Rounds with Leadership: Navigating Pathways into Nursing

Before the start of a new academic year, summertime can provide nursing school administrators with an opportunity to focus on strategic planning and operational efficiency. While much attention is focused on welcoming the next class of students, the months leading up to fall enrollment are the time to ensure that faculty, staff, clinical partners, and institutional resources are aligned to support student success from day one.

One tool that can help nursing schools generate strong interest in their programs and streamline the admission process is NursingCAS, the national centralized application service operated by AACN and our partner Liaison International. NursingCAS provides an online application service for prospective students and a web-based admissions software for schools to manage entry into undergraduate and graduate programs. With a platform that can be integrated with campus systems, this free member service will allow you to cast a wider net for college applicants while freeing up staff time to focus on applicant reviews and launch other recruitment efforts.

Success by the Numbers

Engagement with NursingCAS is at an all-time high with the last cycle netting more than 100,000 applications, the most submitted in a single cycle since the service was launched more than 15 years ago. Our most recent data report shows that NursingCAS continues to effectively serve our schools and applicants. During the 2024–2025 cycle, 29 new schools joined NursingCAS for a total of 282 schools receiving applications through NursingCAS throughout that time. Not only did the number of schools utilizing NursingCAS increase, but the number of students using the platform continues to grow. This cycle saw 75,078 submitted applicants and 112,267 submitted applications, an increase over the prior year by 17% and 24%, respectively. Overall, 2,526 nursing programs received applications through NursingCAS this cycle.

A unique asset for academic nursing, NursingCAS serves as an effective mechanism for schools working to reach prospective students and fill open seats. Affiliated schools gain access to increased visibility for their programs through this platform, including opportunities to directly contact more than 180,000 prospective nursing school applicants through built-in mechanisms for communication and program promotion.

Schools may also take advantage of a dynamic application management software that streamlines the process of collecting applications and managing the admissions pipeline. NursingCAS is highly customizable, allowing schools to set features specific to their programs, including program-level questions, evaluations, documents, and prerequisites. Advanced analytics tools make it easy to pull data directly from NursingCAS to track year-over-year trends for individual schools.

Getting Started

The first step to benefiting from all that NursingCAS has to offer is to schedule a call with AACN and Liaison staff. The NursingCAS team can meet one-on-one with admissions staff, faculty, and other stakeholders from your school in a dedicated demonstration of the platform. For those looking for a peer assessment, AACN can put you in touch with an actively participating school whose staff can share insights on using this service. Contact the NursingCAS team to get started.

We encourage you to take some time this summer to make an investment in the success of the upcoming academic year by learning more about NursingCAS and its potential to optimize your application process. AACN is committed to being your partner in generating strong interest in your programs and helping all member schools thrive.