MTSU FNP Programs

School of Nursing • Murfreesboro, TN • Mostly Online • $623/credit

MTSU offers a 2 year MSN Family Nurse Practitioner track that costs between $28K to $30K.

Program Overview

ProgramEst. TuitionEst. DurationCredit Hours
MSN$28.3K–$30.3K (in-state)2 yrs (full-time)42

MTSU’s defining feature is a residency wall paired with a pricing cliff: only Tennessee residents may apply, and in-state tuition drops from $623 per credit to $123 per credit after the tenth credit in a semester. That single rule makes the four-semester plan about $2,000 cheaper than the seven-semester plan for the identical 42-credit degree.

Quick Facts

FeatureDetails
Program TypesMSN only. MTSU offers no post-master’s FNP certificate and no DNP.
FormatAll coursework online. MTSU labels the MSN “hybrid” and warns campus activity may be required. ⚠
Clinical Hours630 direct patient care hours across three courses.
Clinical PlacementStudent-sourced preceptors. Coordinators assist on request, not by default.
PopulationFamily/individual across the lifespan, primary care.
Distinctive CourseworkDiversity and Caring for Special Populations; a 5-credit final clinical intensive.
Enrollment RestrictionTennessee residency required. Applicants must document it, typically with a TN driver’s license.
RN License RequirementCurrent, unencumbered Tennessee RN license required at the time of application.
RN ExperienceNone. Students may enroll immediately after earning a BSN.
Start TermsTwo per year, fall and spring.
Progression RulesB or better in every nursing course. Three course withdrawals bars readmission.
Transfer CreditUp to 12 credits may be accepted, evaluated only after admission.
Tuition$623/credit in-state for credits 1–10, then $123/credit, plus a $99/credit fee.
AccreditationCCNE (MSN); SACSCOC institutional; Tennessee Board of Nursing approval.

M.S.N., Family Nurse Practitioner Concentration

The estimated tuition for the Nursing, Family Nurse Practitioner Concentration, M.S.N. at MTSU is approximately $28,324 in-state on the four-semester plan and $30,324 on the seven-semester plan, both covering 42 credits plus the mandatory program services fee.

The program can generally be completed in about two years full-time or three and a half years part-time, since MTSU does not offer graduate nursing didactic courses in summer and both plans run on fall and spring terms only.

MSN Curriculum

Foundation courses. Fifteen credits of core coursework cover theory and evidence-based practice, health promotion, ethics and health policy, the NP role, and a course on diversity and caring for special populations. That last course is the one genuinely distinctive item in the core — most FNP curricula fold population and cultural content into other courses rather than giving it three dedicated credits.

Specialty sequence. The three advanced practice sciences run 10 credits, with Advanced Health Assessment carrying four credits and a lab component. The FNP management sequence is compressed into just two courses, NURS 6210 and 6211, each worth six credits and each blending four didactic credits with two clinical credits. A fifth semester course, the 5-credit Family Healthcare Diagnosis and Management Intensive, closes the program.

Sequencing differences between plans. The two guided plans are not simply the same courses at different speeds. The four-semester plan front-loads all three advanced practice sciences into a single 10-credit opening term, meaning assessment, pathophysiology, and pharmacology arrive simultaneously and two full terms before the first patient contact. The seven-semester plan delays Advanced Health Assessment until semester four, immediately before the first clinical course. Part-time students therefore hit clinicals with the assessment material fresh; full-time students carry a two-semester gap.

  • NURS 6010 – Theory and Evidence-Based Practice (3)
  • NURS 6011 – Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Across the Life Span (3)
  • NURS 6012 – Diversity and Caring for Special Populations (3)
  • NURS 6013 – Ethics, Healthcare Policy, and Economics (3)
  • NURS 6014 – NP Role and Leadership in Health Care (3)
  • NURS 6110 – Advanced Health Assessment (4)
  • NURS 6111 – Advanced Pathophysiology (3)
  • NURS 6112 – Advanced Pharmacology (3)
  • NURS 6210 – Family Healthcare Diagnosis and Management I and Clinical (6)
  • NURS 6211 – Family Healthcare Diagnosis and Management II and Clinical (6)
  • NURS 6213 – Family Healthcare Diagnosis and Management Intensive Clinical (5)

More curriculum details are available here.

