Austin Peay State University

School of Nursing • Clarksville, TN • Mostly Online • $533/credit

Austin Peay State University offers an MSN Family Nurse Practitioner track.

Program Tracks Overview

ProgramEst. TuitionEst. DurationCredit Hours
MSN$24K in-state2.5 yrs45 hrs

Austin Peay’s defining advantage is its military pricing. Uniformed personnel using Tuition Assistance pay a flat $250 per credit hour with no out-of-state surcharge, which brings the 45-credit MSN to roughly $11,250. One caveat belongs up front: the master’s program is accredited by ACEN rather than CCNE, and APSU lists the most recent ACEN decision as initial accreditation.

Quick Facts

FeatureDetails
Program TypesMSN with FNP concentration. No DNP or post-master’s certificate currently offered.
FormatMostly Online. Two required on-campus intensives plus synchronous videoconferencing sessions.
Clinical Hours750 stated. A separate APSU page still states 600.
Clinical PlacementNot guaranteed. APSU states it cannot promise placements in all states.
PopulationOutpatient primary care across the lifespan.
Distinctive CourseworkFive-credit FNP Residency; virtual skills intensive covering suturing, biopsy, x-ray reading.
RN Experience RequiredNone. BSN plus NCLEX passage is sufficient; no GRE.
Admission CyclesTwo per year. Applications due May 1 and October 1.
Tuition$533/credit in-state, $821/credit out-of-state, $250/credit on military Tuition Assistance.
Completion Rate51% for 2024; between 50% and 54% every year since 2021.
AccreditationACEN (initial accreditation) for the master’s; SACSCOC institutionally.

MSN – Family Nurse Practitioner Concentration

The estimated tuition for the MSN Family Nurse Practitioner concentration at Austin Peay State University is approximately $23,985 in-state (45 credits at $533/credit) or $36,945 out-of-state (45 credits at $821/credit).

The program can generally be completed in about two and a half years, following a published eight-term plan that starts in a summer session and ends in the fall of the third year.

MSN Curriculum

Structure. APSU builds the FNP concentration around two unusually large didactic courses rather than a long string of small ones. Advanced Family Practice I and II carry five credits each — ten of the program’s 45 credits sit in just two courses. Most FNP programs split the same clinical management content across three or four three-credit courses. The practical effect is that a bad semester in either course is harder to absorb, and APSU’s progression policy compounds that: anything below a B triggers a repeat, and two grades of C or lower end the program.

Entry sequencing. Admitted students begin with a one-credit Transition to Graduate Nursing Practice course during a four-week Summer II term, before the first real semester starts. This is a deliberate on-ramp, not a formality — students apply for a summer start even when they think of themselves as fall entrants.

The 3 Ps and the assessment lab. Advanced pathophysiology, pharmacology, and health assessment appear as expected, but APSU separates the health assessment lab into its own one-credit course (NURS 5008), and that lab is one of the two required campus visits. Splitting the lab out means the hands-on check-off is graded independently rather than folded into a lecture grade.

Practicum ladder. Clinical work is staged across four courses of increasing weight: a two-credit first practicum, two three-credit practicums, and a five-credit FNP Residency in the final semester. The residency is the largest single clinical course in the program and carries the second required campus intensive.

  • NURS 5100 – Transition to Graduate Nursing Practice (1 credit)
  • NURS 5007 – Advanced Health Assessment and Clinical Reasoning across the Lifespan (3 credits)
  • NURS 5008 – Advanced Health Assessment Lab (1 credit, required on-campus intensive)
  • NURS 5701 – Advanced Family Practice I (5 credits)
  • NURS 5702 – Advanced Family Practice II (5 credits)
  • NURS 6800 / 6801 / 6802 – FNP Clinical Practicum I, II, III (2, 3, 3 credits)
  • NURS 6809 – FNP Residency (5 credits, required on-campus intensive)
  • NURS 5902 – MSN Capstone (2 credits)

More curriculum details are available here.

MSN Clinical Requirements

750 clinical hours as stated on APSU’s MSN program page. The university’s separate program-listing page still says 600 hours alongside an outdated 43-credit total — the course list and degree map both sum to 45, so the 45/750 pairing is the current figure.

