Morgan State nursing grads post perfect NCLEX pass rate, top Maryland rank

Morgan State University’s 2025 nursing graduates gave Baltimore a workforce win that reaches well beyond campus: every student who took the NCLEX-RN for the first time passed, and Morgan says that performance made its nursing program the No. 1 ranked in Maryland for the 2025-2026 academic year.

For a city still competing hard for qualified nurses, that matters. Hospitals, community clinics, long-term care facilities and neighborhood health organizations all depend on a steady flow of newly licensed registered nurses, and Morgan’s result showed that one of Baltimore’s major public universities is sending graduates into the labor market with strong odds of immediate licensure. Morgan said the milestone was validated in the Maryland Board of Nursing’s 2026 fiscal year reporting cycle.

The school’s own calendar-year 2025 result was a perfect 100% first-time pass rate. In the Maryland Board of Nursing’s FY 2025 report, Morgan State was listed with 22 first-time testers and 21 passing, a 95.45% pass rate for that reporting period. Even with that different count, Morgan still outpaced the broader Maryland and national benchmarks tied to nursing licensure: the board reported 88.79% for all Maryland BSN programs, 90.25% for all Maryland RN programs and 88.27% for all U.S. candidates from Maryland schools.

Morgan said Mountain Measurement, Inc. placed the university in the 97th percentile among Maryland’s 31 pre-licensure nursing programs, including bachelor’s and master’s entry-level programs. The university also said its 2025 cohort built on momentum from FY 2024, when graduates posted a 90.3% first-time NCLEX pass rate, and that the last time Morgan hit 100% was in fall 2018.

The result also fits Morgan’s broader mission. The School of Community Health and Policy says it is committed to developing health professionals who can transform urban communities by promoting health and reducing health inequities, a focus that gives the nursing program direct local relevance in Baltimore. Students train in clinical-style settings at the Health and Human Services Center’s nursing simulation lab, which Morgan says helps prepare them for practice before they reach real patients.

Morgan’s undergraduate nursing program also recently earned 10-year CCNE reaccreditation, extending the approval through 2033. With the university continuing to build toward R1 research status, the nursing program’s latest pass-rate surge gives Baltimore another sign that one of its flagship institutions is producing job-ready nurses at a time when the city’s healthcare system can ill afford shortages.