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According to U.S. News & World Report's 2026 Best Colleges Guide, UVA School of Nursing's BSN program was ranked No. 13 overall and No. 10 among public institutions. It continues to be ranked Virginia's No. 1 BSN program.

It's the second year in a row that the School earned such high marks. In the 2025 Best Colleges Guide, UVA's undergraduate nursing programs were also ranked No. 13 overall, and were Virginia's best. The previous year's 2024 Guide, the School was ranked No. 16 overall.

The accolade comes amid broader praise for the University of Virginia, which the Guide named the No. 2 "best value public college in the U.S.," and the No. 4 "best public school in the U.S." (No. 27 overall).

"We're always pleased to earn the steady regard of our nursing colleagues," said Marianne Baernholdt, the Pew Charitable Trusts Dean and Professor, "but take rankings with a grain of salt, given U.S. News and World Report’s abbreviated approach to defining quality. Regardless of our rankings, we continue to work hard to meet the needs of students across our wide range of programs, and address the needs of healthcare systems in central Virginia, and beyond." 

U.S. News & World Report releases its Best Colleges Guides each fall, and tabulates schools' scores based on so-called reputational assessments from peer institution deans and senior leaders. For the 2026 Guide, U.S. News polled 1,278 nursing program leaders, of which 389 responded, a 30.48% response rate.

In the 2026 Best Colleges Guide, the School is in a five-way tie as the No. 10 public BSN program, with nursing schools at UCLA, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Indiana University, and the University of Maryland. According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, there are 869 colleges and universities with an accredited BSN program across the country.

Last spring, U.S. News & World Report’s 2025 Best Grad Schools Guide ranked UVA's MSN and DNP programs respectively in the top 3% and 11% nationally, including a No. 13 public MSN (No. 20 overall out of 146 ranked programs) and a No. 34 public DNP (No. 47 out of 158 ranked programs).

When considered among the nation’s 656 MSN and 433 DNP programs, UVA’s graduate nursing programs remain in the top 3% of American MSN programs and the top 11% of American DNP programs. 

Additionally, the 2026 Best Colleges rankings say UVA is the No. 27 best value school overall, moving up three spots from last year, in a crowd of more than 1,700 U.S. colleges and universities. That is more than triple the approximately 400 schools the publication assessed last year.