Cedar Crest College FNP Programs

School of Nursing • Allentown, PA • Mostly Online • $683/credit

Cedar Crest College offers 3 Family Nurse Practitioner Tracks:

  • MSN
  • BSN-DNP
  • Post-Master’s APRN Certificate

Program Tracks Overview

ProgramEst. TuitionEst. DurationCredit Hours
MSN$34.2K3 yrs50
BSN-DNP$56.4K 6 yrs78
Post-MSN Cert.$17.8K–$23.9K 5 semesters26–35 ⚠

Cedar Crest’s defining feature is that it publishes its outcome data year by year — completion rates, first-time certification pass rates, and FNP-specific on-time completion — including the figures that do not flatter it. The cohorts behind those numbers are small, which is itself something to know before you apply.

Quick Facts

FeatureDetails
Program TypesMSN (50 credits), BSN-DNP (78 credits), Post-Master’s Certificate (26 credits base)
FormatOnline asynchronous coursework with a 2-day campus immersion
Clinical Hours756 for MSN and certificate; 1,092 for the BSN-DNP
Clinical PlacementSchool provides dedicated placement support; preceptors must be Cedar Crest approved
Published OutcomesCompletion and certification pass rates published annually by track
PopulationPrimary care across the lifespan, in four sequenced population blocks
Community PartnershipNeighborhood Health Centers of the Lehigh Valley, with a faculty preceptor
RN License RequirementsActive, unencumbered Pennsylvania RN license required at admission ⚠
Admissions GateInterview with the Director required. No RN experience required; one year preferred.
Tuition$683 per credit (MSN), $795 per credit (DNP), plus per-semester fees
AccreditationCCNE and ACEN (dual); MSCHE institutional

MSN — Family/Individual Across the Lifespan Nurse Practitioner

The estimated tuition for the MSN in Family/Individual Across the Lifespan Nurse Practitioner at Cedar Crest College is approximately $34,150 (50 credits at $683 per credit). The program is mapped across three years in Cedar Crest’s published timeline, running fall, spring, and summer terms in the first two years.

MSN Curriculum

Two term lengths running in parallel. The structural detail most likely to affect your week is that Cedar Crest runs its five core courses in 7-week blocks while the direct-care science courses run 14 weeks. In Year 2 fall, for example, you carry a 7-week informatics course, a 14-week pharmacology course, and a 7-week clinical skills course at the same time. Terms start and end on different dates within the same semester, so the workload is uneven by design rather than evenly spread.

Foundation courses (24 credits). Five core courses cover nursing theory, research, informatics, professional issues, and vulnerable populations. The issues-and-trends course is more practical than the title suggests — it covers the Consensus Model, national certification, licensure applications, and prescribing privileges at the state level, which is the administrative groundwork most programs leave students to figure out alone. Three direct-care courses follow: pathophysiology, advanced assessment (with 56 clock hours of online laboratory), and pharmacology.

FNP specialty sequence (26 credits). Cedar Crest splits each specialty block into a paired didactic course and a separately numbered clinical practicum, so the classroom credit and the clinical credit are graded separately. The sequence moves through four population blocks in a fixed order: women and childbearing families, then infants through adolescents, then adults and older adults across two terms. A one-credit integrated clinical skills course opens the sequence and carries the campus immersion.

  • MSN 510, 512, 514, 516, 520 — Core sequence: theory, research, informatics, issues and trends, vulnerable populations (15)
  • MSN 550 — Physiology and Pathophysiology Across the Lifespan (3)
  • MSN 551 — Advanced Health & Physical Assessment (3; 56-hour online lab)
  • MSN 552 — Pharmacological Principles of Clinical Therapeutics (3)
  • MSN 619 — Integrated Clinical Skills and Diagnostic Reasoning (1; 28 clinical hours)
  • MSN 600 / 601 — Primary Care I: Women & Families, plus practicum (5; 112 clinical hours)
  • MSN 602 / 603 — Primary Care II: Infants, Children & Adolescents, plus practicum (5; 112 clinical hours)
  • MSN 604 / 605 — Primary Care III: Adults & Older Adults, plus practicum (7; 224 clinical hours)
  • MSN 606 / 607 — Primary Care IV: Adults & Older Adults, plus practicum (8; 280 clinical hours)

⚠ Cedar Crest publishes two versions of the FNP specialty sequence. The version above matches the semester-by-semester timeline and the course descriptions. A second listing on the same page uses different course numbers (MSN 624 through 628), adds a health promotion course, and distributes clinical hours as 28 / 168 / 168 / 168 / 224. Both versions total 26 specialty credits and 756 clinical hours, so the totals hold either way — but ask which sequence you would actually be enrolled in, since the course-by-course clinical load differs substantially between them.

