25 Best Bachelor’s in Nurse Practitioners (RN Required)

Located 12 miles west of Boston in Weston, MA, Regis College is a tiny—3,000 students—Catholic school with a higher calling. “We value social justice and challenge ourselves to reach out to the marginalized, ‘the dear neighbor,’” says the school’s website. 

That includes its 121-credit nursing program. Available full-time or part-time, it’s designed for nurses seeking to expand their education for professional growth. The study begins with 91 credits of prerequisites (including 40 from nursing courses), then 30 credits of required major courses. Among those are Health Assessment, Nursing Care for the Aging Adult, Evidence for Clinical Practice, Community-Based Nursing, Public Health and Policy, and more, including a pair of nursing electives.

The time it takes to complete the BS depends on transfer credit and whether students study full-time or part-time. Getting into Regis requires transcripts and $28,145, which is about $5,000 more than the average cost of programs in our top 25.

How easy does St. Catherine University—St. Kate’s to its friends—make it to apply to its RN-BSN program? It only takes 10 minutes, according to the website. Just have your transcripts ready, along with a personal statement, and bam, you’re done.

That flexibility goes beyond the application process. St. Kate’s program is available 100% online or via a hybrid format that includes evening or weekend courses on campus in St. Paul, MN. With transfer credits, students can finish their bachelor’s in as little as 10-12 months. The program requires 12 credits of prerequisites (mostly statistics) and 22 credits of nursing courses. Four of those six courses, such as Population-Based Nursing Practice and Leadership and Systems Change, have practicum requirements. This follows 82 semester credits of lower-division work, much of which can be waived with prior coursework.

At $20,157, St. Kate’s rests below the average for the 25 best bachelor’s in nursing degrees, and even better, the price can be lower. Students currently employed by a number of health-care companies local to St. Kate’s receive an additional 10% discount on tuition.

Drexel University in Philadelphia comes highly recommended; U.S. News and World Report ranks it No. 97 overall for national universities, and it gets high marks for its online graduate nursing programs. The catch? Drexel doesn’t come cheap. At $36,727, it’s the third most expensive school in our top 25.

You get what you pay for, and in the case of Drexel’s online RN-to-BSN degree, that’s a lot—180 credits, to be precise (135 of which may be transferred). All of them are earned online asynchronously, so students may do their coursework on their own schedule. Drexel divides the curriculum into three tiers: The first covers basic general-education courses, including 45 credits of nursing (30 of which can be credited for previous RN work). The second digs into topics like statistics, the economics of health care, and science. The third tier offers the meat of nursing courses, from genetics to leadership to health assessment and research. It concludes with a capstone where students plan a project to be completed during the quarter.

Drexel’s approach integrates problem-based learning, using virtual/simulated patient experiences where students interact with digital patients and live volunteers. It also offers a 10-day study abroad option. Admission requires high school and college transcripts, and a 2.0 GPA in all college work. 

Ball State University lies in Muncie, IN, but students in its RN-to-BSN program won’t step foot there until graduation. That’s because it’s completed online, aside from 180 clock hours of clinical work.

The program emphasizes care in community settings for vulnerable populations, particularly women and children, and is offered in three- or six-semester options for full- or part-time students. The degree requires 120 credits to graduate, though Ball State says students usually earn about 30 credits for previous coursework. Nursing coursework comes down to six classes, four of them with requirements for 45 clinical hours: Health Assessment, Applied Nursing Concepts, Community Health, and Management and Leadership. Included in the 120 credits are 32-33 science and nursing prerequisite courses (some of which students may have already completed in their initial nursing work), and 41-42 credits of university core curriculum. 

An advisor will help prospective students iron out what they actually need to take. To get into the program, students need transcripts of all college coursework, including a minimum 2.75 GPA on prior nursing courses. One thing they won’t need is a ton of money because, at $13,642, Ball State is the fourth cheapest option in our top 25.