  • Hours are distributed across four practicum courses totaling 13 credits. That works out to roughly 58 clinical hours per practicum credit (derived; APSU does not publish a per-course hour breakdown).
  • Placement is not guaranteed. APSU states plainly that it cannot guarantee clinical placements or APRN licensure approval in all 50 states.
  • Students must hold an unencumbered RN license in Tennessee or in the state where clinicals are completed.
  • Relocating mid-program requires written approval from the Graduate Nursing Coordinator, because some state boards restrict rotations.
  • Personal professional liability insurance at $1 million / $6 million is required, along with personal health insurance.
  • Background check within 90 days of the first rotation, initiated no earlier than 90 days out; drug screening at the discretion of individual sites.
  • Full immunization documentation including COVID-19, with a declination option that each clinical facility must approve separately each semester.

At 750 hours, APSU sits above the 500-hour national certification floor and above the 600–700 range where most FNP programs land. That extra volume is a real asset at the job-hunting stage, but it also means more time to secure preceptors — and APSU’s language on placement is candid rather than reassuring. Prospective students outside Tennessee should treat preceptor sourcing as their own project and ask the program directly, before applying, whether rotations are viable in their state. The declination clause deserves attention too: an approved vaccine declination at the university level does not bind clinical sites, any one of which can refuse a student and stall progression.

MSN Admissions

Two features stand out: APSU requires no prior RN work experience, and the minimum GPA is 2.9 rather than the more common 3.0. Both widen the door for newer nurses, though the program’s own completion figures suggest that door does not stay open by itself.

  • BSN from an accredited program with a 2.9 overall GPA on a 4.0 scale.
  • No GRE. No minimum years of RN practice; passing the NCLEX is the stated bar.
  • Completed undergraduate statistics course, three semester hours or four quarter hours.
  • Unencumbered RN license in Tennessee or the state where clinicals will occur, with expiration date documented.
  • Resume plus a one-page goal statement that must address career objectives and a specific plan for handling study and clinical hours.
  • $45 non-refundable application fee. Military documents if applicable.
  • Final decision rests with the School of Nursing Graduate Curriculum, Admission, and Retention committee; admitted applicants must formally accept the offer.
  • Two intakes per year. Applications are due May 1 for the summer start and October 1 for the winter start.

Tuition

Graduate tuition at Austin Peay is $533 per credit hour for residents and $821 per credit hour for non-residents, both published rates for credit hours one through ten. A mandatory program service fee of $91.20 per credit hour applies on top, bringing the true rate to $624.20 per credit in-state and $912.20 per credit out-of-state. Across 45 credits that produces an estimated $28,089 in-state and $41,049 out-of-state, tuition and mandatory fees combined.

  • In-state tuition: 45 credits × $533 = $23,985.
  • Out-of-state tuition: 45 credits × $821 = $36,945.
  • Program service fee: 45 credits × $91.20 = $4,104, charged to residents and non-residents alike.
  • Uniformed military personnel using Tuition Assistance are billed $250 per credit hour all-in, with the program service fee discounted away and no out-of-state charge. That puts the full 45 credits near $11,250.
  • APSU’s discounted rate of $105 per credit for hours eleven and above exists, and the out-of-state surcharge caps at $2,880 per semester.

Be aware that:

  • The $105 discount never activates on the published FNP plan of study. Semester loads run 1, 4, 6, 6, 7, 8, 6, and 7 credits — every term stays under the eleven-credit threshold, so every credit in the program bills at the full rate. The same applies to the $912 program service fee cap, which requires ten credits in a term.
  • The out-of-state e-rate is not a discount for this program. APSU’s e-rate schedule adds a $64 per credit web fee and a $267 per credit e-rate tuition charge on top of the base $533, producing $955.20 per credit all-in. That is $43 per credit more than the standard out-of-state total of $912.20, or roughly $1,935 more across the degree. Out-of-state applicants should ask Student Account Services in writing which schedule they will actually be billed under.
  • The published rates cover Fall 2026 through Summer 2027 and are subject to change by the APSU Board of Trustees. A program spanning eight terms will almost certainly cross at least one rate adjustment.
  • Special course fees are excluded from the rate tables entirely. APSU maintains a separate special course fee list, and neither the nursing pages nor the tuition page states whether NURS courses carry one.
  • Costs tied to clinical compliance sit outside tuition: liability insurance, health insurance, background check, drug screens, immunizations and titers, CPR certification, and travel to two on-campus intensives.
  • APSU markets the MSN as available “starting at approximately $18,000” in-state. That figure reflects the lower-credit Nurse Educator concentration, not the 45-credit FNP track. The separate claim of “under $25,000” does match the FNP tuition-only total.

