Simmons University offers five Family Nurse Practitioner pathways:
- MSN
- Post-Graduate Certificate in FNP (online)
- BSN to DNP – FNP (online)
- MSN to DNP – FNP (online)
- Direct Entry DNP – FNP (Boston campus start)
Program Tracks Overview
| Program | Est. Tuition | Est. Duration | Credit Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| MSN | $60.5K | 2 years (6 terms) | 47 |
| Certificate | $29.6K | 16 months (4 terms) | 23 |
| BSN-DNP | $106.9K | 32 months full time | 83 |
| MSN-DNP | $83.7K | 28 months full time | 65 |
| Direct Entry DNP | $142.8K | 3 years (9 terms) | 104 |
Tuition estimates use Simmons’ published 2026–2027 per-credit rates: $1,288 for master’s, certificate and doctoral credits, and $1,415 for Direct Entry credits.
Simmons teaches its online FNP courses as live classes that meet on the same weekday every week for the length of the program, in sections capped at roughly 20 students, with recordings available afterward. Most online FNP programs are asynchronous. This one has a class schedule, and it is paired with one required two- to four-day immersion on the Boston campus before clinicals begin.
The trade-off is that Simmons asks for more of your calendar than a self-paced program does. You attend at a set hour each week, and the placement office tells students to arrange with their employers to be free three to four days a week, Monday through Friday, once rotations start. Placement is supported but not guaranteed, and the credential you choose changes which states you can enroll from.
Quick Facts
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Program Types | MSN, post-graduate certificate, BSN-DNP, MSN-DNP, Direct Entry DNP |
| Format | Mostly Online for all online tracks; Campus start for Direct Entry DNP |
| Clinical Hours | 756 direct patient care for MSN, certificate and DNP FNP tracks |
| Clinical Placement | Collaborative: student sources sites, placement specialist vets and contracts them |
| Population | Family/individual across the lifespan |
| Distinctive Coursework | Five-course FNP clinical series; Immersion and Clinical Qualification course |
| Live Class Obligation | Weekly scheduled live online class sessions, about 20 students per section |
| Campus Requirement | One two- to four-day Boston immersion; DNP adds an on-campus symposium |
| RN License Requirements | Active, unencumbered U.S. RN license for all post-licensure tracks |
| Enrollment Restrictions | U.S. citizens or permanent residents only; state authorization varies by credential |
| Start Terms | Three per year: January, May and September |
| Tuition | $1,288/credit graduate and doctoral; $1,415/credit Direct Entry |
| Accreditation | CCNE for BSN, MSN, DNP and post-graduate FNP certificate |
Master of Science in Nursing – FNP
The estimated tuition for the MSN-FNP at Simmons University is approximately $60,536 (47 credits at $1,288/credit), a total Simmons publishes directly. The program can generally be completed in about 24 months across six terms full time, or 32 months across eight terms part time.
Full program details are available on the Online Master of Science in Nursing – Family Nurse Practitioner page.
MSN Curriculum
How the sequence is built. The 47 credits split into a front-loaded academic block and a back-loaded clinical block. Terms 1 and 2 carry the three foundation courses, and terms 3 and 4 deliver the five-course FNP specialty series in rapid succession. Terms 5 and 6 are almost entirely clinical: 10 of the final 12 credits are Clinical Decision Making II and III.
What stands out. Simmons splits FNP clinical content into five separate population-focused courses rather than two or three broad ones, with adult gerontology taught twice, at the start and again after women’s health and pediatrics. Family Theory: Health and Illness is an uncommon addition; most FNP curricula treat family systems as a theme inside other courses rather than a graded course of its own. The Immersion and Clinical Qualification course makes the Boston weekend a credit-bearing gate rather than an optional networking event.
Research requirement. Research Methods and Scholarly Inquiry sit in the two heaviest clinical terms, and the deliverable is a choice among a quality improvement proposal, a critique of published literature, or original research requiring Simmons IRB approval. That is a real project layered on top of 22.5 clinical hours a week, not a term paper.
- CHSO 404: Advanced Pathophysiology (3 credits)
- NURP 424: Advanced Pharmacology Across the Life Span (3 credits)
- NURP 530: Advanced Health Assessment Across the Life Span (3 credits)
- NURP 505: Family Theory: Health and Illness (2 credits)
- NURP 561–565: FNP I–V, adult gerontology, women’s health, pediatrics, adult gerontology II and behavioral health (10 credits)
- NURP 534: Immersion and Clinical Qualification Course (1 credit)
- NURP 510, 511, 512: FNP Clinical Decision Making I, II and III (12 credits)
- NURP 410 Research Methods and NURP 411 Scholarly Inquiry (5 credits)
More curriculum details are available here.