Gannon University’s Villa Maria School of Nursing in Erie, PA, offered one of the first baccalaureate nursing programs in the state, and it was one of the first to offer an RN-to-BSN program. Now it offers the degree 100% online with minimal required clinical hours (26) and flexible scheduling for extra convenience. 

Courses are offered in 7-week or 14-week sessions, and Gannon offers a “portfolio” option that provides course credit for professional nursing experience. Also noteworthy is that students have the option to test out of courses that repeat classes they’ve previously taken. 

The program itself requires 128 credits to graduate, but students may earn up to 32 hours of credit for their previous nursing studies. Otherwise, the curriculum comprises 19 credits of liberal arts core, 25 credits of nursing prerequisites, and 19 hours of major credits. Nursing core coursework includes classes like Nursing Research, Nursing Power Politics, and Promoting Healthy Communities. Students wrap up with 14 credits for free electives and nine for nursing electives.

Admission into the program requires letters of reference and transcripts, with a 2.7 GPA or better on previous coursework. At $22,431, Gannon’s program is the exact median cost for the 25 best bachelor’s in nursing programs, and just under the list’s average.

Illinois tends to hog up all the Abraham Lincoln spotlight, calling itself the “Land of Lincoln” even though the 16th president was born in Kentucky. But Lincoln had a vision for a university in the Cumberland region of Appalachia, and Lincoln Memorial University—based in Harrogate, TN—aims to fulfill that vision.

Not that students of its RN-BSN program will necessarily have to check it out for themselves. Students complete the degree online, though the university offers some in-person courses in Harrogate, Cedar Bluff, TN, and, um, Tampa, FL. The curriculum includes 49 hours of general-education classes (including, naturally, Lincoln’s Life and Legacy) and 29 hours of nursing courses. They run the gamut, including Pharmacology, Informatics, Pathophysiology, Working With the Elderly, Research, and a nursing seminar, among other courses. Students who already have a nursing license may receive up to 31 upper-level nursing credits. 

Admission requirements are pretty relaxed because RN-BSN students qualify as transfer students, so the school needs only their transcripts. Also pretty relaxed: the cost, which is $16,291 per academic year.

“God First Since 1899” proclaims Azusa Pacific’s website, as the university’s mission has always been “to prepare men and women to make a difference in the world for Christ.” Few occupations can make a difference the way nursing can, so the university’s RN-to-BSN program fits that mission nicely.

Offered online and in four locations in Southern California (San Bernardino, Monrovia, Victorville, and San Diego), the degree requires 120 credits, 40 of which are degree-specific. They cover the usual topics like health assessment research/statistics, pathophysiology, ethics/spirituality, patient outcomes, and more. Coursework concludes with a clinical practicum where students assess a community health population and create an intervention that supports disease prevention and health promotion. Prerequisite courses, general education requirements, and electives round out the remaining credits. 

Aside from the usual stuff like an RN license, Azusa requires applicants to have at least 60 units of transferable course credit, a minimum 3.0 GPA, transcripts, two letters of professional recommendation, and a current résumé. Plan to spend some money too, as Azusa’s on the pricier end of the universities in our top 25: $29,152.

Most universities provide a fairly detailed overview of their curriculum, breaking it down into sections like general education, major, and electives. Not NYU’s Rory Meyers School of Nursing. That’s because its RN-to-BSN students create their own individualized study programs based on prior coursework and experience. 

That kind of confidence comes with being the second-largest private university college of nursing in the U.S., and one of the best universities in the nation. (U.S. News and World Report ranks it No. 29 nationally.) That also ensures something else: expensiveness. NYU is topped on our list only by the University of Miami for cost, requiring $39,935 per academic year. But those who make it into the program will “increase general knowledge in the physical and social sciences, while expanding professional expertise in assessment, patient advocacy, and care management,” per the website.

The curriculum includes several clinical learning experiences, for which students will need to pass a criminal background check and a drug test. Admission requires an essay, two professional or academic letters of recommendation, and transcripts. 

The University of Utah offers not only an RN-to-BSN program, but also a concentration in geriatric nurse leadership for people who want a little something extra. The 100% online program is offered for full- and part-time students, who finish it in two or three to four semesters, respectively. 

