Online RN-to-BSN Programs: 10 CCNE Schools Compared, $129–$635 Per Credit

An online RN to BSN program takes a licensed RN with an associate degree to a bachelor's in 10–24 months. Coursework is fully online. Verified July 2026 prices at 10 CCNE accredited programs run $129.18 to $635 per credit. That is $10,620 to $31,835 total at most schools. Practicum hours (35–90) happen in your own community.

This page is for working RNs who already hold a license and an ADN or diploma. If you have a non-nursing bachelor's and want to become a nurse, you need a different bridge program. See online ABSN programs for career changers. An ABSN — accelerated BSN — is second-degree nursing. It carries in-person clinical placement and an NCLEX exam at the end. An RN-to-BSN completion program has neither. You passed the NCLEX years ago.

Here is the gap this table fills. The top of Google for online RN to BSN programs is university landing pages. Each quotes its own price its own way: per credit, per term, per "potential cost." None of them puts the numbers side by side. We did, from each school's own published pages, all fetched July 10, 2026.

Best online RN-to-BSN programs: the comparison table

Ten CCNE-accredited online RN to BSN programs, sorted by total cost to finish. The "total" column is our math: per-credit rate × required credits + published mandatory fees. Every program delivers coursework 100% online.

Three reading notes. UF's $129.18 rate requires an active, unencumbered Florida RN license. The other 49 states pay $552.62 per credit. Chamberlain's advertised $13,335 assumes 15 transfer credits plus its Tuition Advantage Grant, and it counts tuition only — not the $3,260 in fees. The unassisted all-in sticker is $31,835. Texas A&M publishes its curriculum but not a program price. That is why its row has a hole.

What each program really costs to finish

Total cost = per-credit rate × required credits + mandatory fees. Schools quote the first number. You pay the third. Here is the arithmetic behind the table, school by school, from their own published rates.

UIC publishes $9,990 tuition for the 30-credit curriculum. A footnote adds $21 per credit hour in library and technology fees. That is $630 more: $10,620 all-in, our math. SNHU charges $354 per credit and requires a minimum of 30 credits after transfer: $10,620. Your unencumbered RN license alone counts as 45 transfer credits there. UCCS lists $11,010 for 30 credits at $367 each. Add a $50 application fee and a $125 one-time matriculation fee: $11,185. Louisville's 31 credits at $375 come to $11,625. A $10-per-credit online course fee brings it to $11,935. Louisville's Professional Nursing Portfolio can also waive up to 30 credit hours of other required coursework — worth up to $11,250 by the university's own accounting. Alabama's 30 nursing credits at $399 carry a $10-per-credit college fee: $12,270.

WGU prices differently. It charges a flat $5,325 per six-month term plus a $200 per-term resources fee, however many courses you clear. Finish in two terms and the degree costs $11,050. A slower three-term pace costs $16,575. The flat term rate converts study speed directly into dollars. It is the only program in the table where working faster is the discount.

Chamberlain deserves the full decomposition. Its homepage number and its tuition table sit $18,500 apart. The January 2026 session rates: $635 × 45 billed credit hours = $28,575 tuition. Its own table adds $3,260 in fees: $1,200 in student services charges, $1,400 in course resource fees, about $600 in books, plus clinical fees that vary by state. All-in sticker: $31,835. Now the advertised "$13,335 in as few as 10 months." It does not come from the sticker. Sticker minus $9,525 in maximum transfer credits minus the $5,715 RN to BSN Tuition Advantage Grant is $16,595 — our math. The $13,335 is tuition only: 30 billed credits × $635 = $19,050, minus the $5,715 grant. The $3,260 in fees quietly leaves the marketing price. Both discounts are real. Neither is automatic. Price the sticker; treat the grant as upside; add the fees back either way.

The two license-gated bargains sit at the extremes of eligibility. UF Online charges Florida residents $129.18 per credit with all required fees included. The 2025–26 rate sits at 75% of standard in-state tuition. That is about $3,875 per 30 credits, our math. Your transfer evaluation sets the real credit count. CSULB costs $600 per unit for its 26-unit curriculum, roughly $17,000 published total. It admits California RNs with an ADN and 70 lower-division units. Cheap or not, a program you can't enter isn't a price. Check the license requirement before the rate. For the cost-ranked view beyond nursing, see the cheapest online colleges by net price.

Total cost to finish (per-credit rate x required credits + mandatory fees) for 9 CCNE-accredited online RN-to-BSN programs; Chamberlain shown at all-in sticker. Verified from each university's published tuition pages, July 2026.

How long it takes while working full-time

Online RN to BSN programs publish a program length in months of 10 to 12 at the fastest pace. The realistic full-time-job pace is closer to 18–24. The gap is course load. Every "as few as 10 months" quote assumes back-to-back courses with no term off. That is a real option. It is not the typical one for a nurse working three twelves.

Louisville is the one school in the table that publishes the honest version. One course at a time. 8-week terms. 11 courses. "Right around 20 months to graduation." That cadence is the standard working-RN pattern across programs. A single 8-week course. Always another start date a few weeks out. UCCS runs the same 8-week structure with one or two courses at a time. Bon Secours Memorial College of Nursing is an employer-tied program we left out of the price table. It states most students take two courses per semester and finish in two years. It allows up to four.

Clinical hours are the other logistics question. The answer is smaller than most RNs expect. WGU requires 35 clinical hours total. UF requires 90: 45 through virtual simulation in the first semester, 45 through an independent community project in the fourth. Texas A&M and Louisville run individual practicum experiences in the student's own community. Bon Secours secures all practicum sites for its students. No program in the table asks you to travel to campus for clinicals. None re-tests the NCLEX either. An NCLEX pass rate is a pre-licensure metric. It belongs to ABSN comparisons, not to bridge completion programs.