You Should Know
- The part-time track is not a lighter version of the clinical load. Terms 7 and 8 carry the same 22.5 hours a week of placement as the full-time track. Part-time spreads the coursework, not the clinicals.
- Simmons’ own materials describe the part-time option two ways: a 32-month, eight-term track on the program table, and “roughly 3 years” in its FAQ. Confirm the calendar you would actually be billed against.
- Behavioral health in primary care is a required course, not an elective. If you want a psychiatric focus beyond that, Simmons runs a separate PMHNP credential.
MSN Clinical Requirements
- Minimum 756 hours of direct patient care
- Three placement terms: 9 hours per week, then 22.5, then 22.5
- Hours are credit-linked at Simmons’ published ratio of 63 clinical hours per Clinical Decision Making credit, and 12 CDM credits reconcile exactly to 756
- Two clinical experiences spanning the lifespan
- Placement specialist assigned by state of residence; students expected to identify potential sites, with the school vetting preceptors and handling contracts
- Target radius of roughly 100 miles from the student’s location
- Placement orientation and intake begin nine months before the first rotation
- Clinical hours and patient encounters logged in Typhon
At 756 hours, Simmons sits 256 hours above the 500-hour national certification floor and above the 600 to 700 range most FNP programs land in. The placement model is the part to weigh carefully. Simmons assigns a specialist, maintains a national site network and does the vetting and contracting, but it also states plainly that students are expected to locate potential sites and that it cannot guarantee every placement request. That is meaningfully different from a guaranteed-placement program and meaningfully better than being handed a preceptor list and told to cold-call.
You Should Know
- The 22.5-hour weeks are the reason Simmons tells students to negotiate three to four weekdays off with their employer before rotations start. Budget for reduced income during the final two terms.
- Failing to secure a site on time delays the rotation and the graduation date. Starting site outreach early is the practical defense.
- Simmons generally requires clinical hours completed at your workplace to be in a different department and under a different supervisor than your RN job.
MSN Admissions
Two gates screen out otherwise qualified applicants before anything else is considered: Simmons requires U.S. citizenship or permanent residency, and it requires two specific prerequisite courses passed at 83 or better.
- BSN or bachelor’s with a nursing major from a regionally accredited U.S. institution
- Current, unencumbered, unrestricted U.S. RN license
- Three-credit statistics course and three-credit health assessment course, each completed with a grade of 83 or higher
- U.S. citizen or permanent resident
- Preferred GPA of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale
- No GRE required
- Three starts per year in January, May and September, with rolling decisions
You Should Know
- The MSN-FNP is authorized in 48 states. Simmons does not list New York, Tennessee or the District of Columbia for this program.
- The 83-or-better prerequisite threshold is higher than a typical B-minus cutoff. Applicants short on this are directed to contact admissions about alternatives rather than being auto-rejected.
- Cohort application deadlines are annual and cycle-specific. The January 2027 cohort closes November 12, 2026; confirm the current date for the term you want.
Post-Graduate Certificate in FNP
The estimated tuition for the post-graduate FNP certificate at Simmons University is approximately $29,624 (23 credits at $1,288/credit, derived from the published per-credit rate). The program can generally be completed in about 16 months across four terms, offered full time only.
Course sequences for this pathway are published on the FNP course sequence page.
Certificate Curriculum
The certificate is the MSN’s specialty spine with the academic scaffolding removed. It carries the same five FNP courses, the same Immersion and Clinical Qualification course, and the same three Clinical Decision Making courses. What comes out is the 3 Ps, health policy, research methods and scholarly inquiry, which a certified APRN has already completed at the graduate level.
The structural consequence is worth naming: 23 credits produce the same 756 clinical hours as the 47-credit MSN. Roughly half the credits, identical patient contact, because every credit removed was a classroom credit.