The University of Utah breaks down the program of study for each option, which includes a variety of courses covering physical assessment, evidence-based practice, global health, nursing initiatives, and more. The curriculum includes working with nurse leaders for 45 clock hours and a clinical practicum for 68 clock hours in service of a “durable quality improvement project.” Students also need to complete a suite of general-education requirements as well as nursing prerequisite courses in biology, anatomy, physiology, chemistry, and statistics. (Much of these may be addressed by prior coursework.)

In addition to the usual requirements like a nursing license, applicants will need to submit transcripts, two professional references, and a document addressing their experience in service to others, their responsibility, and their organizational skills. They should plan to spend $13,460 per academic year.

Quick, name another nursing program from a school “shaped by Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition.” Actually, don’t waste your time, because Goshen College—located in Goshen, IN—is probably the only one. As a religious school, it counts “Christ-centeredness” among its core values, and that informs courses like Holistic Client Assessment (which includes spiritual assessment along with physical, cultural, and family).

That’s one of the six nursing courses that make up Goshen’s 38-credit RN-to-BSN program, along with others like Philosophy and Theories of Nursing, Nursing Research, and Intro to Health Care Statistics. Two courses, Community Health Nursing and Leadership in Nursing, have clinical components, and they can be completed where students work. The curriculum also includes three general-education courses, though they can be waived with transfer credits.

The RN-to-BSN program is available online, and prospective students will need to furnish transcripts and a résumé as part of their application. Tuition will set them back $18,519, well below the average for the 25 best Bachelor’s in nursing programs.

Troy University lies in—wait for it—the city of Troy, in southeastern Alabama about an hour and a half north of the Florida border. Although its RN-BSN program is online, the school offers faculty and advisors in three other places around the state—Montgomery, Phenix City, and Dothan—for students who live in-state but aren’t necessarily close to Troy.

For everyone, Troy’s program requires 124 hours for the degree, 58 of which come from general-education courses. Two- and four-semester options are available, depending on whether students study full- or part-time, and how much credit they receive for previous coursework. The core nursing requirements come from nine classes, covering stuff like health assessment (with a practicum), nursing theory, and something called Advanced Nursing Preceptorship, where students work in a clinic.

Admission, which Troy describes as “competitive,” requires transcripts with at least a 2.0 GPA. The university offers a free credit review of prior coursework, so prospective students can get an idea of how much credit they can earn from it. Tuition isn’t free, but it’s the second cheapest in our top 25: $12,114.

First things first: The giant photo on Miami’s website of nursing students working on a dead-eyed dummy is the stuff of nightmares. (“Rich Tradition of Preparing Health Professionals,” reads the caption, probably because “This Thing Will Come to Life at Night and Strangle You” is too unnerving.) Second, those dummies must not come cheap, because the University of Miami is the most expensive school on our list: $43,305. 

That’s speculation, but the UM SONHS simulation hospital is undoubtedly cool. There, students work with a combination of “high tech mannequins, standardized patients, and actors” to put their knowledge to use. The 60-credit program hits the usual marks with courses in health assessment, research, professionalism, and current issues. Two courses also require clinical hours, one for 56 clock hours and another for 112.

Admission requires 60 transferable credits (non-vocational, non-nursing stuff like statistics, English composition, arts & humanities, etc.) with a minimum 2.5 GPA. Oh, and don’t forget about that $43,305.

The University of Mobile in Alabama describes itself as a “Christ-centered academic community,” which bears out in the prerequisites for its RN-to-BSN program. Among the 61 hours of humanities, natural science, social science, and electives are six hours of “Christian Ministries” courses.

The nursing coursework adds up to 62 hours, with classes covering topics like pathophysiology, ethics, financing, assessment skills, and more. Two courses require clinical hours, which students can complete at their jobs. All of the courses are completed online.