The full picture: your all-in cost depends far more on which pricing category you fall into than on anything about the curriculum. A Tennessee resident and an out-of-state distance student in the same cohort, taking identical courses, are separated by about $13,000. See the official graduate tuition and fees page for current rates.

Why Choose This FNP Program?

This program fits nurses whose funding comes from military Tuition Assistance, who live in or near Tennessee, and who want a clinically heavy master’s without a doctoral commitment.

The military case is the strongest one. Austin Peay sits next to Fort Campbell, operates a campus center there, and has spent more than a decade as a partner in the Army’s AECP and AMEDD pipelines. That relationship shows up in the billing. A student on uniformed Tuition Assistance pays $250 per credit hour with the program service fee waived and no residency surcharge, which is roughly a quarter of what a non-resident civilian pays for the identical degree. For a soldier or a military spouse holding a BSN, this is one of the least expensive routes to FNP certification available anywhere.

The clinical volume is genuinely above average. 750 hours exceeds the 500-hour certification minimum by half and sits above the 600–700 band most FNP programs occupy. Combined with a five-credit final residency and first-time certification pass rates of 95% in both 2024 and 2025, the training end of this program holds up well against far more expensive options.

The honest counterweight is attrition. APSU publishes its completion rates, and they have run between 50% and 54% every year since 2021 — meaning roughly half of each entering class does not finish. A program that requires no RN experience, accepts a 2.9 GPA, and then enforces a hard B-minimum with dismissal after two grades of C or lower is going to lose people. That combination is not a defect so much as a structure: APSU opens admission wide and lets the coursework do the filtering. Applicants who need a program to carry them through should read that pattern carefully.

The other trade-offs are placement and accreditor. APSU does not guarantee clinical placements and says so directly, which is more useful than a vague promise but leaves preceptor sourcing to the student. And the master’s carries ACEN accreditation on an initial decision rather than the CCNE accreditation that covers APSU’s own BSN — legitimate for certification and licensure, but worth confirming against the requirements of any employer or state board you have in mind.

Which category you land in decides the verdict. On military Tuition Assistance, the value here is difficult to beat. As a Tennessee resident, it is a solid, well-priced, clinically substantial degree. As an out-of-state civilian paying $41,000 all-in and sourcing your own preceptors from a distance, the case thins considerably, and the e-rate question deserves an answer in writing before you commit.

Accreditation

The master’s nursing program at Austin Peay State University is accredited by the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing (ACEN), verified from APSU’s graduate nursing page. The university lists the most recent decision by the ACEN Board of Commissioners for the master’s program as initial accreditation.

Initial accreditation is full accreditation, not candidacy or pending status. It signals that the program completed its first successful ACEN review rather than a renewal, which is normal for a program that recently changed accreditors or recently launched. It is a fact worth knowing, not a warning sign.

Note that APSU’s baccalaureate program is accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE) while the master’s is accredited by ACEN. ⚠️ At least one third-party directory lists APSU’s online MSN as CCNE-accredited, which contradicts the university’s own page. Both ACEN and CCNE are recognized by the U.S. Department of Education, and both satisfy standard eligibility requirements — but if a specific employer, state board, or future DNP program on your list specifies CCNE, confirm before you enroll.

Austin Peay State University is institutionally accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC). The master’s nursing program is fully approved by the Tennessee Board of Nursing.

APSU states that graduates are eligible and prepared to sit for the FNP certification exam through either the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) or the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners (AANP), and to apply for APRN licensure. Dual eligibility of this kind is standard, but licensure requirements vary by state and change over time; APSU recommends that applicants planning to practice outside Tennessee contact that state’s board before enrolling.

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