Nicholls State University offers an MSN Family Nurse Practitioner Track:
Program Track Overview
| Program | Est. Tuition (In / Out) | Est. Duration | Credit Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| MSN | $20.6K | ~2–2.5 yrs | 42–45 |
Nicholls State’s defining advantage is outcome transparency paired with a research option: the school publishes six consecutive years of FNP certification pass rates, and students may complete a 6-credit thesis in place of the standard 3-credit scholarly project. The trade-off is a second competitive gate — being admitted to the MSN does not secure a seat in the FNP practicum sequence.
Quick Facts
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Program Types | MSN with FNP concentration. No post-master’s certificate or DNP pathway offered. |
| Format | Online. Theory courses delivered by web-based distance learning; no campus requirement stated. |
| Clinical Hours | 600, split 180 / 210 / 210 across three consecutive practicum semesters. |
| Clinical Placement | Placement model not clearly stated. Clinical sites are in Louisiana. |
| Population | Family health across the lifespan, with a required population-based primary care course. |
| Distinctive Coursework | Thesis option (6 credits), standalone applied statistics course, NP business and health policy course. |
| Practicum Admission | Second competitive gate after core courses. Slots limited; full-time students given preference. |
| RN Experience | At least one year of appropriate nursing experience required before practicum admission. |
| RN License Requirements | Valid, unencumbered Louisiana RN license. Compact privilege acceptability not stated. |
| Start Terms | Fall and Spring. Two intakes per year rather than a single annual cohort. |
| Progression Standard | B or better required in every course. A D or F results in dismissal. |
| Certification Pass Rates | FNP: 94% (2025), 100% (2024), 95% (2023), 92% (2022), 88.9% (2021), 100% (2020). |
| Tuition | Banded semester schedule, not a flat per-credit rate. Plus $350 per semester nursing fee. |
| Accreditation | CCNE (via ICMSN consortium); Louisiana State Board of Nursing approved; SACSCOC institutional. |
MSN — Family Nurse Practitioner Concentration
The estimated tuition for the Master of Science in Nursing, Family Nurse Practitioner concentration at Nicholls State University is approximately $20,616 for Louisiana residents and $22,802 for non-residents (42 credits billed on the university’s banded graduate rate schedule, a derived effective rate of roughly $449 per credit in-state, plus a $350 per-semester nursing program fee).
The program can generally be completed in about two to two and a half years of full-time study across five semesters, with the exact calendar depending on whether summer terms are used. The published degree plan does not label its terms.
MSN Curriculum
The Nicholls FNP curriculum is delivered through the Intercollegiate Consortium for a Master of Science in Nursing (ICMSN), a four-university partnership that also includes McNeese State, Southeastern Louisiana, and UL Lafayette. Course numbers, credit values, and clinical hour requirements are shared across all four campuses, so the academic content is not where Nicholls differs from its consortium siblings. What is worth examining is the sequencing.
Foundation sequence (Semesters 1–2, 18 credits). All theory and assessment coursework is completed before any clinical hour is logged. Semesters 1 and 2 are formal prerequisites for every practicum course, which means the first year is entirely didactic and the entire 600-hour clinical load falls in the back half of the program.
FNP specialty sequence (Semesters 3–5, 24 credits). The three Family Health practicum courses each carry 5 credits and run in consecutive semesters. Two of those semesters also carry an additional 3-credit didactic course alongside 210 clinical hours, so the workload does not taper as clinicals ramp up.
Scholarly requirement. Students choose between a 3-credit Focused Scholarly Project and a 6-credit thesis. A genuine thesis option inside an FNP master’s is uncommon; most programs offer a capstone or DNP-style project only. It is a meaningful choice for anyone considering doctoral study or a faculty track later, and it is the reason the degree is listed at 42–45 credits rather than a single figure.
- NURS 518 — Pathophysiology for Advanced Practice Nursing (3)
- NURS 507 — Health Assessment and Diagnostic Reasoning for Advanced Practice (3, includes a 4-hour lab component)
- NURS 517 — Pharmacotherapeutics for Advanced Practice (3)
- NURS 505 — Applied Statistics for the Health Sciences (3)
- NURS 509 — Population Based Primary Care (3)
- NURS 582 / 583 / 584 — Advanced Practice Nursing: Family Health I, II, III (5 each)
- NURS 581 — Business, Leadership and Health Policy for Nurse Practitioners (3)
- NURS 595 — Focused Scholarly Project (3) or NURS 599 — Thesis (6)
More curriculum details are available here.