Pacing changes the WGU math specifically. Two terms of full effort cost $11,050. Drift to 18 months and the same degree costs $16,575. Everywhere else, slowing down costs time but not extra tuition. Per-credit prices don't care when you finish.

CCNE accreditation and your state license

All 10 programs in the table hold CCNE accreditation. We checked each school's own accreditation statement, not a third-party list. The Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education is one of two recognized accreditors for BSN completion programs. ACEN is the other. Either satisfies employers. Accreditation buys you three concrete things. It keeps you eligible for federal Title IV financial aid. It makes the degree transferable into MSN and DNP programs. And — the working-RN point — it qualifies the program under most hospital tuition-reimbursement policies. Verify any program yourself in the CCNE directory at directory.ccnecommunity.org. It takes two minutes.

Your RN license does not change. A BSN is an academic credential, not a new license. Licensure requirements stay whatever your state board set when you passed the NCLEX. The licensing question that matters for online study runs the other direction. Is the program authorized to enroll students in your state? Does it accept your license? UF requires an active, unencumbered Florida RN license for admission. CSULB requires a current California RN license. The other eight enroll RNs across states under standard state-authorization arrangements. Still, every application page lists state restrictions. Read that page before the essay.

Is the BSN worth it for a working RN? The salary math

Registered nurses earned a median $93,600 in May 2024, or $45.00 an hour (BLS). BLS does not split that figure by degree. Anyone quoting an exact "BSN salary premium" from BLS data is manufacturing it. The honest version of the ROI case rests on three verifiable facts.

First, the BSN is becoming the workforce floor. 71.7% of US RNs already held a BSN or higher in the 2022 National Nursing Workforce Survey — the first reading above 70%. AACN's 2024 figure puts it at 72.9%. Magnet-recognized hospitals require a bachelor's or graduate degree in nursing for all nurse managers and nurse leaders. The Army, Navy, and Air Force require the BSN to practice as an active-duty RN. An ADN keeps your current job. It increasingly caps the next one.

Second, the roles the BSN unlocks pay measurably more. Medical and health services managers earned a median $117,960 in May 2024 (BLS). That is $24,360 above the RN median, and it is the ladder RN-to-BSN graduates climb toward. Within nursing itself, the top 10% of RNs earned above $135,320. Charge, case-management, and public-health roles that skew BSN populate that band. The research case employers cite is real too. Hospital studies associate a 10% increase in bachelor's-prepared nurses with lower patient mortality (Aiken et al., JAMA, 2003). That is why hiring preferences keep tightening. Baseline pay data by nursing path sits in nursing starting salary, with the distribution tables.

Third, the payback period is short, because employers subsidize the degree. Federal law lets your employer pay $5,250 per year toward your education tax-free (IRS Pub. 15-B). Most hospital systems offer some version of this benefit. Two calendar years of it cover $10,500 — UIC's entire $10,620 program minus $120, our math. No reimbursement at all? The $24,360 raise into a manager median repays even Chamberlain's $31,835 sticker in 16 months. That is the priciest program in our table. Bon Secours goes further: employees who commit to 18 months of post-graduation work attend on 100% paid tuition and fees. Worried whether an online credential reads as legitimate? The evidence on how recruiters treat online degrees is its own page. Short version: a CCNE-accredited BSN from a state university names no delivery format on the diploma.

One Louisville graduate, Chasity Eversole, earned her RN-BSN at 50 while working full-time and raising a family. Her words: "You are never too old to start a new adventure... if I can do it, you can do it too." That quote lives on the program's own marketing page. But the profile it describes — the mid-career RN finishing around shifts — is exactly who these programs are built for.

Registered-nurse median wage vs the BSN-gated roles it unlocks. BLS does not split RN pay by degree; the ladder shows the manager median and the RN top-decile band. Source: BLS OES, May 2024.

How admissions work (rolling starts, prerequisites)

Most online RN to BSN programs admit on a rolling basis with multiple starts per year. Selective state universities are the exception. WGU starts a new cohort the 1st of every month. Louisville admits rolling, with six preferred deadlines from August 1 through May 1. It reviews applications up to the day classes start. UCCS runs rolling admissions into 8-week courses. Chamberlain's next session starts August 31, 2026. The structured end looks different. Alabama takes applications for three terms: July 15, November 1, April 15. UF admits spring and fall. Texas A&M admits spring and summer. CSULB opens one window a year — August 1 to September 30, 2026 for its Spring 2027 cohort. Miss CSULB's window and you wait 12 months. Miss a WGU start and you wait 30 days.

The admission bar is your license plus your transcript, not an entrance exam. Typical published requirements: an unencumbered RN license, an ADN or nursing diploma from an accredited program, and a GPA floor. That floor is 2.5 at SNHU and Texas A&M, and 2.8 in nursing coursework at UF. SNHU admits down to a 2.0 if you've since earned 9 credit hours at a 2.5 or better. Bon Secours goes further and guarantees admission to every applicant meeting its published criteria. Nursing prerequisites are mostly behind you; your ADN covered them. The science-heavy exceptions surface at the selective schools. UF wants completed A&P I and II, microbiology, statistics, human growth and development, and nutrition — each with a C or better. Texas A&M expects about 59 semester credit hours of prerequisite coursework before entry. Your ADN plus general-education transfer credits typically satisfy it.

The practical sequence, in order: confirm the program takes your state's license. Ask HR for the tuition-reimbursement policy in writing. Run your transcript through the school's free transfer evaluation. Then apply to a rolling-start program. The whole cycle can run inside eight weeks.

Frequently asked questions