Flexible entry. Cedar Crest allows graduate students to begin in any semester during Year 1 and join the cohort once foundational coursework is complete. That removes the single-intake constraint common in NP programs, though the specialty sequence itself is lockstep once you reach it.

MSN Clinical Requirements

  • 756 total supervised practicum hours, which Cedar Crest states meet AACN Essentials standards
  • Hour-by-hour verification: 28 + 112 + 112 + 224 + 280 = 756
  • Weekly load escalates across the sequence: 8 hours per week, then 9.5, then 16, then 20
  • All practicum hours require a Cedar Crest approved preceptor in a primary care setting
  • The school states it provides dedicated clinical placement support rather than leaving site-finding to students
  • Partnership with Neighborhood Health Centers of the Lehigh Valley provides a dedicated faculty preceptor in a community health setting
  • 56 clock hours of online laboratory in MSN 551 sit outside the 756 total
  • The opening skills course includes a 2-day on-campus immersion ⚠

At 756 hours, this program sits above the 500-hour national certification floor and above the 600-to-700 band most FNP programs occupy. The more useful detail is the shape of the ramp. You start at 8 hours a week, which is manageable alongside full-time work, and finish at 20 hours a week for a full 14-week term. That final term is effectively a half-time clinical job on top of a didactic course, and it arrives in Year 3, when many students have already stepped down their work hours. Plan the drawdown around that term specifically rather than around the program as a whole. The placement support and the Neighborhood Health Centers partnership are the meaningful counterweight — Cedar Crest states it secures sites rather than assigning that work to you, which removes the single largest source of delay in online NP programs. Ask what the support covers in practice: whether placement is guaranteed, how far you may be asked to travel, and what happens if a site falls through mid-term.

MSN Admissions

Two conditions stand out: an interview with the program Director is required rather than optional, and Cedar Crest requires Pennsylvania RN licensure at admission — not compact licensure, and not licensure in your practicum state.

  • Bachelor’s degree in nursing from an accredited program
  • Minimum 3.0 GPA in the BSN program
  • Active, unencumbered Registered Nurse licensure in Pennsylvania ⚠
  • Undergraduate statistics, research, and health assessment courses completed with a C or better
  • No clinical experience required; one year preferred
  • Two professional recommendations, preferably from nurses holding graduate degrees
  • Current resume and a statement of goals
  • TOEFL scores for international applicants
  • Interview with the Director
  • Cedar Crest directs prospective students to contact the program director regarding out-of-state compliance before applying. Enrollment is not open in all states.

BSN-DNP — Family/Individual Across the Lifespan Nurse Practitioner

The estimated tuition for the BSN to DNP in the Family Nurse Practitioner specialty at Cedar Crest College is approximately $56,410 (50 MSN-level credits at $683 plus 28 doctoral credits at $795). The published timeline runs six years, with the first three identical to the MSN plan.

BSN-DNP Curriculum

Years 1 through 3 are the MSN curriculum verbatim — same courses, same sequence, same 756 practicum hours. Cedar Crest awards both the MSN and the DNP on completion, so the master’s credential is not deferred to the end. Years 4 through 6 add the doctoral layer: scholarly inquiry methods, biostatistics, leadership and organizational theory, health policy and finance, implementation science, and quality evaluation, followed by a four-course DNP project sequence.

The doctoral half is deliberately unhurried. Year 5 carries a single three-credit course in the fall and a single four-credit course in the spring; Year 6 is the project sequence alone. That pacing is designed for students who are already practicing, but it also means the DNP portion alone spans three years for 28 credits.

  • Years 1–3 — Full MSN FNP curriculum (50 credits; 756 clinical hours)
  • DNP 801, 802 — Methods for Scholarly Inquiry; Biostatistics for Evidence-Based Practice (6)
  • DNP 803, 804 — Theories of Leadership & Organization; Health Policy, Economics & Finance (6)
  • DNP 805 — Translating Evidence into Practice (3)
  • DNP 806 — Evaluation Methods for Safety & Quality Improvement (3)
  • DNP 850, 851 — DNP Project I and II (8; 336 clinical hours)
  • DNP 852 — DNP Project III (2)

BSN-DNP Clinical Requirements

  • 1,092 total hours: 756 in the FNP specialty sequence plus 336 in the DNP project courses
  • DNP project hours are 168 per course across DNP 850 and 851
  • Project hours may include direct clinical or practice experiences applying the DNP Essentials, so they are not exclusively patient-facing
  • The DNP project is faculty-directed through a Project Advisor and a Project Committee
  • DNP 853, a one-credit maintenance-of-candidacy course, extends the project sequence for students who need additional time. It is not in the published six-year timeline and represents unbudgeted cost.