MSN Clinical Requirements

  • 630 direct patient care clinical hours total.
  • NURS 6210: 180 hours (2 clinical credits). NURS 6211: 180 hours (2 clinical credits). NURS 6213: 270 hours (3 clinical credits).
  • Course-level hours sum exactly to the published 630. The ratio is a consistent 90 hours per clinical credit.
  • Students are asked to find their own preceptors. Clinical coordinators provide assistance upon request if a student cannot secure one.
  • Preceptors must be approved by the School of Nursing.
  • Rotations are placed in the student’s home area when possible.
  • Didactic courses are not offered in summer. Clinical courses may run in summer only if enough students enroll to meet the minimum. ⚠
  • Faculty site visit policy is not clearly stated. ⚠

At 630 hours, MTSU sits 130 hours above the 500-hour national certification floor and at the low end of the 600 to 700-plus band that most FNP programs occupy. The distribution matters more than the total: 270 hours — 43 percent of the entire clinical requirement — land in the single final intensive course. Students who pace themselves through the first two management courses will still face one unusually dense closing term. The placement model is the weaker half of the package. Preceptor sourcing sits with the student by default, and coordinator help is framed as available on request rather than as a service the program routinely performs. Nurses without an existing local clinical network should treat preceptor recruitment as work that starts before enrollment, not after.

MSN Admissions

One requirement removes most readers immediately: MTSU admits only Tennessee residents to the MSN, and applicants must document residency. There is no RN work experience requirement, which is the counterweight — a nurse can move from BSN to FNP enrollment without waiting years at the bedside.

  • Residence in Tennessee, documented with evidence such as a Tennessee driver’s license.
  • Current, unencumbered Tennessee RN license held at the time of application.
  • BSN completed before applying. MTSU does not admit students with a BSN still in progress.
  • Overall BSN GPA of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale. Conditional admission is considered at 2.9 to 2.99 when all other requirements are met.
  • A completed undergraduate statistics course of three semester hours or four quarter hours.
  • TOEFL if applicable.
  • Application with fee, official transcripts from all institutions attended, an updated resume or vita, and a copy of the RN license.
  • Two intakes per year: fall and spring.
  • NOTE: Deadlines conflict across MTSU’s own pages. The program page and catalog list October 1 for spring and February 1 for fall. The School of Nursing page lists October 1 for spring and April 1 for fall. Treat these as annual cycle dates and confirm the current fall deadline in writing.
  • No interview, GRE, or letters of recommendation are listed as requirements.

Two progression rules deserve attention before you apply, because they are stricter than most programs publish. Every graduate nursing course must be passed with a B or better, and only two instances of course withdrawal are permitted — a student who withdraws a third time will not be readmitted. Withdrawing from multiple courses in one semester counts as a single instance. MTSU also requires registration every term; missing one without filing an Interruption of Program form triggers a full readmission requirement. For a working nurse whose schedule may break mid-program, that paperwork is not optional housekeeping.

Tuition

MTSU charges graduate tuition on a published per-credit schedule that declines sharply within each semester. For Tennessee residents, credits 1 through 10 cost $623 each; every credit from the eleventh upward costs $123.

Out-of-state rates follow the same structure at $1,722 and $342.

A mandatory program services fee of $99 per credit applies through the twelfth credit, capping at $1,188 per semester.

  • Estimated total in-state tuition and fees, four-semester plan: $28,324 ($24,166 tuition + $4,158 program services fee).
  • Estimated total in-state tuition and fees, seven-semester plan: $30,324 ($26,166 tuition + $4,158 program services fee).
  • Effective in-state tuition rate: $575 per credit on the four-semester plan, $623 per credit on the seven-semester plan.
  • Estimated total out-of-state tuition and fees: $70,962 on the four-semester plan, $76,482 on the seven-semester plan.
  • Semester loads used for these estimates follow MTSU’s published guided plans: 10, 12, 12, and 8 credits for the accelerated sequence; 6, 6, 6, 7, 6, 6, and 5 credits for the part-time sequence.
  • Program-specific costs beyond tuition, per MTSU’s additional costs page: background check $78.75, drug screen $36, document storage $60, malpractice insurance $11 per year, NURS 6110 streaming subscription $80, NURS 6112 Shadow Health $150, NURS 6213 certification review $360, NURS 6213 standardized exam $68.
  • Those items total about $833 in one-time costs, bringing an accelerated student’s realistic all-in figure to roughly $29,200.
  • Estimated books cost $350 to $800 depending on course load.
  • Current rates are published on MTSU’s tuition page for Fall 2026 and Spring 2027.

