Rush University FNP Programs

College of Nursing • Chicago, IL • Mostly Online • $1,493/credit

Rush University offers 2 Family Nurse Practitioner Tracks:

  • BSN to DNP
  • MSN to DNP

Program Tracks Overview

ProgramEst. TuitionEst. DurationCredit Hours
BSN-DNP$106.0K2.5-3.5 yrs71
MSN-DNP$92.6K2.5-3.5 yrs62

Rush admits FNP students once a year, and the gate closes early: applications for the September 2027 cohort are due January 4, 2027. The FNP exists only as a doctorate here, clinical sites are Chicago-area only, and applicants may submit to just one Rush program per cycle.

Quick Facts

FeatureDetails
Program TypesBSN to DNP (71 credits) and MSN to DNP (62 credits). No master’s-level or certificate FNP option.
FormatMostly Online. Roughly 17 to 18 on-campus days across the full program.
Clinical Hours1,008 practicum clock hours total. 756 of those sit in FNP specialty practicum and immersion residency.
Clinical PlacementRush arranges sites across its medical campus and community partners. Travel up to 100 miles possible.
PopulationIndividuals and families across the lifespan, including pediatrics, women’s health, OB and geriatrics.
Distinctive CourseworkAntiracism in Organizational Leadership; Maternal Child Management for the FNP; Major Psychopathological Disorders.
ConcentrationsNone. The FNP track has no sub-specialty or add-on options.
RN License RequirementsU.S. RN license required. Recent BSN or MSN graduates may submit theirs at matriculation.
Cohort Size42 students.
Application CycleSingle fall intake. Applicants may apply to only one Rush program and one term per cycle.
Enrollment RestrictionsClosed to Louisiana and Tennessee residents. APRN tracks also closed to New York residents and to Canada.
Tuition$1,493 per credit for 2026-2027, plus a $429 DNP administrative fee each semester.
AccreditationCommission on Collegiate Nursing Education. Rush University is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission.

BSN to DNP

The estimated tuition for the BSN to DNP track at Rush University is approximately $106,003 (71 credits at $1,493/credit). The program can generally be completed in about 2.5 years full-time or 3.5 years part-time, with an individualized plan of study built for each student at entry.

This is the standard entry route into the Family Nurse Practitioner DNP for nurses holding a bachelor’s degree in nursing.

BSN to DNP Curriculum

Graduate and advanced practice foundation (27 credits). Rush front-loads a nine-credit graduate nursing core before the APRN sequence begins. That core is where Rush places its clearest curricular signature: a required three-credit course in Antiracism in Organizational Leadership, taught as leadership content rather than as a cultural-competence module tacked onto a clinical course. The 18-credit advanced practice core then splits advanced physiology and advanced pathophysiology into two separate three-credit courses rather than combining them, and adds a standalone Diagnostics for the APRN course covering test selection and interpretation.

FNP population sequence (18 credits). The population cognates are unusual in what they include. Rather than a single lifespan management course, Rush runs adult and gerontology management across two sequential three-credit courses, adds a dedicated Maternal Child Management course, and requires a full three-credit course in Major Psychopathological Disorders. That psychiatric course is a meaningful inclusion: most FNP curricula fold mental health into a broader primary care management course, and FNPs in practice manage a large volume of depression, anxiety and ADHD.

Doctoral project spine (14 credits plus practica). The DNP core covers health care economics, program evaluation and project planning. Project work begins in the second year, ahead of the clinical management sequence, and Rush directs these quality improvement projects toward community sites serving underserved populations. Students also complete an interprofessional course in the first year alongside students from across the university.

  • NSG 521 Antiracism in Organizational Leadership (3)
  • NSG 535 Diagnostics for the APRN (3)
  • NSG 625/625L Advanced Health Assessment Across the Life Span and Lab (3)
  • NSG 534 Major Psychopathological Disorders (3)
  • NSG 569 Maternal Child Management for the FNP (3)
  • NSG 571A and 571B Management: Adult/Gerontology I and II (6)
  • NSG 570B Pharmacotherapeutics Primary Care (3)
  • NSG 602 Health Care Economics, Policy and Finance (3)

More curriculum details are available here.

