed. For students considering Albany State, that placement matters: Phoebe is the dominant employer for nurses across an eleven-county service area, and clinical hours there often translate into post-graduation hiring conversations.

Applications for every Albany State nursing track for Fall 2026 close Monday, June 1, 2026 at 23:59:59 Eastern Time. The Department of Nursing publishes a single application portal at asurams.edu/academic-affairs/dchealthprof/nursing/program-applications.php. The department's main phone is (229) 500-2329; the Bursar's Office, which handles tuition and payment plans, is at (229) 500-4358 and Bursar@asurams.edu. The Department of Nursing operates out of the ASU West Campus at 2400 Gillionville Road, Albany, GA 31707, the former Darton State College site that came into the HBCU through the 2017 consolidation and that now powers the largest HBCU-based nursing pipeline in Georgia.