Best Nursing & Health Sciences Programs with Swim Teams
The programs on this list are not all the same kind of health sciences. Some schools rank on nursing outcomes. Others rank on public health, kinesiology, allied health, or pre-professional tracks that lead to graduate or medical school. Johns Hopkins, Duke, and USC all appear in the top 10 without offering a BSN. Nursing is the subset that matters most for scheduling, because clinical rotations run on hospital time. The FAQs below identify which schools on this list actually offer an undergraduate nursing degree. That distinction matters if nursing is specifically what you are looking for, and the FAQs below address it directly.
Two nurses who swam in college, Bonnie Brandon at Arizona and Nicole Cislo at Southern Connecticut, are further down the page.
335 schools ranked by academic outcomes and selectivity. Powered by College Scorecard data.
Two swimmers who chose this path
Bonnie Brandon was one of the top backstrokers in the country during her career. A six-time All-American at the University of Arizona and former Team USA member, she competed at the short-course world championships and retired after the 2016 Olympic trials. She went into nursing because of the care she watched nurses give to her grandfather. She wanted to give that same attention and compassion to patients and their families. After graduating from Arizona she went straight into cardiovascular nursing at Banner University Medical Center in Tucson, eventually working a COVID-19 unit during the pandemic. She has said that nursing pulled from the same place as swimming did. Show up when it is hard, stay focused when the stakes are high, do your part so the people around you can do theirs.
Nicole Cislo did not wait until after graduation to find out if swimming and nursing could coexist. A swimmer at Southern Connecticut State University, she was already working as a nurse during the COVID-19 pandemic while still competing for her team. During the pandemic, Cislo was putting in clinical shifts and showing up for her team. That overlap is worth sitting with. Nursing in 2020 meant long shifts, limited support, and patients who were very sick very fast. Cislo was doing that while still competing. The discipline swimmers carry into high-pressure situations does not need a credential. She already had it.
How the divisions compare
Division I
Among D1 programs, UCLA, Penn, Northeastern, Boston College, Georgetown, and Michigan all offer nursing and rank in the top 10. USC and Duke rank there too, but on health sciences outcomes outside of nursing. The list spans the ACC, Big Ten, Ivy, CAA, and Big East. The programs with the strongest nursing placements tend to sit in cities where hospital systems are large enough to absorb student rotations without putting athletic schedules in a bind.
Division II
Fresno Pacific in California and Adelphi in New York are the two D2 programs that crack the top 50, and both offer undergraduate nursing. They get here on earnings outcomes rather than selectivity, and both admit students at rates that most D1 schools would not. For a swimmer whose times fit D2 and whose goal is a nursing career, the degree outcome and the athletic fit can both be there.
Division III
NYU and Emory are the D3 programs that offer undergraduate nursing, and both rank in the top 10 overall. NYU is first on the entire list. Johns Hopkins, Tufts, and Case Western Reserve also appear in the top 35 among D3 programs, but none of them offer a BSN. They rank on broader health sciences strength, and their graduate outcomes in public health, pre-med, and allied health fields are what put them here. If nursing specifically is the goal, NYU and Emory are the D3 programs to focus on. Both sit in major cities with established clinical networks, which is a practical advantage when you are trying to schedule hospital rotations around a practice block.
Frequently asked questions
Which schools on this list actually offer undergraduate nursing?
Not all of them. Some schools near the top rank on broader health sciences outcomes rather than a BSN program. Among the top 10, USC and Duke do not offer undergraduate nursing. Johns Hopkins, Tufts, and Case Western Reserve appear in the top 35 overall but also do not offer a BSN. The schools in the top 10 that do offer nursing are NYU, UCLA, Penn, Northeastern, Georgetown, Boston College, Emory, and Michigan. If nursing is specifically what you are pursuing, filter for those programs before you go further with any school on this list.
Can you realistically swim and complete a nursing degree?
Plenty of swimmers have done it. The ones who struggled tend to have landed at schools where no one had thought through the clinical rotation schedule against the practice schedule before they arrived. Before you commit, get specific. Not "is it possible" but "who has done it here, recently, and can I talk to them?"
Do clinical rotations conflict with swim practice?
They can, and this is the question most families do not think to ask early enough. Clinical rotations typically require 8 to 12-hour shifts at a hospital, often starting at 6 am or 7 am. Depending on when your team practices, that creates a direct conflict. The schools that handle this well tend to have nursing programs that offer scheduling flexibility or athletic departments that work with academic advisors to map out four years in advance. NYU, Northeastern, and Boston College all offer nursing and sit in major metros with large hospital systems, which gives student athletes more scheduling options than programs in smaller markets.
Which nursing programs have the best hospital access for student athletes?
The schools near the top of this list share something that has nothing to do with their swim programs. NYU is in Manhattan, surrounded by some of the highest-volume hospitals in the country. Emory built and runs its own healthcare system in Atlanta. Georgetown is in Washington, D.C., within reach of major academic medical centers on both sides of the Potomac. More sites means your rotation schedule has somewhere to go when it conflicts with practice. That flexibility is hard to manufacture if it is not already there. A nursing program in a smaller market may have fewer clinical sites, which leaves less room to work around a practice schedule.
What GPA do you need to get into a health sciences or nursing program at a top school?
Getting recruited does not get you into the nursing or health sciences program. Admissions runs separately from athletics at most schools, and the programs near the top of this ranking want to see a GPA above 3.5 with solid grades in the sciences before the conversation goes much further. NYU and Penn start from a high floor across every program they offer. Northeastern, Boston College, and Georgetown are looking for the same academic profile, with some evidence that healthcare is genuinely where you want to end up. Recruit status and program acceptance are two separate processes, and schools are straightforward about that.
What do nurses who were college swimmers say about the experience?
Bonnie Brandon has said that nursing was pulled from the same place as swimming. Show up when it is hard, stay focused when the stakes are high, do your part so the people around you can do theirs. Nicole Cislo at Southern Connecticut State was not waiting to find out if that was true. She was competing and working as a nurse at the same time, during a pandemic, while her team was still in the water.