BSN to DNP Clinical Requirements

  • NSG 606 DNP Specialty Practicum: 6 credits, 504 clock hours
  • NSG 607 DNP Immersion Residency: 3 credits, 252 clock hours
  • NSG 609A, 609B and 609C DNP Project Practicum: 1 credit and 84 clock hours each, 252 hours combined
  • Practicum total (derived by addition): 12 credits and 1,008 clock hours
  • Direct FNP specialty volume (606 plus 607): 756 clock hours
  • Placement: arranged with Rush medical campus locations and community clinical partners, matched to student interest
  • Required rotations span pediatrics, women’s health, OB and geriatrics
  • Settings include primary care, specialty clinics, urgent care and emergency departments, school-based health centers, retail clinics and community health organizations
  • Four on-campus days per term across three clinical terms for evaluation and simulation

The clock-hour structure here is unusually transparent and internally consistent. Every practicum course converts at exactly 84 clock hours per credit, which means the 1,008-hour figure holds up under arithmetic rather than resting on a marketing claim. The 756 hours of direct FNP specialty practicum sit above the 500-hour national certification floor and above the 600 to 700 range most FNP programs land in. The remaining 252 hours belong to the DNP project, which is quality improvement work rather than direct patient care, so treat 756 as the clinically comparable number when weighing Rush against a master’s-level FNP program.

Placement is institutional rather than student-driven. Rush places students within its own academic medical center and an established partner network, which removes the preceptor hunt that consumes months at programs where students self-source. The cost of that arrangement is geographic: the network is Chicago-area, and Rush states students may be required to travel up to 100 miles locally, occasionally farther.

You Should Know
  • Rush does not publish which portion of the 1,008 hours it certifies toward FNP national certification eligibility. The 756-hour direct specialty figure is derived by separating the project practica, not stated by Rush.
  • Clinical placements are subject to change with little notice due to facility availability, staffing or public health conditions. Students are responsible for their own transportation.
  • NSG 606 and NSG 607 are catalogued with variable credit ranges (1 to 12 and 1 to 14). The FNP plan of study fixes them at 6 and 3 credits, but a plan deviation could change both hours and cost.

BSN to DNP Admissions

Two admissions rules here are more restrictive than most FNP programs: Rush runs a single annual fall intake with a deadline roughly eight months before classes start, and you may apply to only one Rush program per cycle, so an application to FNP forecloses a backup application to another Rush specialty in the same year.

  • BSN from a regionally accredited institution
  • Cumulative GPA and prelicensure nursing GPA both 3.0 or higher on a 4.0 scale
  • U.S. RN licensure. Recent BSN or MSN graduates may submit at matriculation
  • Three professional letters of recommendation from individuals in leadership positions; a letter from your current manager is strongly preferred
  • Resume or CV covering community service, leadership, scholarly activity and work experience
  • Substantive answers to three essay questions submitted through NursingCAS
  • Personal interview with faculty following initial file review
  • GRE not required. TOEFL required for non-native English speakers unless waived
  • Application submitted through NursingCAS plus a Rush supplemental application with a $40 fee
  • Fall 2027 cycle: opens August 6, 2026, deadline January 4, 2027, term begins September 7, 2027
You Should Know
  • RN experience is preferred, not required. Rush considers inpatient or outpatient experience as part of holistic review with no minimum length specified, which is more open than several sibling tracks at Rush that impose six-month or one-year experience gates.
  • Clinical sites are Chicago-area only, and Rush states directly that all students must live nearby. This is a residency requirement in practice even though the coursework is delivered mostly online.
  • Rush cannot enroll residents of Louisiana or Tennessee in online programs, cannot enroll New York residents in APRN specialty online programs, and cannot enroll residents of Canada or international students in the U.S. on a student visa in the DNP.
  • Applicants outside Illinois should confirm with their own board of nursing that this program satisfies state APRN licensure requirements before applying.
  • The deadline sits eight months ahead of the start date. Missing it means waiting a full year, since there is no spring or summer entry.

MSN to DNP

The estimated tuition for the MSN to DNP track at Rush University is approximately $92,566 (62 credits at $1,493/credit). The program can generally be completed in about 2.5 years full-time or 3.5 years part-time, following the same published length range as the BSN entry route.

This route is for nurses who already hold a master’s degree in nursing and want to add the FNP population focus at the doctoral level.

MSN to DNP Curriculum

What a master’s degree actually buys you. The MSN entry route drops exactly one block: the nine-credit graduate nursing core covering antiracism in organizational leadership, applied epidemiology and biostatistics, and research for evidence-based practice. Everything else is identical to the BSN route. The 18-credit advanced practice core, the 14-credit DNP core, the 18 credits of FNP population cognates and all 12 practicum credits are required in full.

