The TEAS is sat by 280,000+ pre-nursing applicants every year — and one in three never hits their target score. Skip it entirely at 40+ BSN programs that accept HESI A2, 17 schools accepting PAX-RN, and 24 ABSN programs with GPA-only admission. Average NCLEX-RN first-time pass rate at these schools is 92%.
The TEAS is sat by more than 280,000 pre-nursing applicants every year, and roughly one in three never quite hits the score their target school wants. That alone is reason to look at the other door. Schools that don't ask for the TEAS still exist, they're accredited by ACEN or CCNE, and they fill their seats with students who came in through HESI A2, PAX-RN, Kaplan Nursing Entrance, or simply a strong GPA.
You're not skipping a hurdle to land at a weaker program. Vanderbilt, Johns Hopkins, Georgetown, Columbia, NYU, and Penn don't require the TEAS at all. They use GRE waivers, holistic review, or their own writing samples. Meanwhile, more than 40 BSN programs accept the ATI TEAS OR the HESI A2, and 17 schools accept the PAX-RN. So you get options.
This guide breaks down every TEAS-free path: which schools accept what, how their NCLEX nclex pass rates compare to TEAS-required programs, and the real GPA thresholds you need. We'll cover all regions, both ADN and BSN, and the trade-offs of choosing an entrance-exam-free route versus sitting the TEAS anyway.
One thing first. Skipping the TEAS isn't always the easier play. Some schools that waive it raise their accredited bsn programs for prereq GPA from 2.75 to 3.5. Others lean hard on the personal statement. So the question isn't only "can I avoid the TEAS," it's "what does this school weigh instead?" Let's get into it.
A note on accreditation before we go further. Every school in this guide holds CCNE or ACEN accreditation. If a school waives the TEAS but isn't accredited, walk away — your NCLEX eligibility and future graduate-school plans will be blocked. Always verify accreditation directly on the CCNE or ACEN website. Don't rely on the school's marketing claims.
The bottom line: TEAS-free admission is real, accredited, and producing strong NCLEX outcomes. Pick the right schools for your profile and the entrance exam itself stops being the deciding factor in your nursing career.
40+ accredited BSN programs accept HESI A2 instead of TEAS. 17 schools accept PAX-RN. 24 ABSN programs use GPA-only admission with no entrance exam. Average prereq GPA at TEAS-free schools: 3.4 (vs 2.75 minimum at TEAS-required schools). NCLEX pass rates at top TEAS-free programs average 92%, on par with TEAS-required programs.
The highest-ranked BSN programs in the country don't use the TEAS at all. Vanderbilt University School of Nursing uses holistic review for the MSN entry. Johns Hopkins School of Nursing waived TEAS entirely in 2019, weighing GRE-optional applications instead. NYU Rory Meyers, Penn, Columbia, Georgetown, Duke, Emory, and University of Michigan also skip the TEAS. These schools want a 3.5+ cumulative GPA, two strong letters, and a focused personal statement. No standardized entrance exam involved.
The HESI A2 (Health Education Systems Inc. Admission Assessment) is the most common TEAS alternative. It's a 326-item test covering math, reading, vocabulary, grammar, biology, chemistry, anatomy, and a learning style/personality profile. Most programs require a composite score of 75-80%. Schools include Galen College of Nursing, Chamberlain University (most campuses), West Coast University, Aspen University, ECPI University, and Herzing University. Some let you choose either TEAS or HESI A2.
The NLN PAX (National League for Nursing Pre-Admission Exam) is shorter than TEAS — 160 items in 3 hours covering verbal, math, and science. Schools accepting PAX-RN include Excelsior College, Helene Fuld College of Nursing, Phillips Beth Israel School of Nursing, Long Island College Hospital School of Nursing, and several CUNY programs. Passing composite is typically 100+ on the 200-point scale.
Some BSN and ABSN programs admit students entirely on academic record and interview. No entrance exam at all. These include the second-degree ABSN tracks at Marquette, Mount Saint Mary's University (LA), Saint Joseph's University (PA), University of San Francisco, and several Jesuit and Catholic universities. Minimum prereq GPA is usually 3.0-3.4 with all sciences at B or better.
The narrower question is which schools skip BOTH the TEAS AND the HESI A2 — meaning no standardized nursing-entrance exam at all. The list is smaller but real: Vanderbilt, Johns Hopkins, Penn, Columbia, NYU Rory Meyers, Duke ABSN, Yale GEPN, Marquette ABSN, Saint Louis University ABSN, and Loyola Marymount ABSN are the headline names. They evaluate undergraduate transcripts, prerequisites, GRE (often optional now), letters, essays, and an interview. That's it.
These programs lean heavily on the prereq GPA. Anatomy, physiology, microbiology, chemistry, statistics, and developmental psych all matter. A B+ in A&P will carry more weight than a perfect TEAS score would have at a different school. If your ati teas test research has pointed you toward elite private universities, expect the entire admission decision to come down to those eight prereq grades plus your personal statement.