Admission to the University of Mobile’s program is pretty typical, with transcripts (and a 2.75 GPA minimum), but it also requires a background check and drug test (when requested), and it may include an interview with the undergraduate admissions committee. The good news? It costs less than the average among the 25 best bachelor’s degrees in nursing, $19,779.

Maryville University near St. Louis has more than 10,200 students, the largest group of whom aren’t undergrads (4,500) or grad students (5,500)—it’s distance learners, who number nearly 6,000. Unsurprisingly, its RN-to-BSN program is completed 100% online, without ever stepping foot on its lush 130-acre campus.

The degree requires 129 credit hours to graduate, including 64 hours of general education courses and 25 nursing hours, composed of seven courses covering assessment, research, informatics, leadership, and more. There’s also one nursing elective, either Genetics in Nursing or Nursing Care at End-of-Life. Coursework concludes with a public health capstone. A valid nursing license earns 40 transfer credits for foundation courses.

Maryville makes it easy to join its program, presuming applicants have their RN license. There’s no entrance exam or application fee, and no ACT/SAT score requirement. Just transcripts (with a 2.5 GPA or better) and $26,540 per academic year. 

U.S. News and World Report ranks the University of Rochester No. 29 in national universities, a spot it shares with, um, four other schools: Georgia Tech, NYU, Tufts, and the University of North Carolina. That’s august company, and in this case “august” also means “expensive”: Rochester’s online RN-to-BSN program costs $35,452, the fourth most expensive in our top 25.

The good news? Students can finish their degree in as little as 16 months, depending on transfer credit. The degree requires 128 credits, but 32 of those come off right away thanks to initial RN studies. The 64 credits of arts and sciences will likely come down based on previous coursework as well. That leaves 32 credits of nursing coursework covering pathophysiology; health care policy, finance, and regulatory issues; statistics; nutrition; and more. It concludes with a capstone where students implement a disease-prevention or health-promotion plan for a vulnerable population. Students will spend 168 clock hours in the field over the course of their studies. 

Admission is pretty simple at Rochester: transcripts, résumé, and a letter of recommendation. Finish your degree, and you’ll join notable University of Rochester alumni like King Crimson bassist Tony Levin!

Called SLU—pronounced “slew”—by locals, Saint Louis University offers its RN-to-BSN program through its School of Professional Studies, which means it exists to get working professionals their degrees in a flexible and timely manner. At SLU, that can be as quick as two semesters. The downside is it costs $31,460. Well, at least it’s fast!

The BSN requires 120 credits, with 38 coming off the top for early RN work. There are also 55 credits of prenursing and general-education classes, which can also be credited with previous coursework. The meat of the degree comes from nine nursing courses—27 hours—with classes like Conceptual Framework for Practice, Public Health Nursing, Leadership and Management, and Health Assessment. Fieldwork comes in the form of a community project, where students work with an agency or group based on assessment data.

SLU has slightly more rigorous admission standards, requiring at least three years of work experience and a minimum age of 22 (though exceptions can be made). Applicants will also have to interview with an academic coach. Otherwise, it’s the usual drill of transcripts (with a minimum 2.5 GPA) and having a nursing license. 

Search for “Marshall University alumni,” and you get a bunch of athlete photos because the school has produced a bunch of them—and Billy Crystal?—over the past 180-plus years. There’s a symbiotic relationship between athlete and nurse, particularly at Division I schools like Marshall where athletics are a big deal.

Marshall’s part-time RN-to-BSN program has a flexible, online curriculum. Like other programs in our top 25, it requires 120 credit hours for the BSN, though previous coursework reduces that considerably. For example, up 40 hours can be credited for work completed while earning your initial nursing degree, and up to 72 hours can be credited from other coursework.

Major coursework comes from eight classes with names like Transcultural Health Care, Contemporary Nursing, Health and Physical Assessment, and others. At least one course includes a practicum to be completed with clinical work.

Admission requires transcripts (with a minimum 2.5 GPA), background check, and drug test, but people looking for a BSN will find no cheaper option. Marshall costs just $8,850, by far the least expensive program among the 25 best Bachelor’s in nursing.

