Howard University College of Nursing and Allied Health Sciences

Howard University's nursing program sits inside the College of Nursing and Allied Health Sciences (CNAHS) at 801 N. Capitol St. NE, a short walk from Howard University Hospital and the main Howard campus near U Street. Howard's Board of Trustees approved a baccalaureate nursing program on April 23, 1968; the first BSN class graduated in 1973, and CNAHS was consolidated into a single college in 2011. The program stands on the legacy of Freedmen's Hospital nurses, the Black nursing workforce that staffed Washington's first federally funded hospital for formerly enslaved people, and that lineage still shapes how the College talks about its mission.

What's offered, and how the BSN actually works

The Division of Nursing offers three BSN tracks plus graduate study. The Basic BSN is the on-campus four-year route. The LPN-to-BSN bridge is for licensed practical nurses who want to come up to the baccalaureate level. The RN-to-BSN is fully online and can be completed in 12 months of full-time study (one academic year plus a summer). On the graduate side, the MSN with a Family Nurse Practitioner concentration runs online and requires 46 semester hours plus 720 supervised clinical hours, with a post-master's certificate available for nurses who already hold an MSN. The College also lists a DNP, accredited through CCNE.

The Basic BSN is structured around the Lower Division / Upper Division split that defines the Howard experience. Years one and two are pre-professional: general chemistry, biology, microbiology, anatomy and physiology I and II, college algebra, plus the humanities core. Years three and four are the nursing major itself, taught by Division of Nursing faculty with clinical placements at Howard-affiliated sites. To move from Lower to Upper Division you must apply separately and clear a documented bar: a minimum 3.0 cumulative GPA, a minimum 3.0 science GPA, the current TEAS exam at "Proficient" or higher (only two attempts permitted), a personal statement, the Casper Assessment, and an interview with the Undergraduate Nursing Program Admissions Committee for invited applicants. Science prerequisites must be no more than five years old. The Undergraduate Nursing page spells these requirements out and posts a single February 28 deadline for Fall Upper Division and LPN-to-BSN entry.

Accreditation and licensure

Per the CCNE directory, Howard's BSN, MSN, post-graduate APRN certificate, and DNP are all CCNE-accredited. The BSN, MSN, and post-grad APRN certificate were last reviewed in February 2025 with terms running through December 31, 2035; the DNP term runs through December 31, 2030. The BSN and MSN also hold Full approval from the District of Columbia Board of Nursing.

Be honest about the licensure picture. The DC Department of Health's 2024 NCLEX-RN pass rate report places Howard's first-time BSN pass rate at 85.71% for January 1 through December 31, 2024. That clears the DC Board's 80% minimum, but it sits below the national baccalaureate average of 92% reported by NCSBN, and below Catholic University (96.34%) and Georgetown (100%) in the same DC cohort. This is a number to ask the Division about directly when you visit. Pass rates move year to year and the most recent cycle is the most useful data point for predicting your own outcome.

Clinical sites and the DC advantage

Howard sits inside one of the densest hospital corridors in the country. Howard University Hospital is the historic teaching partner; the Division of Nursing also places students at MedStar Washington Hospital Center (which runs a Future Nurse program in partnership with Howard) and at Children's National Hospital for advanced-practice rotations. The Division also lists clinical experiences abroad in Haiti, South Africa, and Cuba. If you want to see what it's like to care for a majority-Black patient population in a major teaching hospital, you can do that in your second clinical semester, on a Metro ride from campus.

The honest money conversation

Howard is a private university and the tuition reflects that. The 2025-2026 estimated cost of attendance for undergraduates is $37,996 in tuition, $940 in mandatory fees, plus housing and food, for a total of $64,142 on campus and $73,268 off campus. Compare that to a flagship state BSN where in-state tuition can run a third of that, and you have to be clear-eyed: Howard nursing costs more than most public alternatives.

What partially offsets it is the depth of Howard's financial aid pipeline. The university reports 79% of first-year students received need-based aid in fall 2023, with an average need-based grant of $9,388 and average non-need-based grant of $15,018. Run the FAFSA early, apply for the Howard scholarships through the AcademicWorks portal, and look at MedStar's nurse scholarship pathway, which can offset cost in exchange for post-graduation service.

The Howard nursing experience, told straight

You'll spend the first two years on the main Howard campus near Georgia Avenue and U Street, mixed in with the broader undergraduate population. Nursing-specific community kicks in once you hit Upper Division: smaller cohort, dedicated faculty, the CNAHS building near Union Station, and the campus chapters of the Student Nurses Association and the National Black Nurses Association. The 2019 White Coat Ceremony, started for the BSN's 50th anniversary, has become an annual ritual. The graduate path from BSN to MSN-FNP and DNP is fully internal: most Howard BSN grads who want APRN credentials can do that here, online, without leaving the alumni network.

The real Howard nursing tradeoff is the one nobody puts on a brochure. The competitive bottleneck is the Upper Division admission: you have to clear a 3.0 science GPA, the TEAS, and an interview, and you have to do it on a campus where Black excellence is the floor, not the ceiling. Students who land here from a high school where they were the strongest in their class can be surprised by the pace. If you're considering Howard, build your application around two things the science GPA threshold doesn't capture: a written personal statement that names what kind of nurse you want to be and why, and at least one substantive clinical or community-health experience by sophomore year. The interview committee is reading for fit with the mission, not just numbers.

If you're applying as a freshman, target Fall Lower Division entry through the main Howard undergraduate admission process and declare nursing as your major. If you're an LPN or RN already, the LPN-to-BSN bridge takes Fall applicants by February 28; the RN-to-BSN is online and rolls. For graduate FNP entry, Fall deadline is May 1 and Spring deadline is November 1. Email cnahsnursingstdaffairs@howard.edu or call 202-806-5021 for the current cycle's exact dates before you build your timeline around any deadline quoted online.