The distinction between the two hour pools matters for certification. The 756 specialty hours are what qualify you to sit for FNP boards; the 336 DNP project hours are doctoral scholarship hours that may or may not involve direct patient care. If you are comparing total clinical hours across doctoral programs, compare the 756, not the 1,092.

BSN-DNP Admissions

Admission requirements match the MSN track, including the Pennsylvania licensure requirement and the Director interview. The flexible Year 1 entry option applies here as well.

Post-Master’s APRN Certificate — Family/Individual Across the Lifespan

The estimated tuition for the Post-Master’s APRN Certificate in Family/Individual Across the Lifespan at Cedar Crest College is approximately $17,758 at the 26-credit baseline (26 credits at $683 per credit), rising to about $23,905 if the three P’s must be completed.

Cedar Crest publishes a five-semester completion plan.

Certificate Curriculum

The certificate is the MSN’s specialty sequence with the core courses removed — the same 26 credits, the same five semesters, the same 756 hours. What changes is the front end. Every entering certificate student receives a gap analysis, and admission is conditioned on having completed three separate graduate-level courses in advanced pathophysiology, advanced health assessment, and advanced pharmacology.

Cedar Crest is unusually specific here: applicants who have not completed those three courses are not rejected, but are required to add MSN 550, 551, and 552 to the certificate curriculum. That is nine additional credits, roughly $6,100, and at least one additional term. Nurses holding an MSN in education, administration, or informatics should assume this applies to them.

  • MSN 619 — Integrated Clinical Skills and Diagnostic Reasoning (1; 28 clinical hours)
  • MSN 600 / 601 — Primary Care I: Women & Families, plus practicum (5; 112 clinical hours)
  • MSN 602 / 603 — Primary Care II: Infants, Children & Adolescents, plus practicum (5; 112 clinical hours)
  • MSN 604 / 605 — Primary Care III: Adults & Older Adults, plus practicum (7; 224 clinical hours)
  • MSN 606 / 607 — Primary Care IV: Adults & Older Adults, plus practicum (8; 280 clinical hours)
  • MSN 550, 551, 552 — Added only if the three P’s requirement is not already satisfied (9)

Certificate Clinical Requirements

  • 756 supervised practicum hours, identical to the MSN track
  • Same escalating weekly cadence: 8, then 9.5, then 16, then 20 hours per week
  • Cedar Crest approved preceptor required in a primary care setting
  • Same dedicated placement support the school extends to its NP programs
  • Graduates are stated to meet the outcomes of the master’s program, the core NP competencies, and the population-focused competencies

Prior clinical hours from your master’s degree do not reduce the 756. That is standard for APRN certificates and required under national standards, but it means an experienced MSN-prepared nurse still logs the full sequence. The certificate saves you the 24 credits of core and science coursework, not the clinical time. Five semesters at that pace is a fast plan for 756 hours, so confirm early whether the sequence can be stretched if your work situation changes.

Certificate Admissions

The gate is coursework rather than credential alone: you need a master’s in nursing, and you need documented graduate coursework in all three P’s.

  • Master of Science degree in nursing
  • Three separate, comprehensive graduate-level courses in advanced pathophysiology, advanced health assessment, and advanced pharmacology
  • Gap analysis performed for every entering student to determine the individual plan of study
  • Remaining requirements follow the graduate nursing admission standards, including the Director interview

Tuition

Cedar Crest charges $683 per credit for the Master of Science in Nursing and $795 per credit for the Doctor of Nursing Practice on the 2026–2027 schedule. There is no residency distinction, which is standard for a private college. Applied to the three tracks: the MSN comes to approximately $34,150, the certificate to approximately $17,758 at baseline, and the BSN-DNP to approximately $56,410 using the MSN rate for the 50 master’s-level credits and the doctoral rate for the 28 DNP credits.