- NURP 561: FNP I, Adult Gerontology in Primary Care I (2 credits)
- NURP 562: FNP II, Women’s Health in Primary Care (2 credits)
- NURP 563: FNP III, Pediatrics in Primary Care (2 credits)
- NUR 534: Immersion and Clinical Qualification (1 credit)
- NURP 564: FNP IV, Adult Gerontology in Primary Care II (2 credits)
- NURP 565: FNP V, Behavioral Health in Primary Care (2 credits)
- NURP 510, 511, 512: Clinical Decision Making I, II and III (12 credits)
Certificate Clinical Requirements
- 756 clinical hours, published by Simmons for this certificate
- Same three-term placement ramp as the MSN: 9 hours per week, then 22.5, then 22.5
- Same placement specialist model and vetting process
- Boston immersion required before placement begins
Certificate programs sometimes carry reduced clinical volume on the theory that a practicing APRN needs less supervised time. Simmons takes the opposite position and requires the full 756 hours for a second population focus. For a working APRN that is the real cost of this credential: roughly 22.5 hours a week of unpaid clinical time across two of the four terms, compressed into 16 months rather than spread over 24.
You Should Know
- Full time is the only option. There is no part-time certificate schedule, which makes this the most schedule-intensive of the FNP pathways relative to its length.
- The certificate is authorized in 46 states. Arizona, New York, Tennessee, Washington and the District of Columbia are not listed, so two states open to MSN applicants are closed to certificate applicants.
- State boards set their own rules for recognizing a second APRN population focus. Confirm with your board that a post-graduate certificate satisfies its requirements before enrolling.
Certificate Admissions
Eligibility is narrower than for the MSN: this pathway is open only to nurses who already hold APRN licensure and certification.
- Licensed, certified APRN
- Graduate degree in nursing, MSN or DNP
- U.S. citizen or permanent resident
- Same January, May and September start pattern
BSN to DNP and MSN to DNP – FNP
The estimated tuition for the online DNP-FNP at Simmons University is approximately $106,904 for the BSN entry point (83 credits at $1,288/credit) and $83,720 for the MSN entry point (65 credits at the same rate). Both figures are derived from the published per-credit rate. The BSN entry can generally be completed in about 32 months full time or 48 months part time, and the MSN entry in about 28 months full time or 36 months part time.
Both pathways are described on the Simmons Online Doctor of Nursing Practice page.
DNP Curriculum
What the doctorate adds. The FNP specialty content is identical to the MSN: the same five FNP courses, the same three Clinical Decision Making courses, the same immersion course. The additional credits are doctoral scaffolding, which is where the two entry points diverge.
BSN entry versus MSN entry. The BSN-to-DNP route folds in a leadership sequence (Introduction to Nursing Leadership, Nursing Leadership and Management, Advanced Nursing Leadership Concepts, plus three leadership clinical courses) that the MSN-to-DNP route does not carry. That leadership block accounts for most of the 18-credit gap between the two. Both routes add epidemiology, biostatistics, health care economics, quality improvement, scholarly writing and a three-seminar DNP project sequence.
- FNP I–V, the same five primary care specialty courses as the MSN
- FNP Clinical Decision-Making I, II and III
- Immersion and Clinical Qualification Course
- DNP Project Seminar I, II and III
- Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Advanced Research Methods
- Health Care Systems and Health Policy, Health Care Finance and Economics
- Leadership Clinical Courses I, II and Advanced III (BSN entry only)
- DNP Symposium – FNP, presented on campus
DNP Clinical Requirements
- Five to six clinical courses for BSN entry, two to three for MSN entry
- The FNP Clinical Decision-Making sequence is identical to the MSN’s, which derives to 756 hours of direct patient care at Simmons’ 63-hours-per-credit ratio
- BSN entry adds leadership and project clinical courses whose hour values Simmons does not publish
- One to two on-campus experiences, including the DNP symposium
- Same placement specialist model as the MSN
The practical reading is that the doctorate does not buy additional primary care patient contact. Direct FNP clinical volume appears to be the same 756 hours as the master’s route, with the extra clinical courses attached to leadership and project work rather than to patients. If your goal is the FNP license, the MSN reaches it with 36 fewer credits than the BSN-to-DNP route. The doctorate is worth its cost for leadership positioning, faculty aspirations, or employers that price the credential.
You Should Know
- Simmons publishes no explicit direct patient care hour total for either DNP-FNP entry point. The 756-hour figure here is derived from the identical course sequence and should be confirmed with the program before you commit.
- Both DNP-FNP routes are authorized in 45 states. Alabama, Arizona, New York, Tennessee, Washington and the District of Columbia are not listed, three fewer states than the MSN-FNP.
- The DNP requires at least one additional on-campus event beyond the immersion, so budget for two Boston trips rather than one.
