Nursing schools in Wisconsin: top programs, costs, and licensing

Wisconsin is a member of the Nurse Licensure Compact (NLC), and has been since the compact began. Wisconsin was one of the four founding states that enacted the original NLC effective January 1, 2000, alongside Maryland, Texas, and Utah, and it transitioned to the enhanced NLC (eNLC) when that compact was implemented on January 19, 2018. A Wisconsin multistate license lets you practice in the 40 states where the compact is implemented without applying for additional licenses, and a multistate license issued by another compact state authorizes practice in Wisconsin.

Wisconsin is a solid state for nursing education and employment. The healthcare market spans two distinct economies – the Milwaukee metro, anchored by Froedtert Health and Advocate Aurora Health, and the Madison area, centered on UW Health and the University of Wisconsin academic medical complex. Beyond the major metros, regional health systems across the Fox Valley, Green Bay, La Crosse, and the Northwoods serve communities with consistent RN demand. The May 2025 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program puts the median annual RN wage in Wisconsin at $95,530, about $2,000 below the national RN median of $97,550.

Wisconsin’s nursing school landscape is well-developed, with programs from community college ADN tracks through research-intensive BSN, MSN, and DNP programs at major universities.

Admission requirements

Wisconsin nursing programs share a standard prerequisite framework across ADN and BSN tracks. Individual programs vary in specific requirements, but the following reflects the common baseline.

Standard prerequisites:

Most Wisconsin programs require science prerequisites completed within the past 5–7 years.

Entrance exams: The ATI TEAS is the standard entrance exam for most Wisconsin nursing programs. Some programs also accept the HESI A2. Competitive scores for ADN programs generally start at the 60th percentile; BSN programs at UW-Madison, Marquette, and MSOE typically look for the 70th–80th percentile and above. For a full comparison of which exam your target school requires, see ATI TEAS vs. HESI: which exam does your school require?

GPA: Minimum GPA requirements across Wisconsin programs typically run 2.75–3.0 cumulative. Competitive BSN programs – particularly Marquette and UW-Madison – commonly admit students with cumulative GPAs of 3.3 or higher. If your GPA falls below the threshold for your target program, see our guide on nursing schools that accept lower GPAs.

Application timeline: Most Wisconsin programs accept applications once or twice per year, with fall entry as the primary intake. Community college ADN programs use point-based or competitive selection due to demand exceeding available seats. Apply well ahead of deadlines and confirm prerequisite currency requirements.

Top nursing schools in Wisconsin

University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Nursing – Madison UW-Madison’s School of Nursing is Wisconsin’s flagship research nursing program, CCNE-accredited, and affiliated with UW Health – one of the state’s preeminent academic medical centers. The school offers BSN, MSN, DNP, and PhD tracks. Graduate programs in nurse practitioner and nurse anesthesia are highly regarded, and doctoral students benefit from the school’s integration with the university’s broader health sciences research infrastructure.

Marquette University College of Nursing – Milwaukee Marquette’s CCNE-accredited nursing program is among the most recognized in the state. The BSN program is four years with strong clinical placements through Froedtert Health and Children’s Wisconsin in the Milwaukee metro. The college’s MSN and DNP programs have a strong track record in advanced practice preparation.

Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) – Milwaukee MSOE’s BSN program is CCNE-accredited and distinctive in its engineering-informed approach to nursing education, with emphasis on clinical technology, simulation, and systems thinking. The program is smaller than UW or Marquette and known for close faculty-student engagement.

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee College of Nursing – Milwaukee UWM’s College of Nursing is CCNE-accredited and offers a full range of pre-licensure through doctoral programs. The RN-to-BSN track is fully online, serving working nurses across Wisconsin. Clinical placements in Milwaukee benefit from a large and diverse healthcare market.

Bellin College – Green Bay Bellin College is CCNE-accredited and focused exclusively on health sciences education. The nursing program offers BSN and MSN tracks with clinical affiliations through Bellin Health and regional northeastern Wisconsin health systems. The school’s smaller size supports high faculty-to-student ratios in clinical coursework.

Madison College – Madison Madison Area Technical College’s ADN program is ACEN-accredited and one of the most accessible RN pathways in the state for students in the Madison area. The program is competitive for admissions and provides a cost-effective entry point to nursing practice before graduates pursue RN-to-BSN completion.

NCLEX pass rates in Wisconsin

Wisconsin-educated candidates outperform the national figure. In 2025, 3,440 of 3,890 first-time, US-educated Wisconsin candidates passed the NCLEX-RN, a pass rate of 88.4% against a national rate of 86.7% (NCSBN, 2025 NCLEX Examination Statistics, Table 8). That national figure fell 4.5 points from 91.2% in 2024, the first national decline since the Next Generation NCLEX launched, so a Wisconsin program holding steady year over year has improved its standing relative to the country even if its own number did not move.

