Metropolitan State University FNP Programs

College of Nursing and Health Sciences • Saint Paul, MN • Mostly Online • $1,185.31/credit

Metropolitan State University offers 3 Family Nurse Practitioner Tracks:

  • BSN-DNP
  • ELMSN-DNP
  • MSN-DNP (Individualized Plan)

Program Tracks Overview

ProgramEst. TuitionEst. DurationCredit Hours
BSN-DNP$92.1K4 years (10 semesters)75
ELMSN-DNP$82.2K3 years (8-9 semesters)67
MSN-DNPSet by planSet by planIndividualized

Metro State’s defining advantage is that three different starting points feed one DNP. Nurses holding a BSN take the 75-credit track, graduates of Metro State’s own entry-level MSN take a 67-credit version, and nurses with an MSN earned elsewhere get a plan built course by course with the program director. Coursework runs online, but there is one fall intake a year and no part-time option, so the entry door you use sets your entire timeline.

Metro State charges the same tuition rate to every student regardless of residency, so the table shows a single figure rather than in-state and out-of-state columns.

Quick Facts

FeatureDetails
Program TypesBSN-DNP, ELMSN-DNP, and an individualized MSN-DNP plan
FormatMostly Online. Didactic courses run asynchronously; skills labs carry in-person demonstration requirements
Clinical Hours1,000 direct patient care hours, plus 275-285 DNP scholarship project hours
Clinical PlacementAssigned by a dedicated DNP FNP Clinical Coordinator; students may self-source with approval
PopulationFamily across the lifespan, with urban, rural, and underserved placement settings
Distinctive CourseworkInterprofessional HIV care seminar taught with medicine, pharmacy, and social work students
RN Experience GateOne year of RN work at 0.6 FTE or higher by program start
RN License RequirementsCurrent unencumbered RN license in a state with eligibility for Minnesota licensure
Start TermsFall only, single cohort, no part-time option
Tuition$1,185.31 per credit for doctoral nursing courses, plus $42.30 per credit in fees
AccreditationCCNE; approved as an APRN preparation program by the Minnesota Board of Nursing

BSN to DNP, Family Nurse Practitioner

The estimated tuition for the BSN-DNP track at Metro State is approximately $92,071, derived from 75 credits at $1,185.31 per credit plus $42.30 per credit in standard course fees. The program can generally be completed in about four years of full-time study across 10 semesters, and no part-time option is currently offered. Full details are on the Doctor of Nursing Practice, Family Nurse Practitioner (DNP) program page.

BSN-DNP Curriculum

Year one holds no clinical content at all. The first two semesters are 18 credits of biostatistics, leadership, project and resource management, research methodology, global health and epidemiology, and health policy. Most FNP programs open with advanced pathophysiology, pharmacology, and assessment. Metro State pushes all of that back and spends the first year building the doctoral half of the degree instead. If you are hoping to feel like a nurse practitioner student early, this sequence will test your patience.

Advanced practice science arrives in year two. Pathophysiology, pharmacology, and health assessment with its paired lab land in semesters three through five, followed by an applied assessment lab and a labs and diagnostics course. The applied lab exists specifically to certify that you can present a patient case before clinical rotations start, which is a useful gate that not every program builds in.

The clinical spine is a five-term ladder. Primary Care I through V each pair a didactic course with its own practicum, moving from acute and chronic care to pediatrics and reproductive health, then concentrated family practice, then geriatric and complex care, then a culminating specialty term. Because each course is a prerequisite for the next, the ladder cannot be compressed or rearranged.

The DNP project runs as a parallel thread. Five separate scholarship courses begin in year two and continue through year three, so the project accumulates alongside clinical work rather than being saved for the end. That spreads the workload but means you are managing a community project site and a clinical site at the same time for several semesters.