MSN Clinical Requirements
- 600 total clinical hours, all in the FNP practicum sequence
- NURS 582 — Family Health I: 180 hours
- NURS 583 — Family Health II: 210 hours
- NURS 584 — Family Health III: 210 hours
- Course-level hours sum to 600, matching the stated program total (180 + 210 + 210)
- NURS 507 carries a separate 4-hour weekly lab component that is not counted toward the 600
- Semesters 1 and 2 must be completed before entering any practicum course
- Practicum slots are limited; full-time students receive preference in allocation
- At least one year of appropriate nursing experience required before practicum entry
- Drug screen, background check, CPR, OSHA/HIPAA training, TB clearance, immunizations, liability insurance, and health insurance required
- Placement model — whether the school arranges sites or the student secures preceptors — is not clearly stated
At 600 hours, Nicholls sits 100 hours above the 500-hour national certification floor and at the lower end of the 600–700+ range common among FNP programs. The more consequential detail is compression: those 600 hours are packed into three consecutive semesters at 180, 210, and 210, while two of the three also carry additional didactic credit. That is roughly 14 clinical hours per week on top of coursework, which is manageable for a full-time student but demanding for anyone still working significant clinical shifts. Because the placement model is unpublished, ask directly whether the program secures preceptors or expects you to; in a state with concentrated rural practice areas, that answer materially changes how hard the second half of the degree will be.
MSN Admissions
Nicholls uses a two-stage structure that is easy to miss: you apply to the MSN first, then apply again for a practicum slot in the FNP concentration during the semester you finish core coursework. Meeting the stated criteria does not guarantee either step, and the program openly reserves the right to cap enrollment.
Stage one — MSN admission:
- BSN from an accredited undergraduate nursing program
- Valid, unencumbered Louisiana RN license
- Minimum 2.7 cumulative GPA on the last 60 undergraduate hours of required nursing coursework
- Introductory statistics course completed with a grade of C or better
- Two Statements of Recommendation, each sealed with the recommender’s signature over the seal
- Statement of intent covering goals, strengths and weaknesses, area of interest, leadership contributions, and long-range plans (500-word limit)
- Current resume and all prior transcripts
- Fall and Spring intakes; applications submitted separately to the Graduate School and the MSN program
- Applicants below the 2.7 GPA threshold may take additional undergraduate nursing courses as an unclassified student to raise it
Stage two — FNP practicum admission:
- Applied during the semester core coursework is completed
- Ranked by cumulative GPA in NURS 507, 517, and 518, calculated after the semester closes
- Written commitment to a full-time or part-time degree plan; full-time students preferred for limited slots
- At least one year of appropriate nursing experience
- Once assigned, students who deviate from their filed degree plan may lose the practicum slot and must reapply
Two progression rules deserve attention before you enrol: a B is the minimum passing grade in every course, and a single D or F ends the program. Graduation must occur within six years of first enrollment.
Tuition
Estimated all-in cost for the 42-credit degree plan is approximately $20,616 for Louisiana residents and $22,802 for non-residents. Choosing the thesis option adds three credits in the final semester, raising the estimates to roughly $21,884 and $24,253 respectively.
Nicholls does not publish a per-credit graduate rate. It bills from a banded semester schedule in which the total depends on how many hours you carry, so the derivation follows the published degree plan semester by semester: two semesters at 9 credits ($4,424.87 each, resident) and three at 8 credits ($3,338.74 each) come to $18,865.96 in tuition and mandatory fees. Adding the $350 per-semester nursing program fee across five semesters brings the resident total to $20,615.96. Tuition alone works out to an effective rate of about $449 per credit; with the program fee included, about $491. The non-resident schedule produces $21,052.36 in tuition before the same fee.
- Nursing Graduate Program Fee: $350 per semester once admitted to the professional program, or $1,750 across five semesters. This is charged in addition to the banded tuition figure.
