Bowie State University Department of Nursing

Bowie State University sits on 295 wooded acres in Prince George's County, Maryland, halfway between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. Founded in 1865 as the Baltimore Normal School for Colored Teachers, Bowie State is the oldest historically Black institution in Maryland and one of the ten oldest HBCUs in the country. Its Department of Nursing, housed inside the College of Professional Studies, has been cultivating nursing professionals for nearly thirty years and continues to send Black nurses into hospitals, public health agencies, and graduate programs across the mid-Atlantic.

The department's flagship offering is the Traditional Bachelor of Science in Nursing. Students complete general education and prerequisite science and math coursework before applying for upper-division standing, then move through clinical nursing courses on a cohort schedule that begins in both fall and spring. The Department of Nursing also offers a Master of Science in Nursing, a Post-Master's Certificate of Advanced Study for nurses moving into advanced practice, and is relaunching its RN-to-BSN bridge in Spring 2026 after a comprehensive curriculum revision.

Accreditation matters in nursing because eligibility for licensure, graduate study, and federal loan programs depends on it. Bowie State's baccalaureate nursing program is accredited by the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing (ACEN) rather than the alternative CCNE pathway. The program currently holds Continuing Accreditation with Conditions per the ACEN Board of Commissioners and is approved by the Maryland Board of Nursing. ACEN status is publicly verifiable and required for students to sit for the NCLEX-RN.

NCLEX results are the public metric most prospective nursing students should examine, and the Maryland Board of Nursing publishes them annually. Bowie State's first-time pass rate has climbed in each of the last three reporting years on record: 81.82% in Academic Year 2022, 83.33% in Academic Year 2023, and 85.71% in Academic Year 2024. The upward trend reflects investment in NCLEX preparation through the Nursing Student Success Center and the department's simulation pedagogy. Completion rate for the 2024 cohort was 47.0%, a figure students should ask the department about during information sessions, as the pre-licensure BSN nationally has a competitive attrition profile and Bowie State is candid about the academic rigor required to stay enrolled.

The simulation resource center is one of the department's calling cards. Students rehearse care plans on SimMan, SimBaby, and Noel, a high-fidelity maternal-newborn manikin, in spaces designed to mirror live patient units. Virtual simulation platforms supplement the physical labs. The center exists so that students can make first-attempt mistakes in a safe environment before walking into a real medical-surgical floor or labor and delivery suite, which closes a confidence gap that disproportionately affects first-generation and minority nursing students.

Clinical rotations rotate students through approved partner agencies in the region. Documented sites include Anne Arundel Medical Center, Baltimore Washington Medical Center, Children's National Medical Center, Howard University Hospital, Sinai Hospital of Baltimore, University of Maryland Capital Region Health, and the Veterans Administration Medical Center, along with assisted living and long-term care facilities that round out the older-adult care experience. Recent Bowie State nursing graduates have hired into MedStar Health DC, Johns Hopkins Medical Center, University of Maryland Medical Center, and Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore, which gives current students a direct line of sight into the employers they could enter after passing the NCLEX.

Tuition for the 2026-2027 academic year is $6,672 for Maryland residents and $17,880 for non-residents, with mandatory fees of $3,718 layered on top, bringing the in-state full-time cost to $10,390 per year and the non-resident cost to $21,598 per year before housing, meals, books, uniforms, and clinical fees. Housing on the Bowie campus ranges from about $7,137 per year for a Harriet Tubman or Dwight Holmes triple room to roughly $8,960 for a traditional double, with premium suites running higher. Meal plans add another $2,345 to $6,564 per year depending on plan tier. Maryland residents living on campus should plan for roughly $25,000 in direct charges before financial aid; non-residents should plan for roughly $36,000 before aid. Bowie State publishes a net price calculator, and students who qualify for Pell grants or Maryland state scholarships frequently pay substantially less.

Admissions to the Traditional BSN are competitive. The department posts a minimum 2.75 cumulative GPA and a 3.0 GPA in math and science prerequisites, along with successful completion of the TEAS exam, which is administered on campus. Transfer students must complete at least one full semester at Bowie State before applying to the nursing program. For the 2025-2026 cycle, the application window opened November 1, the TEAS deadline was December 4, 2025, and the application deadline was December 7, 2025. Future cycles follow the same fall and spring rhythm.

For Black students weighing where to study nursing in the mid-Atlantic, Bowie State offers something specific: a rigorous BSN curriculum inside an institution where Black students are the majority, on a campus 30 minutes from two of the nation's most active hospital ecosystems, with a documented track record of placing graduates into MedStar, Johns Hopkins, and the University of Maryland system. The Chi Eta Phi chapter on campus, active since 2006, connects undergraduates to the national professional sorority for Black nurses, which is a mentorship network that follows graduates through their entire careers.

Prospective students should contact the Department of Nursing directly at nursingsupport@bowiestate.edu or (301) 860-3201 to confirm cohort schedules, prerequisite mapping for transfer credits, and the current accreditation status, which is updated by ACEN on its own cycle.