  • STAT 621 Advanced Biostatistics in Health Research (3)
  • NURS 749 Health Systems Quality, Project, and Resource Management (3)
  • NURS 708 Global Health and Epidemiology: A Population-Based Approach (3)
  • NURS 603 Advanced Integrative Nursing Care (2)
  • NURS 638L Applied Health Assessment for Advanced Practice Nursing Lab (2)
  • NURS 621 Primary Care I: Acute and Chronic Care (3)
  • NURS 684 Interprofessional Care Collaboration (1)
  • NURS 725 Primary Care V: Concentrated Primary Care and Specialty (2)
  • NURS 697 Intensive Review for Certification (1)

More curriculum details are available here.

You Should Know
  • Metro State publishes 75 credits, but its two course lists do not agree. The catalog requirement list totals 75 and includes NURS 634 Scholarly Teaching and Learning in Nursing (2 credits) with no NURS 627. The Fall 2025 course progression sheet totals 74 and includes NURS 627 Applied Pharmacology (1 credit) with no NURS 634. Ask which list governs your cohort.
  • NURS 616L is listed in the catalog as a variable 1-2 credit course. Both totals above assume 2 credits; at 1 credit each list drops by one.
  • Courses must be completed in sequence and require a minimum grade of B-, with a C permitted only in STAT 621 and one additional DNP course. In a locked annual sequence, one failed course usually costs a full year.
  • Degree requirements must be finished within six years of beginning DNP coursework.

BSN-DNP Clinical Requirements

  • 1,000 direct patient care hours across five practicum courses: NURS 621P (175), NURS 722P (200), NURS 723P (200), NURS 724P (200), and NURS 725P (225). The course-level minimums sum exactly to the published total.
  • A further 275-285 project hours across the five DNP scholarship courses, bringing total documented experience to roughly 1,275-1,285 hours.
  • Clinical rotations begin in year three and run five consecutive semesters.
  • ⚠ The DNP Clinical Coordinator secures and assigns clinical sites and preceptors. The program page states placement is guaranteed; the requirements section of that same page states the nursing programs cannot guarantee placements in all circumstances.
  • Students may find their own placements with Clinical Coordinator approval.
  • Hours center on outpatient primary care in family medicine, with additional time in ob-gyn, internal medicine, pediatrics, geriatrics, and other specialty settings.
  • Rotation sites include large health systems, community clinics, rural health, retail health, on-site health services, urgent care, home-based primary care, correctional health, and private specialty clinics.
  • Approved preceptors include certified nurse practitioners, certified nurse midwives, physicians, doctors of osteopathic medicine, and physician assistants.
  • Pre-practicum documentation must be submitted and stay valid for the duration of every clinical experience.

At 1,000 direct patient care hours, this is double the 500-hour national certification floor and meaningfully above the 600 to 700 hours common in FNP programs. Spread across five terms, that works out to roughly 12 to 15 hours a week in fall and spring, compressing in the shorter summer terms. The placement model matters more than the raw number: an assigned-placement program removes the single most common reason FNP students stall, which is failing to secure a preceptor. Weigh that against the added 300 to 500 hours you will be working relative to a leaner program.

You Should Know
  • The placement guarantee appears twice on Metro State’s own program page in incompatible forms. Get the current policy in writing before you count on it.
  • Metro State does not publish a telehealth policy for clinical hours, a cap on virtual encounters, or a required split by rotation type beyond naming the specialty settings.
  • Placements are described as urban, rural, and underserved, and the coordinator network is built around the Twin Cities metro. Applicants living outside Minnesota should confirm whether the program can place them locally before applying.
  • Admission requires an RN license that is eligible for Minnesota licensure, which effectively narrows the program to students who can practice in Minnesota.

BSN-DNP Admissions

Two things separate this application from most FNP programs: a paid work-hours gate that must be satisfied before the program starts, and a GPA rule that counts every college course you have ever taken.

