The College of Nursing at Ribeirão Preto, University of São Paulo, Brazil has been projected as a national reference with special appeal for students, which motivated this study on the profile of the school's applicants. The population of this exploratory-descriptive study is composed of alumni from 1999 to 2003. The data collection was performed through the university's registration forms and the analysis through the quantitative method. Results show a decreasing number of applications from Ribeirão Preto, a predominance of young, female and single applicants; few of them were employed at the time. Regarding their educational background, the data show an increasing number of applicants coming from private schools, while the majority of them entered the university within two years after concluding secondary school. Some of the students temporarily abandoned the course or lost one or more semesters, while most of them graduated within the expected term.
nursing; students, nursing; statistical distributions