The degree-level split is worth reading closely, because it runs against the assumption most applicants bring to this decision. Wisconsin’s associate-degree candidates passed at 90.1% (1,457 of 1,617) while baccalaureate candidates passed at 87.2% (1,983 of 2,273) – the ADN cohort outperformed the BSN cohort by 2.9 points. This does not mean an ADN is a better degree, and it says nothing about long-term career ceilings, but it does undercut the idea that paying private-university BSN tuition buys you a materially better shot at passing the licensing exam.

Wisconsin sets a real regulatory floor rather than leaving program quality to accreditors alone. Under Wis. Admin. Code § N 1.08, a school of nursing must maintain an annual NCLEX pass rate of at least 80% across all test takers. A school that misses the standard receives a warning letter from the Board of Nursing, must identify the contributing factors and submit an institutional plan for improvement with outcomes and timeframes within 45 days of notification, and faces board review that can escalate to withdrawal of approval under § N 1.11, with a 30-day window to request a hearing. A Wisconsin program sitting below 80% is therefore already inside a formal remediation process, which is more actionable information than a general instruction to watch the numbers.

When researching Wisconsin schools, request pass rate data across at least three years – a single year’s rate can reflect cohort variation, while sustained trends are more informative. For school-level comparisons, see NCLEX pass rates by nursing school.

Licensing in Wisconsin

State board: Wisconsin Board of Nursing Website: dsps.wi.gov/Pages/LicensesPermits/Nursing

To become a licensed RN in Wisconsin:

1. Graduate from a Wisconsin Board of Nursing-approved nursing program
2. Apply for RN licensure through the Wisconsin DSPS licensing portal
3. Complete a criminal background check
4. Register for and pass the NCLEX-RN through Pearson VUE
5. Receive your Wisconsin RN license

Application fee for a new Wisconsin RN license by examination is approximately $75–$82. Current processing times are published on the DSPS website.

NLC compact status: Wisconsin is a member of the Nurse Licensure Compact, implemented since January 19, 2018. Wisconsin is also one of the compact’s four founding states, having enacted the original NLC effective January 1, 2000 with Maryland, Texas, and Utah. If Wisconsin is your primary state of residence, you can apply for a multistate license through DSPS and practice in every jurisdiction where the compact is implemented. If you hold a multistate license from another compact state and Wisconsin is not your primary residence, you can work in Wisconsin on that license without applying for a Wisconsin one. Travel nurses on Wisconsin contracts are covered the same way.

The catch for Wisconsin nurses is regional rather than in-state, and it is worth understanding before you plan around the compact. Of Wisconsin’s four neighbors, only Iowa is an implemented compact state. Minnesota and Michigan are not compact states – compact bills have been introduced in both legislatures but never enacted, so a Wisconsin multistate license does not authorize practice in either. Illinois is in the same position: bills have been introduced repeatedly, most recently in January 2026, and have stalled each time. For nurses in the Twin Cities commuter belt around Hudson and River Falls, in Superior across from Duluth, or in Kenosha and Beloit near the Illinois line, that means a separate state license is still required to cross the border for work, despite Wisconsin’s own compact membership.

Endorsement: Nurses licensed in other states apply for Wisconsin licensure by endorsement through the DSPS portal. Wisconsin requires verification of licensure via Nursys, transcripts from your nursing program, and a criminal background check.

For complete state-by-state licensing details, see nursing license by state.

Salary and job outlook

The May 2025 OEWS estimates put the median annual RN wage in Wisconsin at $95,530. The full percentile spread is the more useful planning figure: the 10th percentile sits at $77,470, the 25th at $81,920, the 75th at $102,610, and the 90th at $119,860. New graduates generally enter between the 10th and 25th percentiles, so a realistic first-year expectation in Wisconsin is roughly $77,000–$82,000, with rural and long-term care roles at the lower end of that band. Experienced RNs cluster between the median and the 75th percentile, around $95,000–$103,000, and specialty and charge roles reach into the $103,000–$120,000 range.

