Adult-Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner (DNP) Admissions

Program Prerequisites

For MSN to DNP students, a gap analysis is performed, and a tailored program of study is developed based on previous graduate education completed.

We look for prior completion of the following coursework:

• Advanced Health Assessment Across the Life Span
• Advanced Pathophysiology
• Advanced Pharmacology
• Transition to the APRN Role
• Research
• Biostatistics/Epidemiology

These courses are included in a BSN to DNP plan of study.

Admission Guidelines

We evaluate applicants based on the following:

• A minimum of a Bachelor of Science in nursing from an accredited institution.
• GPAs of 3.0 or higher (on a 4.0 scale).
  • Cumulative GPA — all college-level coursework.
  • Prelicensure nursing GPA — only nursing courses before licensure.
    • RUSH receives GPA calculations from NursingCAS after it has received all of your official transcripts.
• Substantive answers to personal essay questions (included in the Program Materials section of NursingCAS).
• Three professional letters of recommendation from individuals in leadership positions who can speak to your clinical abilities. 
  • A letter from your current manager, who is responsible for your evaluation, is strongly preferred.
  • Choose individuals in leadership positions who know you well and can evaluate your abilities, critical thinking, and potential for successfully completing graduate school.
  • One academic faculty member may be used if the coursework has been completed within the past two years.  
• Resume or CV that includes the following information: 
  • Community service.
  • Educational, leadership and professional organization activities.
  • Scholarly activities, including publications, presentations, research, honors and awards.
  • Work experience.
• Registered nurse (RN) licensure in the United States.
  • Recent graduates from a BSN or MSN program must submit a U.S. RN license upon matriculation.
• TOEFL scores if required.
• Personal interviews with faculty. 

Preference is given to applicants with recent registered nurse experience or who will be working as a RN when they start the program. 

Enrollment Restrictions for Certain State Residents

Online courses and programs are restricted in certain states.

We are unable to offer enrollment into our online programs to residents of the following states:

• Louisiana
• Tennessee

We are unable to offer enrollment into our advanced practice specialty online programs to residents of New York.

We are also unable to offer enrollment to residents of Canada.  

If you do not reside in Illinois, contact your state's higher education regulation authority for more details.

How to Apply to the Adult-Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner Program

Applications are submitted through NursingCAS, the centralized application service for nursing.

NursingCAS collects and processes your application documents and verifies transcripts. We receive the information from NursingCAS and use it to make our admission decision.

How to apply: 

• Submit a completed application to NursingCAS. 
  • You will be asked to enter the specific program. 
  • You may apply to only one Rush program and one admission term. 
• Complete the brief Rush supplemental application, which will be sent to you after submitting your application to NursingCAS. The supplemental application fee is $40. 

We recommend that you complete your application and have all official transcripts sent to Nursing CAS well before the application deadline. It can take several weeks for NursingCAS to verify and process your transcripts. 

We will not consider your application if it is inaccurate or incomplete.