  • Earned bachelor’s or entry-level master’s degree in nursing at the time of application. A degree in progress requires a petition to the program advisor.
  • Current unencumbered RN licensure in a state with eligibility for licensure in Minnesota.
  • One year of RN work at 0.6 FTE or higher by the time the program starts.
  • 3.0 cumulative GPA across all previous post-secondary work and degrees, including courses that did not lead to a completed degree.
  • Any college-level statistics course, upper or lower division, completed before the fall start.
  • Application through NursingCAS only, reviewed on a rolling basis with an annual July 15 fall deadline.
  • $90 nonrefundable application fee, waived for active-duty military, veterans, and Metro State alumni.
  • $200 nonrefundable enrollment deposit within 30 days of acceptance, applied toward first-semester tuition.
You Should Know
  • The GPA rule is broader than the usual last-60-credits or nursing-degree standard. An old associate degree or a handful of abandoned courses can pull the cumulative figure below 3.0.
  • Metro State reserves the right to close the application before July 15 if enrollment goals are met, so the posted deadline is a ceiling rather than a target.
  • Metro State’s fee schedule lists a $40 doctoral application fee in addition to the $90 charged through NursingCAS. Budget for both until the business office confirms otherwise.
  • Metro State publishes program-level state and jurisdiction educational requirement listings under 34 CFR 668.43. Check the listing for your state before enrolling from outside Minnesota, since APRN educational requirements vary by board.

Entry-Level MSN to DNP, Family Nurse Practitioner

The estimated tuition for the ELMSN-DNP track at Metro State is approximately $82,250, derived from 67 credits at $1,185.31 per credit plus $42.30 per credit in standard course fees. The program can generally be completed in about three years of full-time study, roughly $9,821 less than the BSN-DNP route.

ELMSN-DNP Curriculum

The 67-credit list is the 75-credit list minus exactly three courses. Nothing is added and nothing is restructured. That makes this the clearest credit-for-credit comparison of the two entry points at Metro State, and it explains why the statistics prerequisite is stricter for this track: the waived STAT 621 has to be covered by prior graduate work.

  • STAT 621 Advanced Biostatistics in Health Research (3) is waived
  • NURS 603 Advanced Integrative Nursing Care (2) is waived
  • NURS 647 Leadership in Health Care Systems (3) is waived

Everything else, including all five Primary Care courses, all five practicums, and the full DNP scholarship sequence, is identical to the BSN-DNP track. The eight-credit reduction comes entirely out of the doctoral core, not out of clinical or specialty preparation.

You Should Know
  • Metro State publishes three years but does not publish a semester count for this track. The 8-9 semester figure in the overview table is derived from the school’s fall, spring, and summer term structure.
  • Degree requirements must be finished within five years of beginning DNP coursework, one year less than the BSN-DNP allowance.
  • This track is built for graduates of Metro State’s own entry-level MSN. Nurses holding a master’s degree from another institution follow the MSN-DNP route below.

ELMSN-DNP Clinical Requirements

  • The same 1,000 direct patient care hours across the same five practicum courses, with the same 175, 200, 200, 200, and 225 hour minimums.
  • The same 275-285 DNP scholarship project hours.
  • The same coordinator-assigned placement model and preceptor rules.

The shorter track buys you eight fewer didactic credits, not less clinical time. Anyone comparing the two routes on effort rather than cost should treat the clinical burden as identical.

ELMSN-DNP Admissions

All BSN-DNP requirements apply, including the RN experience gate, the cumulative GPA rule, the NursingCAS process, and the fall-only start. One requirement is different.

  • An approved graduate-level statistics course completed within the previous five years with a grade of B or better, finished before the fall program start.
  • The course may be taken in the summer semester immediately before the program begins.

MSN to DNP, Family Nurse Practitioner

Metro State does not publish a credit total or tuition figure for nurses entering with a master’s degree earned outside Metro State. The plan is set individually rather than being unpublished: applicants must meet with the DNP Program Director before registering for fall classes to build a unique progression.