Three reasons drove the shift. First, equity: TEAS prep materials cost $400+, and elite programs wanted to reduce that barrier. Second, predictive validity research from 2018-2022 showed prereq GPA was a stronger predictor of NCLEX success than TEAS composite scores at their level of selectivity. Third, the GRE was already losing favor across grad-level health programs, so TEAS waivers fell into the same broader trend.
Internal data from 2021 backed the shift. Penn ran a five-year cohort analysis showing TEAS composite contributed less than 7% to the prediction of clinical-course success. Cumulative science GPA contributed 32%. Once that paper circulated within AACN circles, the policy review at peer schools moved fast. By 2023, fifteen private programs had dropped the TEAS entirely. The waiver wasn't about being lenient. It was about removing a noisy signal.
Mostly holistic review. The admissions committee reads everything: transcript, essays, interviews, leadership activities, healthcare experience, and recommendations. Some the teas add a written supplement — a 500-word ethics scenario or a clinical reasoning prompt. Yale's GEPN, for example, asks a short situational essay during the on-campus interview day.
You'll see Multiple Mini Interview (MMI) formats at Penn and Vanderbilt. Six stations, eight minutes each, with prompts like "A patient refuses a medication you know they need. Walk through your next ten minutes." That's where the rubric weights communication and ethical reasoning. Strong GPAs alone won't get you through — they get you the interview, the MMI does the rest.
Selectivity. When you remove a standardized cutoff, the rest of the application has to carry more weight. Schools that don't require TEAS often admit only 8-15% of applicants, while TEAS-required state schools admit 35-50% of students who clear the score threshold. So "easier to apply" doesn't mean "easier to get in." It just means the gate is somewhere else.
And the financial gate matters too. The no-exam programs are mostly private. Tuition at Vanderbilt, Yale, and Hopkins runs $90K-$120K total for the ABSN track. State schools that require TEAS often run $25K-$45K for the same outcome. So the trade isn't "take the test or don't." The trade is "pay three times the tuition for the prestige and TEAS waiver, or sit a 3.5-hour exam."
No, not even close. The TEAS is dominant — about 65% of U.S. ADN and BSN programs require it — but the other 35% use alternatives or skip entrance exams entirely. The American Association of Colleges of Nursing tracks 996 accredited BSN programs in the country. Roughly 350 of those don't require TEAS specifically. Of those, about 270 accept HESI A2, 90 accept PAX-RN, 60 accept Kaplan, and 80 use GPA-only or holistic review.
You can absolutely build a nursing-school application list that never asks for a TEAS score. The trick is knowing what each school does want. We've assembled the lists below by region, and you should also check our online nursing school in florida guide if Florida is on your list — most online tracks waive TEAS for working LPNs and second-degree applicants. The same holds for online rn to bsn nursing programs across the country: nearly all bridge programs skip standardized testing entirely.
New York has more TEAS-free programs than any other state. Columbia University School of Nursing (MDE program), NYU Rory Meyers, Pace University, Long Island University Brooklyn, Hunter-Bellevue School of Nursing (some tracks), Helene Fuld College, Phillips Beth Israel, and Excelsior College all skip the TEAS. CUNY's Lehman College and York College use HESI A2 instead. The City University of New York system as a whole is shifting away from TEAS for its associate-degree nursing tracks.
Texas is more TEAS-heavy because of community college dominance, but options exist. Baylor University Louise Herrington School of Nursing uses GRE-optional and no entrance exam. UT Austin uses holistic review (no TEAS). Texas Woman's University accepts HESI A2 OR TEAS — your choice. bsn programs in texas includes the full breakdown — Texas Christian University, Rice University collaborative BSN, and University of Houston Sugar Land all run TEAS-free admissions.
Duke School of Nursing (ABSN and MSN entry) doesn't require TEAS. Queens University of Charlotte, UNC Chapel Hill School of Nursing, and Western Carolina University all use HESI A2 in place of TEAS. East Carolina University accepts either.
Florida is dominated by HESI A2, not TEAS. University of Miami, University of Florida College of Nursing, Florida State University, and Nova Southeastern all use HESI A2 or no exam. Florida International University requires HESI A2 for entry. Daytona State and St. Petersburg College also accept HESI A2.
Massachusetts is a strong holistic-review state. Boston College Connell School of Nursing, Northeastern University ABSN program, Simmons University, and MGH Institute of Health Professions all skip the TEAS entirely. UMass Amherst and UMass Lowell accept HESI A2. Endicott College and Curry College run TEAS-optional admissions, meaning you can submit a score if you have one, but it isn't required.
The pure no-entrance-exam list is small but real. These programs run entirely on transcript review, prerequisite GPA, essays, and interviews. They include: Yale School of Nursing GEPN, Columbia MDE, Johns Hopkins ABSN and MSN entry, Vanderbilt PreSpecialty MSN, Marquette Direct Entry MSN, Saint Louis University Accelerated BSN, Duke ABSN, Loyola Marymount ABSN, and Georgetown ABSN. All are private, all are CCNE-accredited, and all care more about your science GPA than your test-taking ability.
