PURDUE NORTHWEST ONLINE FAQS

Yes. You will need Internet access to download your individual course and online readings onto your computer and to periodically submit and receive feedback on assignments and assessments as well as participate in online discussions.

You can pay your tuition through the student portal or in person at the Office of Student Accounts on campus (LAWS 130). Some health care partners may pay tuition directly to the University on your behalf if you choose. For the RN-to-BSN program, payment must be made by 3:00 pm CT the Friday before a course begins, or you will be cancelled for non-payment. For the MSN program, payment must be made by 1:00 pm CT the Friday before a course begins, or you will be cancelled for non-payment.

Many employers offer tuition reimbursement. Financial aid may be available to those who qualify. Visit the Tuition and Financial Aid page to learn more.

Please plan on allocating 3–4 hours per week per credit hour to complete the didactic coursework. For example, if you are enrolled in a 3-credit hour course, you should anticipate spending approximately 9–12 hours per week completing coursework.

This time will be spent completing readings, viewing lectures, participating in discussion boards, and accessing information in the online library. This does not include the time needed to complete and submit assignments in the course.

Additional information, including a list of non-nursing program requirements, is available in the program handbook.

You can begin the RN-to-BSN program by taking nursing courses (NUR), non-nursing courses, or both simultaneously. Refer to your course map from your PNW advisor as your guide for which non-nursing courses you will need.

Once you are admitted to the program and begin taking classes, you may sit out as needed. Taking courses at other schools that will satisfy program requirements is not considered sitting out. Sitting out is defined as not taking any classes whatsoever.

• In the event that you need to sit out, you must contact your PNW academic advisor so that the University is aware of your intentions.

• In the event of an extended absence, your status as a student will remain active for one year from the last course taken. If an absence extends over one year, then you must contact PNW admissions and re-apply to the program in order to resume.

• In the event that you are admitted to the program, but do not begin taking courses at PNW in that semester, you must contact PNW admissions and re-apply to the program for subsequent semesters in order to proceed.

Program policies are listed in the program handbook.

Students may complete all non-nursing coursework in the beginning of the program or opt to take non-nursing courses as they are progressing through the nursing core. However, students may only have 6 credit hours of outstanding non-nursing credit left when registering for NUR 49800 Nursing Capstone course.

A promotional scholarship for new students is applied by the Office of Financial Aid after you have been admitted and have registered for classes. Additional tuition reductions/scholarships are available to eligible individuals based on employment with a partnership hospital or attendance at a partner community college.

If you need help clarifying your eligibility for a promotional scholarship/tuition reduction, please contact your PNW Enrollment Specialist.

Promotional scholarships are awarded based on the information submitted on your application. To update/confirm that your records correctly reflect any promotion eligibility, you must contact PNW Admissions.

Tuition rates are adjusted prior to the start of courses. You must first be registered in order to see tuition adjustments related to a promotional scholarship/tuition reduction.

Contact the hospital with which the nursing school was associated to determine where your records are being stored. Also, try contacting the Board of Nursing for the state in which you earned your degree.

You can access the RN-to-BSN student handbook online.

Students that choose to withdraw from their course(s) can email their registration coordinator for assistance. Please note that you will not receive a refund. 

View the Withdrawal Policy

There are eight start dates each year.

If you are employed at a partner hospital, the Partnership Code must be entered on your application along with the name of your employer.

You will receive an email from Purdue University Northwest Admissions with your student portal login information and password.

Please see the Admission Requirements page.

No. Your application is good for one calendar year. You can enroll at any start date within that period.

No. You may enroll if you are a full-time or part-time employee.

Purdue University Northwest accepts transfer credit from regionally accredited institutions. After you have been admitted to the program, an audit is conducted by your academic advisor to determine which program requirements, if any, are outstanding.

Upon admission, you can review your unofficial transcript in the PNW portal, which will display all transfer credits accepted by the University, based on your submitted transcripts.

Please note: You may choose courses from other schools and submit them to the advisor for review to determine whether the courses you are considering will fulfill the specific requirements needed at PNW.