Be aware that:

  • These totals are estimates derived by applying MTSU’s published per-semester rate table to its published guided plans of study. Actual cost depends on the credit load you carry each term.
  • The declining-rate structure penalizes light semesters. A 6-credit term costs $3,738 in tuition; a 12-credit term costs $6,476. You get twice the credits for 73 percent more money.
  • The out-of-state figures are largely theoretical given the residency requirement, but they are not irrelevant. A nurse who relocates to Tennessee may satisfy the admission residency test while still being billed as a non-resident until domicile requirements for tuition purposes are met. Confirm your residency classification with the Business Office before committing.
  • All fees are subject to change by the Board of Trustees, and MTSU sets the year’s per-credit rate in the summer before the fall term. A four-semester program spans two rate settings; a seven-semester program spans four.
  • MTSU notes that some courses carry additional miscellaneous or specialized fees beyond those itemized on the nursing costs page.
  • Cost of attendance figures published by MTSU include living expenses, transportation, and personal costs. Those are budgeting estimates, not amounts billed by the university.

The practical takeaway is that MTSU’s real price depends on how you schedule, not just what you enroll in. Two students earning the same degree can pay $2,000 apart in-state, and $5,520 apart at non-resident rates, purely by pacing.

Why Choose This FNP Program?

Best suited for Tennessee nurses who want the state’s low-cost public option, can carry 12-credit semesters, and are comfortable finding their own preceptors.

The price is the argument. Under $30,000 for a 42-credit MSN with 630 clinical hours is a serious number for any FNP program, and MTSU gets there without an accelerated-format gimmick or a cohort pricing lock. The rate structure rewards students who commit to full-time semesters, which aligns the cheapest path with the fastest one — an unusual alignment, since accelerating a program more often raises the per-term burden without lowering total cost.

The entry ramp is wide, then narrow. MTSU requires no RN work experience, considers applicants at a 2.9 GPA, requires no interview or recommendation letters, and accepts up to 12 transfer credits. That is a genuinely accessible front door for a newly licensed nurse. But it opens only in Tennessee. The residency requirement is absolute, and it applies at admission rather than merely to clinical placement, which makes MTSU non-comparable for out-of-state readers rather than simply expensive for them.

The trade-offs are real. Preceptor sourcing falls to the student, and the program’s own language positions coordinator help as reactive. Clinical volume at 630 hours is adequate but not generous. The final term concentrates 270 clinical hours into one intensive course. The format label is ambiguous enough to require a direct question before enrolling. And the strict two-withdrawal ceiling means a student who hits a rough semester twice has used up all the flexibility the program offers.

Where it fits in the state. MTSU is Tennessee’s master’s-level answer for nurses who do not want a doctorate. Several Tennessee FNP programs now admit only at the DNP level, so a working nurse who wants the credential without three-plus years of doctoral coursework has a narrowing set of options. MTSU keeps the 42-credit MSN route open, and does so at public in-state rates.

Before you apply, look at your own calendar rather than the tuition table. MTSU’s cheapest and fastest path requires two consecutive 12-credit semesters, each carrying 180 clinical hours, on a program that does not run didactic courses in summer — so there is no summer term to offload into and no way to convert a difficult fall into a lighter one without dropping to the part-time plan and adding three semesters plus $2,000. If you can protect two heavy academic years and locate a preceptor in your area, MTSU is one of the strongest value propositions available to a Tennessee nurse. If your work schedule is unpredictable, price the part-time plan honestly and decide whether the extra eighteen months is a cost you are willing to carry.

Accreditation

The Master of Science in Nursing at Middle Tennessee State University is accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE). MTSU’s baccalaureate nursing program holds separate CCNE accreditation. Both statements were verified directly from MTSU’s School of Nursing accreditation page.

All MTSU nursing programs are approved by the Tennessee Board of Nursing. The university itself is institutionally accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges.

NOTE: At least one third-party directory lists MTSU’s graduate nursing programs as holding both CCNE and ACEN accreditation. MTSU’s own pages name only CCNE. Treat CCNE as the operative accreditor and disregard the ACEN claim unless the school confirms it.

MTSU states that MSN graduates are eligible to sit for concentration-specific national nurse practitioner certification exams, and the school’s own outcomes reporting tracks results from both the American Association of Nurse Practitioners and the American Nurses Credentialing Center. That confirms dual eligibility for the FNP exam through either body. MTSU also notes that the MSN is the only route it offers to FNP certification — there is no post-master’s FNP certificate.

Compare More Family NP Programs

Compare all online Family Nurse Practitioner programs in Tennessee