In general, school ranking for BSN/ABSN and MSN programs matters less than for other professional schools. Many nurses will tell you that an RN is an RN. However, schools certainly vary in the quality of education. Especially Masters programs can be selective and are well known nationally.
Important factors to look out for are number of clinical hours per semester, the ranking of the hospital(s) it is associated with, professor-student relationships, and percentage of students employed directly after program completion.
Most applications can be completed through the Nursing Centralized Application Service (NursingCAS). It works like the Common App. Applications open August and September and are due between December and March. Some schools have early action dates, so if there is a specific school you want to go to, check to see if they have an early application deadline. If the school uses NursingCAS it is possible that the early action deadlines. are not posted on the site. So double check the school’s website if you want to submit the application for an early action deadline. Many Nursing schools also use their own application system and this is always indicated on their website. The trend is more schools moving to use NursingCAS.
Pre-requisite courses are posted on the required courses page. Other requirements include letters of recommendation, resume, application essays, volunteer/work experience in a health field, and the GRE (not required for most schools).