MSN-DNP Curriculum

The individualized plan is negotiated against the same course list the other two tracks use, which gives you two published anchors to reason from. The full BSN-entry requirement is 75 credits and the entry-level MSN version is 67. A plan for an outside MSN holder is built by determining which of those courses your master’s degree already covers. Metro State maintains separate program codes for DNP/FNP students entering with a previous MSN, so this is an established route rather than an ad hoc accommodation.

You Should Know
  • The planning meeting is a hard prerequisite, not a suggestion. It must happen before registration for the fall start, which means beginning the conversation well ahead of the July 15 application deadline.
  • Because the credit count is set per student, both the tuition total and the completion timeline are unknowable until the plan is written.

MSN-DNP Clinical Requirements

Clinical volume is settled inside the individualized plan. The program’s published practicum ladder totals 1,000 direct patient care hours across five courses, and any credit for prior graduate clinical work is determined at the planning meeting. Ask for the hour figure in writing at that meeting, since it drives both your term-by-term schedule and your final cost.

MSN-DNP Admissions

The standard requirements apply, with the same statistics condition used for the entry-level MSN track.

  • An approved graduate-level statistics course completed within the previous five years with a grade of B or better.
  • Timing may be arranged with the DNP Program Director rather than being fixed to the fall start.
  • A progression planning meeting with the DNP Program Director before fall registration.

Tuition

Metro State charges $1,185.31 per credit for doctoral nursing courses in 2026-27. That figure is published, and it applies to every student regardless of residency. There is no separate non-resident rate to calculate.

The published rate is not fee-inclusive. A standard course fee of $42.30 per credit is added to every credit taken, including credits earned in online courses. Metro State itemizes that fee, and the components reconstruct the published figure exactly.

Fee ComponentPer Credit
Technology fee$14.00
Parking fee$13.00
Student Center fee$8.50
Activity fee$4.00
Health services fee$2.00
MSUSA fee$0.80
Total$42.30

That puts the effective all-in rate at $1,227.61 per credit. Applying it to each published credit total produces the following derived program costs.

TrackTuitionFeesDerived Total
BSN-DNP (75 credits)$88,898.25$3,172.50$92,070.75
ELMSN-DNP (67 credits)$79,415.77$2,834.10$82,249.87

Confirmed costs:

  • $1,185.31 per credit, doctoral nursing courses, published for Fall 2026, Spring 2027, and Summer 2027
  • $42.30 per credit standard course fees, applied to all credits including online courses
  • $90 nonrefundable NursingCAS application fee
  • $200 nonrefundable enrollment deposit, credited toward first-semester tuition
  • $20 graduation fee
  • The doctoral nursing rate is unchanged from 2025-26 and rose 2.72% from $1,153.88 in 2024-25, while Metro State’s base graduate rate rose 6.33% for 2026-27

Be aware that:

  • Both program totals are derived. Metro State publishes a per-credit rate and a credit count, not a program cost, so these figures are credits multiplied by rate plus fees.
  • STAT 621 is a statistics course rather than a nursing course, and Metro State’s rate table describes the doctoral nursing rate as applying to doctoral nursing courses. If those 3 credits bill at the $590.42 graduate rate instead, the BSN-DNP total falls by about $1,785 to roughly $90,286. Confirm with the business office before budgeting.
  • The $13 per credit parking fee applies to online students. Metro State states directly that the fee was voted onto all students, including those taking only online courses. Over 75 credits that is $975 in parking charges for a program whose coursework is delivered online.
  • Individual courses can carry additional fees for lab kits, subscriptions, licenses, or equipment, listed in the course schedule. The two skills labs and the certification review course are the likely places these appear.
  • Metro State’s fee schedule lists a $40 doctoral application fee separate from the CAS fee.
  • All tuition is subject to change by the Minnesota State Board. A four-year program passes through at least three rate cycles, so the derived totals assume a rate hold that history does not guarantee.
  • Wisconsin and North Dakota residents must complete a reciprocity application with their home state every semester they are enrolled.