There are worse places to earn a BSN than Honolulu, which is the unspoken draw of Hawai’i Pacific University. All of the notes about its RN-to-BSN program should end with, “And, you know, it’s Hawaii.” Let’s try it out: The program costs $27,688, about $4,00 more than our list’s average, but, you know, it’s Hawaii. See, it works for everything!

Aside from the tropical locale, Hawai’i Pacific’s program is pretty typical. The BSN requires 120 credit hours, 28 of which are credited for work completed during a previous nursing program. There are also 60 credits of general education, lower-division prerequisites, and electives. The major coursework is composed of 32 credits hitting the expected marks of pathopharmacology, health assessment, evidence-based practice and research, gerontology, and more. Four of the courses have labs or clinical work as well.

In addition to transcripts, applicants will need to supply two professional recommendations and a personal statement. Nothing too strenuous—and, you know, it’s Hawaii. 

Students considering an online program may worry their needs will be overlooked if they aren’t able to advocate for themselves in person. Westminster College in Salt Lake City seems to understand that because its students work with the program’s director to create an individualized plan of study. The university also limits class size to 11 students, and it offers a variety of on-campus seminars for people living in the area to get face time.

Westminster’s BS requires 124 credit hours, with 30 coming from upper-division nursing courses such as Nursing Theory and Research, Older Adults in the Community, and Culture, Health and Illness. There’s also a capstone in Nursing Leadership. Where other programs in our top 25 offer significant credit for previous nursing coursework, Westminster only gives eight hours of it for people who have passed the National Council Licensure Examination. However, students who have an associate’s degree don’t have to take any additional liberal arts courses. Westminster says students can finish their degree in as little as three semesters.

Applicants will need to supply transcripts of that coursework and will need to have maintained at least a 2.8 GPA in it for admission. The price tag falls just over our list’s average: $24,371.

One of the best known and largest public universities in the United States, Ohio State University—or as it calls itself, the Ohio State University—also happens to be one of the best. U.S. News and World Report ranks it No. 54 in national universities. 

Public universities tend to offer different tuition rates for in-state and out-of-state students, even if they’re studying online. That’s not the case at OSU, where people in its online RN-to-BSN program pay the same no matter where they live: $18,694. The degree requires 120 credit hours, up to 90 of which may be transferred from elsewhere—especially general education, which accounts for nearly 50 hours. Students need to finish a battery of prerequisite courses in chemistry, English, biology, anatomy, and microbiology before entering the nursing program. 

The nitty-gritty nursing stuff comes from 21 hours of coursework like Health Care Informatics, Cultural Competence in Healthcare, and Evolving Concepts in Nursing Leadership & Management, some of which require clinical work. Students also choose a professional or nursing elective.

Before biting off all of that, prospective students will need to submit their transcripts, résumé, and write a personal statement addressing their career goals, academic record, and any other pertinent background information.

A quick search of notable University of Iowa alumni returns people like Gene Wilder, Tom Brokaw, Flannery O’Connor, and Ashton Kutcher, none of them graduates of the school’s nursing program. Nurses don’t tend to get the glory, but it’s safe to assume U. of I. nursing grads over the decades have made a considerable impact on people’s lives.

Iowa’s online RN-BSN program aims to prepare “the next generation of nursing leaders” via a three-semester (full-time) or five-semester (part-time) plan of study. The degree requires 32 hours of major coursework, including one clinical course and one project. The school will place students at locations for these in Iowa, but they can be done elsewhere—there’s even a practicum that sends students to Swaziland in Africa for two weeks. Other coursework looks into finance, research, genetics, pathology, health systems, and more.

The whole degree requires 128 credit hours, with nine coming from prerequisites and 12 from general education requirements that need to be completed before applying to the nursing program. The school recommends taking those at community colleges, and it offers free transcript evaluation to help with planning. All of that for the very reasonable price of $15,817.

Getting into Iowa is slightly tougher than other universities because it requires a minimum 3.0 GPA. Otherwise, prospective students need only supply transcripts.