DNP Admissions
Entry point determines the credit load, so confirm which pathway your transcript places you in before comparing costs.
- BSN entry: Bachelor of Science in Nursing plus RN licensure
- MSN entry: Master of Science in Nursing plus RN licensure
- U.S. citizen or permanent resident
- Same January, May and September start pattern, with cohort deadlines published per term
Direct Entry DNP – FNP
The estimated tuition for the Direct Entry DNP-FNP at Simmons University is approximately $142,842, derived by applying the $1,415 Direct Entry rate to the 70-credit MSN block and the $1,288 doctoral rate to the 34-credit DNP block. The program can generally be completed in about three years across nine terms, with the MSN conferred after term 5 and the DNP after term 9.
Program details are published on the Direct Entry Doctor of Nursing Practice – Family Nurse Practitioner page.
Direct Entry Curriculum
Two degrees, one enrollment. This is a pre-licensure program for career changers with a non-nursing bachelor’s degree. Terms 1 through 4 are generalist nursing, and NCLEX-RN eligibility arrives after term 4. The MSN is conferred after term 5, and FNP specialty content runs from term 5 through term 9.
The campus requirement is the defining structural fact. Terms 1 through 5 are on campus in Boston only. After the first post-licensure term, students may elect to move online or stay on campus. There is no route through the pre-licensure block from a distance, which makes relocation, not tuition, the first thing to resolve.
Clinical density. The pre-licensure block runs seven rotations across medical-surgical, complex care, pediatrics, obstetrics, psychiatric and community health. Boston-based students draw on Simmons’ network of more than 850 local training sites, including major academic medical centers.
- Foundations of Nursing and Clinical Skills, with lab and clinical (4 credits)
- Medical Surgical Nursing: Acute, Chronic and Complex Conditions, with clinical (8 credits)
- Pediatric, Maternal-Newborn, Psychiatric Mental Health and Community Health nursing, each with clinical
- Advanced Pathophysiology, Advanced Pharmacology and Advanced Health Assessment with lab
- FNP I–V across terms 5 to 8
- FNP Clinical Decision-Making I, II and III (12 credits)
- DNP Project Seminar I, II and III plus DNP Symposium
- Epidemiology, Biostatistics, Quality Improvement and Scholarly Writing
Direct Entry Clinical Requirements
- 714 clinical hours in the MSN block, published by Simmons
- 756 clinical hours in the DNP block, published by Simmons
- 1,470 hours total across the program, consistent with the school’s statement of more than 1,400
- Seven pre-licensure rotations before the FNP specialty sequence begins
- More than 850 Boston-area training sites for pre-licensure clinicals
The 756 post-licensure hours match every other Simmons FNP pathway, so the direct entry route does not shortchange FNP-specific training to accommodate the pre-licensure block. What it does is stack roughly 1,470 clinical hours into three years for someone who starts with no nursing background. That pace is the honest trade-off for compressing an RN license and an FNP doctorate into a single enrollment.
You Should Know
- Simmons’ rate schedule sets $1,415 for all Direct Entry programs and $1,288 for the doctoral program, and does not state which applies to the doctoral half of this dual-credential program. The full range runs $133,952 to $147,160, a spread of about $13,200. Confirm the billing rate per term with student financial services.
- Pre-licensure coursework must be completed in Boston. Simmons is an NC-SARA participant for post-licensure online coursework only.
- This pathway is listed under two format labels by Simmons, On Campus and Combined On Campus plus Online, which reflects the optional transition after term 5 rather than two separate programs.
Direct Entry Admissions
This pathway is built for applicants with no nursing credential, which inverts the usual requirement set.
- Non-nursing bachelor’s degree (BS or BA) from an accredited university
- No RN license required at entry; NCLEX-RN eligibility is earned after term 4
- Ability to attend Boston campus for terms 1 through 5
- U.S. citizen or permanent resident
Tuition
Simmons charges by the credit, at $1,288 per credit for master’s, post-graduate certificate and doctoral coursework, and $1,415 per credit for Direct Entry programs, for the 2026–2027 academic year. Simmons describes the rate as covering assessments, technology platform licensing and support, so the advertised number is broader than a bare instructional charge.