- The 9-credit cliff: resident graduate tuition jumps from $3,338.74 at 8 hours to $4,424.87 at 9 — a $1,086 increase for one credit — then rises only $267 more across hours 10 through 12. Students at 9 credits are paying the steepest effective rate on the schedule.
- Modest non-resident premium: the out-of-state fee is capped at $546.60 per semester for graduate students at 9 or more hours, so the entire nonresident penalty over the degree is roughly $2,200 — small by public-university standards.
- Summer terms cost less: these estimates apply Fall/Spring rates to all five semesters. If any term falls in summer, the actual total drops.
- Possible per-course online fees: the fee schedule lists a $50 WWW section fee, a $40 VX section fee, and lab fees from $1 to $350 per course. Whether these apply to ICMSN distance courses is not stated; across 14 courses a $50 section fee would add roughly $700.
- A second rate schedule exists: Nicholls Online publishes a flat graduate rate of $412.13 per credit with no out-of-state fee, which would produce a lower total. The university does not state which schedule governs the ICMSN MSN.
- All published rates carry a “subject to change” notice, so multi-year totals should be treated as estimates.
The practical takeaway: the sticker figure is genuinely low for an accredited FNP degree, but the true all-in number hinges on two unresolved questions — which rate schedule you are billed under, and whether per-course online fees apply. Get both in writing from the bursar before comparing this program against a flat-rate competitor.
Official tuition and fees page.
Why Choose This FNP Program?
Best suited for Louisiana-licensed nurses who want a low-cost public FNP degree, want to see outcome data before they commit, and can front-load a year of theory before clinicals begin.
The clearest reason to look at Nicholls is that it shows its work. The school publishes a six-year table of FNP certification pass rates — 94% in 2025, 100% in 2024, 95% in 2023, 92% in 2022, 88.9% in 2021, and 100% in 2020 — rather than the single best year most programs quote. A multi-year series is far more informative than a headline number because it shows consistency and reveals the weaker cohorts alongside the strong ones. Nicholls also cites recognition from Money magazine in 2024 for its graduate nursing program.
NOTE:That ranking claim comes from the school’s own page and should be verified independently if it matters to you.
The second draw is structural rather than promotional. The thesis option gives students a genuine research pathway inside a master’s degree that usually ends in a project, which matters if a DNP or faculty role is on your horizon. Two intakes per year rather than one annual cohort also reduces the cost of a false start. Against that, the concentration gate is real: you enter the MSN, complete core courses, and then compete on GPA for a limited practicum slot, with full-time students given preference. Part-time students carrying a full RN workload should understand that the schedule they need is also the schedule that ranks lower in slot allocation.
On cost, the arithmetic is unusual. The nonresident premium is capped at $546.60 per semester, so an out-of-state nurse would pay only about $2,200 more across the entire degree — nominal compared with most public universities. But that near-parity is largely theoretical, because the program requires a Louisiana RN license and places clinicals in Louisiana. Price is not what limits this program’s geographic reach; licensure is. For a nurse already practicing in south Louisiana, that constraint costs nothing and the program is among the more affordable accredited routes available. For anyone outside the state, the cheap out-of-state rate is not the invitation it appears to be — confirm the licensure and clinical-site rules first, because they, not tuition, will decide whether this program is open to you at all.
Accreditation
The master’s degree program in nursing at the Intercollegiate Consortium for a Master of Science in Nursing — a consortium of McNeese State University, Nicholls State University, Southeastern Louisiana University, and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette — is accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE). The accreditation attaches to the consortium’s master’s program as a whole rather than to Nicholls individually, which is normal for shared-curriculum arrangements but worth knowing if a licensing board asks how your degree was accredited. The MSN is separately approved by the Louisiana State Board of Nursing, and Nicholls State University is institutionally accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) to award associate, baccalaureate, and master’s degrees, verified from the university’s own accreditation page. The catalog states that graduates are eligible to sit for national certification exams appropriate to their role specialty but does not name a certifying body.
Most FNP graduates qualify for the national FNP certification exam through either AANP or ANCC; confirm with the program if a specific credential matters to your employer.
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