Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania FNP Programs

Department of Nursing • Bloomsburg, PA • Online • $754/credit

Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania offers an MSN Family Nurse Practitioner Track.

Program Track Overview

ProgramEst. TuitionEst. DurationCredit Hours
MSN$42.6K in-state 2.5 yrs (full-time)50

Commonwealth University’s defining advantage is a distance rate that barely changes when you cross a state line. On the university’s 100% online graduate schedule, a non-resident pays $72 more per credit than a Pennsylvania resident — about $3,600 across the full 50-credit degree, compared with a $295 per-credit gap on the same university’s on-campus master’s schedule.

Quick Facts

FeatureDetails
Program TypesMSN only. No FNP certificate or BSN-to-DNP track identified.
FormatOnline. Core courses asynchronous; no campus visits stated.
Clinical Hours980 total, itemized across five clinical courses.
Clinical PlacementNot clearly stated who secures sites or preceptors.
PopulationChildren, adolescents, adults, older and frail older adults.
Distinctive CourseworkStandalone Family Theory course; 4-credit older-adult assessment course with 140 clinical hours.
ConcentrationsMSN NP program also offers an Adult-Gerontology Primary Care option (41 credits).
Start TermsSpring, summer, and fall. Rolling admission.
RN ExperienceOne year required — sources conflict on whether at admission or before clinicals.
InterviewRequired with the Graduate Nursing Department Admissions Committee.
Tuition$754/credit resident, $826/credit non-resident (online all-in), plus $1,000 clinical fee per semester.
AccreditationCCNE (master’s degree program in nursing). Institutional: MSCHE.

MSN — Family/Individual Across the Lifespan Nurse Practitioner

The estimated tuition for the MSN Nurse Practitioner program at Commonwealth University is approximately $42,600 for Pennsylvania residents and $46,200 for non-residents (50 credits at the university’s 100% online rate, plus clinical and registration fees).

The program can generally be completed in about 2.5 years of full-time study across six semesters, with a part-time option available on an advisor-built plan.

MSN Curriculum

The 50-credit curriculum splits cleanly into a 22-credit academic and advanced-practice core and a 28-credit clinical sequence of five courses. Two structural choices set it apart from a typical FNP course map.

The first is a dedicated three-credit family theory course. Most FNP programs treat family systems as a theme distributed across management courses rather than a course of its own. Commonwealth gives it standalone credit, which reflects the program’s stated emphasis on family-centered care and on underserved, high-risk, and multicultural populations.

The second is the older-adult block. Because the MSN NP program runs a parallel Adult-Gerontology Primary Care concentration, FNP students take the same four-credit comprehensive geriatric assessment course — carrying 140 clinical hours of its own — plus two full adult and aged management courses. The practical effect is a curriculum weighted toward adult and geriatric primary care, with pediatric and obstetric content concentrated in a single course.

Foundation Courses (22 credits)
  • NURSING 501 — Theoretical Bases for Role Development in Advanced Nursing Practice (3)
  • NURSING 502 — Epidemiology: Concepts in Population Health (3)
  • NURSING 504 and 507 — Pathophysiology and Pharmacology Across the Lifespan (3 each)
  • NURSING 508 — Lifespan Health Assessment and Promotion (4)
  • NURSING 522 — Family Theory Across the Lifespan (3)
Clinical Sequence (28 credits)
  • NURSING 515 — Diagnosis and Management of the Adult & Aged I (6) — 210 clinical hours
  • NURSING 516 — Diagnosis and Management of the Adult & Aged II (6) — 210 clinical hours
  • NURSING 529 — Comprehensive Assessment of the Older Adult (4) — 140 clinical hours
  • NURSING 517 — Diagnosis and Management of Pregnant Women and Children (6) — 210 clinical hours
  • NURSING 541 — FNP Practicum and Seminar (6) — 210 clinical hours

NOTE: The university’s own curriculum checklist labels the clinical sequence as 27 credits, but the five listed courses sum to 28. The 50-credit program total is correct and confirmed two ways (22 + 28, and 9 + 13 + 28 on the degree checklist); the 27 appears to be a typographical error on the source document.

The published degree map is dated June 2023 and built on the 2024–2025 academic catalog. Confirm the current sequence with an advisor before planning around it.

More curriculum details are available here.

MSN Clinical Requirements

  • 980 total clinical hours — 210 + 210 + 140 + 210 + 210, verified against the university’s stated total.
  • Clinical hours are attached to five courses, beginning in the second semester of the full-time plan.
  • 560 of the 980 hours sit in explicitly adult and older-adult courses; 210 hours are dedicated to pregnant women and children.
  • The final 210-hour FNP practicum and seminar is the only course whose population mix is not specified.
  • One year of primary care RN experience is required before clinical rotations begin.
  • NOTE: Placement model not stated. The source material does not say whether the program secures clinical sites and preceptors or whether students arrange their own.

At 980 hours, this is roughly double the 500-hour national certification floor and well above the 600–700 range common in FNP programs. That volume is a real asset at the bedside and a real scheduling burden: five of six semesters carry a clinical course, which is difficult to sustain alongside full-time RN work. The distribution matters too. A student who wants deep pediatric and prenatal exposure should ask what population mix the capstone practicum allows, because the named coursework devotes more than half its clinical time to adult and geriatric care. The unstated placement model is the larger open question — in a fully online program marketed nationally, whether the school helps you find 980 hours of preceptored time is the single most consequential fact not on the page.

MSN Admissions

Two features stand out: an interview with the Graduate Nursing Department Admissions Committee, and an RN experience requirement whose timing the university’s own materials describe two different ways.