The honest read is that this is a mid-priced doctorate with unusually predictable arithmetic. Metro State’s doctoral nursing rate is roughly 1.57 times what the university charges for MSN-level nursing courses, so the DNP carries a real premium over a master’s at the same institution. But there is no residency multiplier, no plateau threshold to game, and no hidden program fee stacked on top of the advertised rate. What you calculate is close to what you will pay, and the largest genuine uncertainty is the statistics course billing question. Full rates are published on Metro State’s tuition, fees, and aid page.

Why Choose This FNP Program?

Best suited for nurses in the Twin Cities region who want the clinical placement search taken off their plate, and who can commit to a fixed full-time sequence with a single annual start.

Three doors into one degree. Most FNP programs give you a BSN entry point and, if you are lucky, a post-master’s certificate. Metro State runs three routes into the same DNP: 75 credits from a BSN, 67 credits for graduates of its own entry-level MSN, and an individually built plan for nurses holding a master’s from elsewhere. The entry-level MSN itself is designed for people whose bachelor’s degree is in another field, which means a career changer can move from a non-nursing degree to a doctorally prepared FNP without leaving the institution. That continuity is rare, and it is worth more than it looks: your prior coursework is evaluated by the same faculty who wrote the curriculum you are entering.

Placement is assigned, not searched for. A dedicated DNP FNP Clinical Coordinator secures and assigns sites and preceptors across large health systems, community clinics, rural health, correctional health, and urgent care. Students who prefer their own arrangement can propose one for approval. For a working nurse, this removes the failure mode that derails more FNP students than coursework does. Read the caveat in the clinical section before you treat it as absolute, but the infrastructure behind it is real.

One price for everyone. Metro State charges the same per-credit rate regardless of where you live, which is unusual for a public university and removes the calculation that dominates most out-of-state comparisons. Combined with an itemized fee that reconstructs exactly, the cost of this program is more knowable up front than most.

The trade-offs are real. Four years is a long BSN-to-DNP timeline, and Metro State frames that length as a feature because it lets you keep working as an RN. There is no part-time option, one intake a year, and a sequence so tightly locked that a single failed course likely costs twelve months. The first full year contains no clinical or advanced practice content whatsoever. And the 1,000 clinical hours, while a genuine strength on your resume, are 300 to 500 more than many competing programs require.

The decision here is mostly about which door you walk through. If you already hold a BSN and want the shortest path to FNP practice, four years is a long commitment and other programs move faster. If you are a Metro State entry-level MSN graduate, the 67-credit continuation is the obvious choice and the eight waived credits come out of theory rather than clinical training. And if you hold an outside master’s, this is one of the few programs that will sit down and build the plan around what you have already completed, which makes the planning meeting the single most important step in your application.

Accreditation

The Doctor of Nursing Practice program at Metro State is accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education. Because all three FNP entry routes converge on the same DNP degree, the accreditation covers each of them; there is no separately accredited certificate to verify.

Separately, the Minnesota Board of Nursing approves the DNP program as an APRN preparation program. That approval is distinct from CCNE accreditation and is what Minnesota licensure runs through, so both matter if you intend to practice in the state.

At the institutional level, Metro State has been accredited by the Higher Learning Commission since 1975 and follows HLC’s Open Pathway. Institutional accreditation is what makes federal and state financial aid available and what allows credits to transfer. Metro State is scheduled for its comprehensive reaffirmation evaluation during the 2026-27 academic year, which is normal cycle activity rather than a warning sign.

Graduates are eligible to sit for the national FNP certification exam through either the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners Certification Board or the American Nurses Credentialing Center, and the curriculum includes a dedicated certification review course. The program also carries an endorsement from the American Holistic Nurses Credentialing Corporation, which lets graduates sit for the holistic nurse certification exam with a waiver of the usual continuing education and practice requirements.

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