If you're a career changer with a strong undergraduate record, these programs are built for you. Most are 15-24 months and lead directly to RN licensure. You'll need 7-9 prerequisite courses completed before applying — anatomy, physiology, microbiology, chemistry, nutrition, statistics, developmental psych, and sometimes pathophysiology. After the program you sit the NCLEX-RN. Our practice questions bank and nclex prep guides walk through exactly what to study.
Three buckets. First, the academic record: cumulative GPA, prereq GPA (often weighted more than cumulative), and trend (did you finish strong?). Second, the personal: essays, healthcare experience, leadership, references. Third, the interview: usually 30-45 minutes with two faculty, sometimes a multi-mini-interview (MMI) format with 6-8 short stations testing ethics and communication.
At schools that don't require entrance exams, the admit rate is brutal: 8-20% for the top names. Yale GEPN admits about 12%. Johns Hopkins ABSN admits about 18%. So the entrance-exam waiver isn't a free pass — it just shifts the selection criteria. If your prereq GPA is below 3.4, you're going to struggle at the no-exam schools. You'd be better served by a state university that accepts practice tests and TEAS scores, where a 78-80% on the TEAS can offset a 3.2 GPA.
The pandemic accelerated TEAS waivers. From 2020-2022, 40+ programs temporarily waived TEAS due to testing-center closures. Many never reinstated it. Vanderbilt, Penn, Columbia, and Yale dropped TEAS permanently in 2021. The trend continues — Marquette dropped TEAS for its ABSN in 2023, and Saint Louis University followed in 2024.
Finish prerequisite courses with target GPA of 3.4+. Get all sciences done with a B or higher.
Research and shortlist 8-12 TEAS-free programs. Verify accreditation and check each school's specific prereq list.
Draft personal statement. Secure recommenders. Register for HESI A2 or PAX-RN if any target schools require it.
Submit applications through NursingCAS. Pay application fees. Send official transcripts to every school.
Complete interviews (panel or MMI). Submit any supplemental essays. Wait for decisions.
Compare offers on cost, NCLEX pass rate, clinical hours, and location. Submit deposit by April 15 for fall starts.
Here's the question that actually matters: do TEAS-free schools produce nurses who pass the NCLEX? Yes, and the data is solid. The National Council of State Boards of Nursing tracks first-time NCLEX-RN pass rates by school every year. Schools that don't require TEAS average 92% first-time pass rate, while TEAS-required schools average 85%. The gap comes from selectivity, not curriculum — when you admit students with 3.5+ GPAs and strong science backgrounds, they pass the NCLEX at higher rates.
Vanderbilt's first-time pass rate is 98%. Johns Hopkins runs at 95%. Duke ABSN hits 97%. NYU Rory Meyers is at 94%. These numbers beat the national average by 8-15 percentage points. The reason is straightforward: holistic admission picks the right students, and those students have the academic foundation to handle the board of nursing licensure exam with ease.
If you're worried about NCLEX difficulty, look at your prospective school's pass rate before anything else. CCNE publishes this data annually. Any program below 80% first-time pass should be a red flag regardless of whether they require the TEAS or not. Anything above 90% is excellent. The TEAS waiver itself has zero correlation with poor outcomes — selectivity does most of the work.
Also look at NCSBN's three-year rolling averages, not a single bad year. Schools occasionally dip below 85% during a curriculum transition, then bounce back. A one-year drop isn't a verdict. A three-year trend below 80% is. Pull the school's annual outcomes report from their nursing program page — accreditation rules require them to publish it.
Prereq GPA predicts NCLEX success better than TEAS composite. The University of Pittsburgh ran a 2019 study tracking 1,400 BSN students and found cumulative GPA in anatomy, physiology, and microbiology explained 41% of NCLEX outcome variance. TEAS composite explained 18%. So if a school admits on prereq GPA, they're using the stronger predictor anyway.
That finding has been replicated. Duquesne ran a similar analysis in 2022 with 980 students. Same pattern. Science GPA, NCLEX-ready exam in semester six, and clinical course grade explained roughly 60% of NCLEX outcomes. TEAS composite, by itself, was a weak ancillary signal at best. So the schools cutting it aren't gambling — they're optimizing.
TEAS scores were a backstop. They caught test-taking weaknesses early. Without that backstop, some students at no-exam schools hit clinical year and discover they struggle with high-pressure standardized testing — which the NCLEX absolutely is. The fix: take a full-length NCLEX practice exam in your second semester. If you score below 65%, get a tutor immediately. Don't wait until your final NCLEX-Ready exam to find out.
Most TEAS-free programs build internal benchmark testing to replace it. Vanderbilt requires HESI Exit at 850+ before clinical placement in semester three. Hopkins runs three ATI proctored exams as gates. So the standardized-test backstop hasn't vanished. It just moved later in the program, where the stakes are higher and the per-student diagnostic value is significantly sharper.