Where you work inside Wisconsin matters more than which employer’s name is on your badge, and the metro rankings do not follow the state’s reputational hierarchy. On May 2025 metro medians, Madison leads the state’s own metros at $101,190, but the second and third spots do not go to Milwaukee. La Crosse-Onalaska pays a median of $98,370 and the western Wisconsin nonmetropolitan area $98,000 – both above Milwaukee-Waukesha at $97,360, despite Milwaukee holding the state’s largest concentration of academic and specialty hospitals. Wisconsin nurses working in the Minneapolis-St. Paul and Duluth cross-border metros do better still, at $103,040 and $96,940 respectively, though practicing on the Minnesota side requires a separate license. At the other end, Kenosha ($83,110), Sheboygan ($84,240), Green Bay ($84,700), and the northeastern Wisconsin nonmetropolitan area ($84,320) sit roughly $11,000–$14,000 below Madison. The practical read: La Crosse and the western counties are the state’s most underrated RN wage markets, and a Milwaukee offer is not automatically the higher-paying one.

Wisconsin’s median sits about $2,000 under the national RN median of $97,550. Nationally, BLS projects registered nursing employment to grow 5% between 2024 and 2034, faster than the average across all occupations, with roughly 189,100 openings per year over the decade. Most of those openings come from replacement demand rather than net new positions, which is why hiring volume stays high even though the percentage growth looks modest.

Major healthcare employers in Wisconsin:

• Advocate Aurora Health – One of the largest health systems in the state, with major hospitals throughout Milwaukee, Waukesha, and Fox Valley
• Froedtert Health – Milwaukee’s academic medical center affiliated with the Medical College of Wisconsin; strong specialty and trauma care employer
• UW Health – Madison-based academic health system; UW Hospital is the state’s primary Level I trauma center
• Children’s Wisconsin – Milwaukee-based children’s hospital, a major pediatric nursing employer in the state
• Bellin Health – Green Bay-based regional health system serving northeastern Wisconsin
• Gundersen Health System / Mayo Clinic Health System – Major employers in the La Crosse and western Wisconsin healthcare market

Wisconsin’s nursing workforce shortage is consistent with national trends, with rural and long-term care settings experiencing the most acute demand. Rural health systems in northern and central Wisconsin actively recruit new graduates and offer incentive packages including tuition reimbursement and sign-on bonuses.

How to choose a nursing school in Wisconsin

Accreditation is non-negotiable. Only consider ACEN- or CCNE-accredited programs. Accreditation affects NCLEX eligibility, graduate school acceptance, and employer recognition. Confirm current accreditation status directly with any program before applying.

NCLEX pass rates. Request the program’s published first-attempt NCLEX-RN pass rate across three or more years. Measure it against two benchmarks rather than one: the Wisconsin statewide figure of 88.4% for 2025, and the 80% regulatory minimum in Wis. Admin. Code § N 1.08. A program below 80% is not merely underperforming – it is subject to a warning letter and a mandatory improvement plan, and you should ask the program directly what it has filed with the board.

Compact licensing across state lines. A Wisconsin multistate license covers you throughout the implemented compact, but it does not reach Minnesota, Michigan, or Illinois. If you expect to work in the Twin Cities, the Upper Peninsula, or the Chicago metro, budget for a second state license and the processing time it takes.

Cost. Community college ADN programs through Madison College and Wisconsin’s technical college system are significantly less expensive than private university BSN programs – often $8,000–$20,000 total versus $60,000–$100,000+ at private institutions. An ADN from an ACEN-accredited technical college program followed by an online RN-to-BSN completion is a well-established, cost-effective path.

Clinical placement access. Programs in Milwaukee and Madison benefit from the highest density of acute care clinical sites in the state. Programs in smaller markets should be evaluated on the quality and acuity of their specific clinical partnerships.

For a complete decision framework, see how to choose a nursing school.

References

1. National Council of State Boards of Nursing, “2025 NCLEX Examination Statistics,” Research Brief Vol. 96, June 2026. Table 8, first-time US-educated candidates by jurisdiction and degree type.
2. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, “Registered Nurses (SOC 29-1141), Wisconsin,” May 2025 estimates, released 15 May 2026.
3. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, “Registered Nurses,” employment projections 2024–2034.
4. National Council of State Boards of Nursing, “Nurse Licensure Compact (NLC) Map and Implementation Dates,” NurseCompact.com.
5. Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services, Board of Nursing, “What is the Nurse Licensure Compact (NLC)?” Nursing Compact Fact Sheet, 2017.
6. Wisconsin Administrative Code, Chapter N 1, “Schools of Nursing,” § N 1.08 (approval standards and annual pass rate standard) and § N 1.11 (withdrawal of approval).
7. Wisconsin Statutes § 441.51, Nurse Licensure Compact.
8. Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services, Registered Nurse licensing requirements and application procedures, dsps.wi.gov.
9. Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education, accredited program directory, ccneaccreditation.org.
10. Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing, accredited program search, acenursing.org.