That structure tells you who this track is designed for. A nurse holding a leadership, education or clinical nurse leader master’s has no APRN preparation to transfer, so Rush rebuilds the entire advanced practice foundation. The nine-credit reduction is worth $13,437 against the BSN route, which is real money but a small fraction of a doctorate. If you are already a certified APRN in another population and want only the FNP population focus, this is not an efficient path, and Rush does not offer a post-graduate FNP certificate as an alternative.

  • NSG 531 Advanced Pharmacology (3)
  • NSG 532 Advanced Physiology and NSG 533 Advanced Pathophysiology (6)
  • NSG 535 Diagnostics for the APRN (3)
  • NSG 537 Transition to the APRN Role (3)
  • NSG 566 Population Assessment and Health Promotion Frameworks (3)
  • NSG 571A and 571B Management: Adult/Gerontology I and II (6)
  • NSG 608 Program Evaluation (3)
  • NSG 610 DNP Project Planning and Implementation (3)
  • Published total: 62 credits, against a catalog statement that MSN-DNP options require a minimum of 30 credit hours ⚠

More curriculum details are available here.

You Should Know
  • The catalog states that MSN-DNP options require a minimum of 30 credit hours. The published FNP MSN-DNP plan is 62 credits, roughly double that floor. The 30-credit figure appears to be a college-wide minimum across all fourteen DNP tracks rather than a figure that applies to FNP, but Rush does not reconcile the two statements.
  • Rush performs a gap analysis at admission and builds a tailored plan of study from prior graduate coursework. The 62-credit figure is the published plan, not a guaranteed individual total.

MSN to DNP Clinical Requirements

  • Identical practicum structure to the BSN route: 12 credits and 1,008 clock hours
  • NSG 606 DNP Specialty Practicum: 6 credits, 504 clock hours
  • NSG 607 DNP Immersion Residency: 3 credits, 252 clock hours
  • NSG 609A, 609B and 609C DNP Project Practicum: 252 clock hours combined
  • Direct FNP specialty volume: 756 clock hours
  • Same Chicago-area placement network and the same four-days-per-term campus evaluation pattern

No clinical credit is granted for prior graduate work. A master’s-prepared nurse completes the same 1,008 hours as a nurse entering with a BSN, which is consistent with certification requirements that count only population-specific supervised hours. It also means the time commitment of the two routes is close to identical, and Rush publishes the same 2.5 to 3.5 year range for both.

MSN to DNP Admissions

MSN applicants face the same single fall intake and one-application-per-cycle rule as BSN applicants, plus a coursework prerequisite that can add credits to the published total.

  • Master’s degree in nursing, plus a BSN from a regionally accredited institution
  • Equivalent coursework in research and in biostatistics or epidemiology must be completed prior to admission or added to the plan of study
  • Cumulative GPA and prelicensure nursing GPA both 3.0 or higher
  • U.S. RN licensure, three leadership letters of recommendation, resume or CV, essays and a faculty interview
  • Same NursingCAS process, $40 supplemental fee and Fall 2027 dates as the BSN route
You Should Know
  • If your master’s did not include research and biostatistics or epidemiology, those courses are added to your plan of study. At three credits each, that is six additional credits and roughly $8,958, which would bring the track to 68 credits and cut the savings over BSN entry from nine credits to three.
  • The same Chicago-area residency expectation and the same Louisiana, Tennessee, New York and Canada enrollment restrictions apply here.

Tuition

Rush charges $1,493 per credit hour for post-licensure MSN, DNP and PhD programs in the 2026-2027 academic year. That is a published rate, confirmed on both the Student Business Office tuition schedule and the FNP program page, and it applies identically to both FNP tracks. On top of tuition, every DNP student pays a $429 DNP administrative fee in the fall, spring and summer semesters.

TrackCreditsRateTuition (derived)
BSN-DNP71$1,493$106,003
MSN-DNP62$1,493$92,566

Confirmed costs:

  • Published per-credit rate: $1,493 for 2026-2027
  • DNP administrative fee: $429 per semester, charged fall, spring and summer, or $1,287 per academic year
  • Rush supplemental application fee: $40
  • BSN-DNP tuition, derived as 71 credits multiplied by $1,493: $106,003
  • MSN-DNP tuition, derived as 62 credits multiplied by $1,493: $92,566
  • Estimated administrative fee across the program, derived from the published 2.5 to 3.5 year length at three billed terms per year: roughly $3,000 to $4,300
  • Estimated all-in direct cost, tuition plus fee: roughly $109,000 to $110,300 for BSN entry and $95,600 to $96,900 for MSN entry