Considering its mission to instill in students “a passion for serving God, the Church, and the world,” it’d be understandable if King University took its name from the Man Upstairs. But no, it’s named after James King, a reverend who donated land for the school’s campus in Bristol, TN. 

Still, the university’s Christian worldview informs its RN-BSN program, in both a broader outlook of service as well as coursework, such as Spiritual and Cultural Considerations in Nursing. The degree requires 124 credit hours via an accelerated program of courses lasting seven weeks. They use the cohort model and meet online or on-campus, with the latter meeting one night a week (and taking an additional class online). Nursing coursework accounts for 32 hours, with general education supplying another 16. Nursing classes cover ethics, pathophysiology, informatics, leadership, and more. It wraps up with a comprehensive portfolio in a capstone course.

Students choose from a three-semester option (two classes per term) or a six-semester one (one class per term), which takes two years. The program is designed to provide up to 76 hours of transfer credit so that the average student will finish their degree in four semesters. They need at least 45 hours for admission into the program, along with a 2.75 GPA, and CPR certification. Tuition costs $21,034, a little under average for the 25 best Bachelor’s in nurse practitioner programs.

“Excellence-driven. Christ-centered. People-focused. Future-directed.” That’s how Union University in Jackson, TN, describes itself, and its RN-BSN degree reflects that with an online program (future-directed) that includes Christian Studies in its general-education requirements (Christ-centered), via a cohort model (people-focused). The excellence part? That’s up to students to deliver.

The 128-hour degree allows for 37 hours of credit for a prior nursing program (a max of 72 can be transferred), and the rest coming from 61 hours of general education and 31 hours of nursing coursework. That includes classes on scientific writing, health assessment, research, legal and ethical issues, pharmacology, leadership, and more, all concluding with a capstone course.

Prospective students will need to supply their transcripts and have earned at least a 2.8 GPA in the last 60 hours of their coursework. They’ll also need to supply $28,462 per academic year.

Spalding University sits in Louisville, KY, one of those cities that pops up on “best places to live” lists—No. 64 according to U.S. News and World Report, No. 28 per Livability.com, etc.—though Spalding’s online RN-BSN degree isn’t designed to showcase its hometown. The program website even touts there are “no required on-campus obligations.”

The university also touts its “block” schedule: six weeks of classes followed by a one-week break, repeat. It’s designed to give students maximum flexibility, as Spalding notes they can take one or two classes per block and still be considered full time. The university says its 30-hour BSN program takes one year of full-time study or a year and a half for part-timers.

The degree itself requires 120 credit hours, but 30 come off the top for having a nursing license. General-education classes account for 48 hours, and Spalding allows for up to 60 hours to be credited for prior coursework. The 30 hours of nursing coursework dives into research, leadership, healthcare policy, the U.S. healthcare system, and a capstone experience, among others. 

Spalding claims to minimize book expenses and fees, and admission to its program requires only transcripts with a 2.5 GPA. Cost-wise, it’s almost a bull’s-eye for the top 25’s average, $23,552.

Jacksonville University rests on the St. Johns River in suburban Jacksonville, just 20 minutes from the beach—which may not help with anyone’s studies. Maybe that’s why the university offers its RN-to-BSN program both online and as a cohort program at a satellite location.

Online or in-person, courses in the 120-hour degree last eight weeks. Cohorts come one night a week (for six hours) and take one class at a time, completing the program in 20 months. Completing the degree online can take half as long, and the asynchronous format allows for greater flexibility with class work. 

Students earn 30 hours of credit for their RN license, and they can earn 60 hours of transfer credit for general-education classes and core nursing courses. Upper-level nursing coursework accounts for 30 hours, mixing topical classes on information management, evidence-based nursing, and acute care with a practicum that gives students a chance to apply their learning in a real-world setting.

At $21,820, Jacksonville costs less than the average RN-to-BSN program in the 25 best bachelor’s in nurse practitioner, and its admission requirements are also pretty typical (transcripts, 2.5 GPA). Sun block is not among the requirements, but highly recommended.