  • Graduate application and fee; official transcripts from all post-secondary institutions.
  • 3.0 GPA for admission consideration, and 3.0 maintained throughout the program.
  • Current, unencumbered professional nursing license.
  • Resume describing professional nursing and clinical experience, plus career goals.
  • One completed recommendation form, plus two additional names with contact information.
  • Interview with the Graduate Nursing Department Admissions Committee, conducted on a rolling basis.
  • No GRE required.
  • Rolling admission for spring, summer, and fall; applications due at least two weeks before the term starts.
  • Experience conflict: the admissions list requires one year of current RN clinical practice for admission, while the program FAQ states that no experience is needed to be admitted but that one year of acute primary care experience is required before clinical rotations begin. Confirm in writing.

If the FAQ version governs, this is a meaningfully more open door than most FNP programs offer — a newer nurse could begin didactic coursework while accruing the required year. If the admissions list governs, it is a standard one-year gate. The difference decides whether a nurse with eight months of experience should apply now or wait, so it is worth an email before you build a timeline around it.

Tuition

Commonwealth University bills graduate students per credit. For its 100% online graduate programs — the schedule that covers the MSN Nurse Practitioner degree — the all-in rate is $754 per credit for Pennsylvania residents ($557 tuition plus $81 technology, $78 academic enhancement, and $38 student services) and $826 per credit for non-residents ($613 tuition plus $97 technology and the same $78 and $38 fees).

Across 50 credits, that produces an estimated total of approximately $42,600 for residents and $46,200 for non-residents, derived as follows on the published full-time plan (semester loads of 10, 9, 7, 9, 9, and 6 credits):

  • Resident: $27,850 tuition (50 × $557) + $4,050 technology (50 × $81) + $5,684 capped fees (49 billable credits × $116) + $30 registration + $5,000 clinical fees = $42,614 estimated.
  • Non-resident: $30,650 tuition (50 × $613) + $4,850 technology (50 × $97) + $5,684 capped fees + $30 registration + $5,000 clinical fees = $46,214 estimated.

Fee caveats that change the real number:

  • $1,000 clinical fee per semester for graduate nursing students in programs with a clinical component. This is the largest line item beyond tuition and is not included in any per-credit figure.
  • NOTE: The clinical fee’s wording is ambiguous. Read strictly, it applies every semester of enrollment ($6,000 on the full-time plan). The estimates above assume it applies only to the five semesters carrying clinical courses ($5,000). Part-time students stretching the sequence over more terms could pay considerably more.
  • The academic enhancement and student services fees cap at 9 credits per semester; the technology fee does not cap. Only one semester of the full-time plan exceeds 9 credits, so the cap saves roughly $116 total.
  • A one-time $30 registration fee applies to the starting term.
  • Students using employer tuition reimbursement can defer 75% of tuition and fees after a 25% down payment, with the balance drawn 45 days after the semester ends.

The headline here is the small residency penalty. A non-resident pays about 8% more than a Pennsylvania resident on this schedule. On the same university’s on-campus master’s schedule, the non-resident rate is $1,109 per credit against $814 in-state — a gap of $295 per credit. Choosing the online pathway is what makes Commonwealth priced similarly for a nurse in Ohio and a nurse in Bloomsburg.

Verify your figures against the university’s 100% online cost estimator and its graduate tuition and fees page.

Why Choose This FNP Program?

Best suited for nurses outside Pennsylvania who want public-university pricing without the usual non-resident surcharge, and who can absorb an unusually heavy clinical load over two and a half years.

Most public universities make out-of-state students pay for the privilege of a state-subsidized degree. Commonwealth largely does not on its online schedule, and that single structural fact reframes who this program is for. A nurse in Ohio, New York, or Maryland can enroll at close to Pennsylvania resident pricing, in a fully online asynchronous program, without relocating or commuting. Commonwealth is an NC-SARA institution, so distance coursework is authorized broadly — though California is not a SARA member state, and licensure requirements vary, so check your state board before enrolling.

The trade-off is workload and information. 980 clinical hours is a serious commitment: five of six semesters carry a clinical course, and the full-time plan front-loads a 10-credit semester. More consequentially, the program does not publish how clinical placements are arranged. For a Pennsylvania student, that gap is manageable — the faculty know the regional health systems. For a nurse in another state relying on the near-flat pricing, an unstated placement model is exactly the risk that could stall a degree, and it should be resolved before you apply.

Against York College of Pennsylvania, the comparison is straightforward. York bills a flat $695 per credit regardless of residency and requires 784 clinical hours. Commonwealth requires 980 hours and, for a non-resident, bills $826 per credit all-in. York is the lower per-credit rate and the lighter clinical load; Commonwealth is the deeper clinical preparation with a standalone family theory course and a dedicated geriatric assessment block. Nurses who want maximum preceptored hours before certification should look at Commonwealth. Nurses optimizing for cost and completion speed should price York carefully against it, since both programs are priced within a narrow band once Commonwealth’s clinical fees are included.

Accreditation

The master’s degree program in nursing at Commonwealth University is accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE), and the program appears on the Pennsylvania State Board of Nursing’s list of board-approved CRNP programs. Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania is institutionally accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE).

The university states that the Family/Individual Across the Lifespan program has met the educational eligibility requirements of both the American Nurses Credentialing Center and the American Association of Nurse Practitioners Certification Board, so graduates can sit for the national FNP certification exam through either body — dual eligibility that is standard but worth confirming, since applicants must also satisfy whatever criteria are in effect at the time they apply.

Commonwealth publishes a professional licensure and certification disclosure; because a program meeting Pennsylvania’s educational requirements may not satisfy another state’s, contact your intended state’s licensing board before enrolling.

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