  • MSN tuition: $683 per credit (2026–2027)
  • DNP tuition: $795 per credit (2026–2027)
  • MSN FNP: 50 credits × $683 = $34,150
  • Post-Master’s Certificate: 26 credits × $683 = $17,758
  • BSN-DNP: (50 × $683) + (28 × $795) = $56,410
  • Activity fee: $35 per semester
  • Part-time technology fee: $87.50 per semester; full-time rate is $175
  • Estimated all-in MSN cost across eight terms: approximately $35,130
  • Cedar Crest reduced MSN and DNP tuition beginning in Fall 2024

Be aware that:

  • The fee estimate uses the part-time technology rate because every term in the published MSN plan carries between five and eight credits. Cedar Crest does not publish the credit threshold that separates full-time from part-time billing, so confirm which rate applies to your semesters — the difference is $87.50 per term.
  • The BSN-DNP figure assumes master’s-level courses bill at the MSN rate and doctoral courses at the DNP rate. Cedar Crest does not state the billing basis. If all 78 credits bill at the doctoral rate, the total rises to roughly $62,010.
  • MSN tuition rose from $670 to $683 per credit between 2025–2026 and 2026–2027. A three-year MSN spans at least three rate cycles, and the totals above use a single year’s rate.
  • The certificate’s $17,758 assumes the gap analysis adds nothing. Adding the three P’s brings it to roughly $23,905.
  • The DNP maintenance-of-candidacy course is an additional credit at the doctoral rate if the project extends beyond the published timeline.
  • Cedar Crest directs students to the College Catalog for the full schedule of academic and other fee assessments, which is not reproduced on the tuition page.

The published per-credit rates are the strongest part of this cost picture, and the Fall 2024 reduction is real. The soft spot is duration: a three-year MSN and a six-year DNP both cross multiple tuition cycles, so the useful question at the admissions interview is what a locked or capped rate would look like for your cohort.

Current rates are published on Cedar Crest’s graduate tuition and fees page.

Why Choose This FNP Program?

Best suited for nurses who want to see the program’s track record before committing, who value having clinical sites secured for them, and who can absorb a three-year timeline rather than a compressed one.

Very few nursing schools publish what Cedar Crest publishes. The graduate nursing statistics table breaks out completion rates by accreditor, first-time certification pass rates, ultimate pass rates with the actual numerator and denominator, and on-time completion by individual track including FNP specifically. Reported first-time pass rates ran 80% in 2022 and 85% in 2023 and 2024, reaching 100% in 2025; ultimate pass rates were at or near 100% across all four years. FNP on-time completion ran between 60% and 80%. Aggregate completion rates declined over the same period, from the high eighties to 71% by CCNE’s calculation in 2025.

Read those numbers with the denominators attached, because that is the honest reading. The 2025 pass rate cohort was four testers. A single outcome moves a figure like that by 25 points. What the table actually tells you is that this is a small program that certifies its graduates reliably and takes longer than planned to graduate a meaningful share of them — roughly a third of FNP students in most reported years did not finish on time. Combined with a published three-year plan, that suggests the real timeline for many students is longer.

The second reason to consider Cedar Crest is placement. The school states it provides dedicated placement support across its NP programs and backs it with a named clinical partnership at Neighborhood Health Centers of the Lehigh Valley, where students work with a faculty preceptor. For nurses who have watched classmates stall out hunting for sites, that is worth more than a modest tuition difference. The trade-offs are the Pennsylvania licensure requirement at admission, which narrows this to PA-licensed nurses regardless of where you intend to practice, and the out-of-state compliance check the school asks applicants to clear with the program director before applying.

The right way to use this program’s transparency is to bring it into the interview. Ask what drove the completion-rate decline, how many students are currently in the FNP cohort, and what the most common reason for falling off the on-time track has been. Cedar Crest has already given you the numbers; a program that publishes unflattering data is usually willing to explain it. If the answers point to preceptor availability, weigh the placement support heavily. If they point to the 20-hour-per-week final practicum term, plan your work reduction around Year 3 before you deposit.

Accreditation

Cedar Crest holds dual programmatic accreditation, which is uncommon and which the college markets directly. The master’s degree program in nursing, the Doctor of Nursing Practice program, and the post-graduate APRN certificate program are accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE). Separately, the baccalaureate, master’s, and post-master’s certificate nursing programs are accredited by the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing (ACEN), and the most recent ACEN Board of Commissioners decision was continuing accreditation.

Note that ACEN’s published scope covers the master’s and post-master’s certificate but does not name the DNP; the DNP sits under CCNE alone.

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