| Program | Credits | Rate | Derived Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| MSN-FNP | 47 | $1,288 | $60,536 (published) |
| Post-Graduate Certificate | 23 | $1,288 | $29,624 |
| MSN to DNP, FNP | 65 | $1,288 | $83,720 |
| BSN to DNP, FNP | 83 | $1,288 | $106,904 |
| Direct Entry DNP, FNP | 70 + 34 | $1,415 / $1,288 | $142,842 |
Confirmed costs:
- MSN-FNP total of $60,536 is published by Simmons, and reconciles exactly to 47 credits at $1,288
- Simmons’ cost-of-attendance table lists $370 in fees for online programs and $270 for on-campus and hybrid programs
- The same table’s tuition lines reconcile to 12 credits per year at the published rates, confirming both figures
- Online students are not charged a transportation allowance in the cost-of-attendance calculation
- Scholarships are available to admitted students, with amounts varying by term and funding
Be aware that:
- Every total above except the MSN is derived from the per-credit rate. Simmons publishes program totals only for the MSN-FNP.
- The fee amounts appear in a cost-of-attendance table built on 12 credits across two semesters. Whether $370 is annual, per term or per semester is not clearly stated, and the online FNP program runs on three terms a year rather than two semesters.
- The Direct Entry DNP rate attribution is unresolved and worth about $13,200 depending on how the doctoral half is billed.
- Per-credit rates are stated for 2026–2027 only. A 24-month MSN and a 36- to 48-month DNP will both cross rate revisions.
- Cost-of-attendance figures include housing, food, books and personal expenses. Those are not charges from Simmons and should not be read as program cost.
- Clinical travel within a roughly 100-mile radius and one or two Boston trips are real costs that appear in no published figure.
Read against a national market where online FNP master’s programs commonly land between $30,000 and $70,000, the Simmons MSN sits in the upper half and the DNP routes well above it. The comparison that matters most inside Simmons is the certificate: $29,624 and 16 months for an already-certified APRN buys the same 756 clinical hours and the same specialty courses as the $60,536 master’s. If you already hold a graduate nursing degree, the certificate is the efficient route to the same certification eligibility.
Why Choose This FNP Program?
Best suited for nurses who learn better with a live classroom and a fixed weekly schedule than with a self-paced module queue, and who can restructure their work life around clinicals rather than squeeze clinicals around work.
The structure is the product. Weekly live classes on standardized days, sections of about 20, recorded sessions for conflicts, a credit-bearing immersion, and a placement specialist assigned by your state of residence. Nurses who have stalled in asynchronous programs tend to do better here, and nurses who chose online precisely to avoid a schedule will find it constraining. That is a real fork, not a marketing distinction.
Clinical volume is consistent and above average. Every post-licensure FNP pathway requires 756 hours, whether you enter with a BSN, an MSN, or an existing APRN credential. That is 256 hours past the certification floor and above the range most programs sit in. Simmons does not discount clinical time for the certificate, which some schools do.
Check your state before anything else. Authorization narrows as the credential rises: 48 states for the MSN, 46 for the certificate, 45 for either DNP route. If you live in Arizona or Washington, the master’s is open and the certificate and doctorate are not. If you live in New York, Tennessee or DC, no Simmons FNP pathway is currently listed. This single check settles more applications than any curriculum comparison will.
Accreditation
The baccalaureate, master’s and Doctor of Nursing Practice programs at Simmons University, along with the post-graduate FNP and PMHNP certificate programs, are accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education. CCNE is one of two nursing accreditors recognized nationally, and its scope here covers every FNP pathway described on this page, including the certificate. That matters because post-graduate certificates are not always included in a school’s programmatic accreditation, and an unaccredited certificate can fail to satisfy a state board.
The Simmons University Nursing Program is also fully approved by the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Nursing. State board approval is the mechanism that makes pre-licensure graduates NCLEX-eligible, which is load-bearing for the Direct Entry pathway in particular.
Simmons University holds institutional accreditation, which is separate from nursing accreditation and governs whether the degree is recognized by licensing boards, transferable to other institutions and eligible for federal financial aid. Programmatic accreditation alone would not carry a graduate through licensure.
Graduates of any Simmons FNP pathway are eligible to sit for the national FNP certification exam through either certifying body, the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners Certification Board or the American Nurses Credentialing Center. Both require an RN license, an FNP-focused graduate credential and at least 500 hours of faculty-supervised clinical practice, and both require recertification every five years.
More FNP Programs in Massachusetts
- Boston College - Chestnut Hill
- MCPHS - Boston
- Northeastern University - Boston
- Regis College - Weston
- University of Massachusetts Amherst - Amherst
- University of Massachusetts Boston - Boston
- UMass Lowell - Lowell