For your PNW academic advisor to review and/or confirm that the course(s) would fulfill the requirements, you must submit the following information:

• Name of the school(s)
• Course number(s) and title(s)
• Course description(s) from college catalog(s)

If you have additional questions about confirmation/review of transfer credits from other schools to the PNW RN-to-BSN program, please refer your questions to your PNW academic advisor.

The refund policy for the online RN-to-BSN program is as follows:

• Before the first session class day, 100% refund for drops or session withdrawals
• No refund for drops or withdrawals after the first class day

The RN-to-BSN program consists of 12 required nursing courses. The RN-to-BSN program is 120 credit hours. The credit hours break down as follows:

• Nursing courses taken with PNW: 34 credits
• Non-nursing courses: 56 credits (32 credits are completed prior to admission; you can transfer in the remaining 24 credits or choose from our wide array of electives)
• Nursing transfer credit for your ASN/ADN: 30
• Total RN-to-BSN credits: 120

View the program handbook for more information on nursing courses and credit requirements.

The RN-to-BSN degree program can be completed in as few as 16 months when applying transfer credit toward non-nursing courses. The time frame is based on the 34 nursing credits required at PNW; additional courses may increase the time required to complete the program.

We hope that the flexibility of the coursework will allow you to finish the course you are currently taking. If you cannot continue and you withdraw from the course, you can re-enter later in the sequence and take the course you dropped when it is re-offered. You must withdraw by the drop deadline posted under Important Dates to receive a “W.”

There are no clinical requirements in the traditional sense. Because you are a practicing RN, clinicals are accomplished virtually through simulation and projects that can be completed close to home.

The program can be completed in less than 2 years.

You will need to reapply if you sit out by not taking any courses for more than a year. As long as you stay active, you do not need to reapply.

Program policies are listed in the program handbook.

You can access the MSN student handbook online.

Students that choose to withdraw from their course(s) can email their registration coordinator for assistance. Please note that you will not receive a refund. 

View the Withdrawal Policy

The program has 6 starts per year.

Please see the Admissions Requirements page.

A maximum of 9 semester hours or equivalent of graduate credit may be used as transfer credit from another university. To be accepted, courses must fulfill curriculum requirements and must have been taken at a university that has national nursing accreditation. Additionally, a grade equivalent to 3.0 (on a 4-point scale) or higher must be present for any transfer course.

All specialty and advanced core courses, including NUR 51000: Research and Evidence-Based Nursing, must be taken at PNW. A request for an exception to this policy will be considered on a case-by-case basis. Other core courses will be evaluated for equivalency and transferability. You will need to submit the syllabi for all courses you wish to have considered for transfer credit by the application deadline date.

If you have questions about transfer credits or outstanding program requirements that you will need to fulfill, please direct those questions to your assigned PNW academic advisor.

This review happens during the admissions process. For requests outside the admissions period, you should work directly with an advisor.

In addition to the Introductory Statistics course, the core class that could be considered is Healthcare Organization, Policy, and Economics. With regards to seeking transfers for core courses, if you took a theory course or ethics course elsewhere, you would still need to take the PNW theory/ethics course because your course would not have the same ethics component. If you took both the theory and ethics classes separately, PNW would consider that for transferability.

Nurse Executive courses that can be considered include: Human Resource Management and Healthcare Financial Management.

Nursing Education courses that can be considered include: Pathophysiologic Concepts and Pharmacologic Interventions for Nurse Educators or separate graduate-level pathophysiology and pharmacology classes, and Advanced Health Assessment for Nurse Educators.

If you wish to transfer from one online concentration (e.g., Nurse Executive) to another online concentration (e.g., Nursing Education) or vice versa, the process consists of submitting a written request to the graduate program advisor. The advisor will work with the Associate Dean of Graduate Studies to determine whether the request will be granted. The only eligibility requirement is that you be in good academic standing.

You are responsible for the completion of all required work, in each course in which you have enrolled, by the time of the last scheduled meeting of the class, unless your assignment to the course has been properly withdrawn. You will receive from your instructors a grade in each course for which you are enrolled at the close of the session. This grade shall indicate your achievement with respect to the objectives of the course.

View information on study options.