Be aware that:

  • Rush states plainly that students should expect an annual increase in these rates. The post-licensure rate moved from $1,436 to $1,493 between 2025-2026 and 2026-2027, an increase of $57 per credit or 3.97 percent. There is no cohort rate lock, so a program spanning three academic years will cross at least two rate increases and the derived totals above will understate the real figure.
  • The fee basis changed this year. In 2025-2026 the College of Nursing charged a clinical administrative fee of $644 in fall and spring only. For 2026-2027 it is a DNP administrative fee of $429 charged across fall, spring and summer. The annual total is nearly unchanged, but summer-term students now carry a charge they previously did not.
  • The FNP program page states the per-credit rate without mentioning the administrative fee at all. The fee appears only on the Student Business Office schedule.
  • Rush does not publish a semester count or a term-by-term plan of study for either FNP track, so the fee total cannot be calculated exactly. The $3,000 to $4,300 range is derived from the published length, not from a Rush figure.
  • Rush warns that students who deviate from their plan of study on entry may incur additional charges. Part-time students and anyone who repeats a clinical course should assume more billed terms and therefore more administrative fees.
  • MSN applicants missing research or biostatistics coursework will have those courses added, raising the track from 62 to 68 credits and adding roughly $8,958.
  • These figures are tuition and mandatory fees only. They exclude books, health insurance, transportation to clinical sites up to 100 miles away, and living costs.

The practical read is that Rush is a full-price private doctorate with no discount for master’s-prepared entrants beyond nine credits. What separates the honest number from the advertised one here is the administrative fee, which is small per semester but persistent, and the annual rate increase, which Rush does not attempt to hide. Budget above the derived totals rather than at them.

View the official 2026-2027 tuition rates.

Why Choose This FNP Program?

Best suited for nurses already living in or willing to move to the Chicago area, who want a doctorate rather than a master’s, and who can plan an application more than a year ahead of their start date.

Placement inside an academic medical center. Rush’s most concrete advantage is that clinical placement is institutional. Students rotate through Rush University Medical Center locations and an established community partner network, matched to their stated interests, rather than cold-calling practices for preceptors. Faculty in this program are practicing nurse practitioners at that same medical center, so the people writing the curriculum are working in the sites students rotate through. With a cohort capped at 42, advising is close enough that the same faculty mentor doctoral projects and clinical rotations.

Clinical volume above the common range. The 756 direct FNP specialty hours exceed the 500-hour national certification floor by more than half and sit above the 600 to 700 hours most FNP programs require. Add the 252 project practicum hours and the total reaches 1,008. That volume, combined with four on-campus evaluation and simulation days per clinical term, means faculty observe students directly rather than relying entirely on preceptor reports.

The trade you are making. Every advantage above is purchased with rigidity. There is one entry point per year and one shot per cycle, so a January miss costs twelve months. There is no master’s-level FNP and no post-graduate FNP certificate, so a doctorate is the only way in and full doctoral pricing is the only price. Clinical sites are Chicago-area, which converts an otherwise mostly online program into a geographically fixed one. And a master’s degree buys only nine credits of relief, which makes this an expensive route for an already-credentialed APRN seeking a second population focus. If you want schedule flexibility, multiple annual start dates, or a shorter credential, this program is structurally the wrong fit no matter how strong the clinical training is.

Accreditation

The nursing accreditor is the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education. Rush states the scope verbatim: the master’s degree program in nursing, Doctor of Nursing Practice program, and post-graduate APRN certificate program at Rush University are accredited by CCNE. Both FNP tracks award the DNP and therefore fall inside that scope. CHEA’s directory independently lists Rush’s DNP, master’s and post-graduate APRN certificate as CCNE-accredited.

Rush University holds institutional accreditation from the Higher Learning Commission, first granted in 1974, with its most recent comprehensive review in 2019 resulting in continued accreditation. Institutional accreditation is what makes a school eligible to disburse federal financial aid and is what other universities check when evaluating transfer credit or doctoral applications. HLC accredits institutions rather than individual programs, which is why the CCNE credential is the one that governs FNP eligibility.

Graduates of both tracks are eligible to sit for the national FNP certification exam through either the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners or the American Nurses Credentialing Center. Passing that exam is the prerequisite for applying for APRN licensure in your state. Rush reports that in most years close to all of its FNP graduates pass on the first attempt.

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