How Much Does an FNP Program Cost?

How much does an FNP program cost? The short answer

The family nurse practitioner master's programs that print their full price come to $35,720 to $57,510 in tuition. That is the per-credit rate times the credit total, both from the same program page, at the 4 programs that state both, all of them private schools. A public program charging residents its in-state rate usually comes in below that range, and the most expensive private schools above it.

Measured a year at a time, graduate tuition and fees at schools with an FNP program run a median of $9,757 at public schools for residents and $37,227 at private nonprofits. Master's programs run a median of 46 credits.

Three things move the number more than anything else: whether the school is public or private, whether you pay in-state rates, and whether you take a master's or a doctorate. The rest of this page takes those in turn, then looks at what graduates actually borrow, which is the figure that tells you what the degree cost the people who finished it.

What public and private schools charge a year

Every school that awards federal aid reports its graduate tuition and fees to IPEDS, and 312 of the 323 schools with an FNP program in our catalog have a figure for 2023-24. At public schools the median is $9,757 a year for residents and $21,734 for everyone else. At private nonprofits it is $37,227, about 3.8 times the public in-state figure, and the middle half of private schools runs from $29,970 to $43,980. The 19 for-profit schools sit at a median of $16,452.

Read those as a guide to the kind of school, not as a program's price. IPEDS asks for one figure per institution, so a university whose nursing master's costs more than its education master's reports a single blended number. That is also why this page does not multiply them by a program length: the result would look like a total and be neither the program's price nor its length.

Residency matters less online than on campus at some schools. The University of Missouri's online FNP master's, for example, charges online students one rate regardless of residency. If you are looking at a public school in another state, find out which rate an online student pays before you rule it out.

What FNP programs charge per credit

The more useful number is the one a program prints for itself, because it is the program's price rather than the university's average. Few do it plainly: of the program pages we have read, 12 state a per-credit rate, from $605 to $1,085, with a median of $770. Where the same page also states the credit total, the last column multiplies the two. We never multiply one school's rate by another school's credits.

Rates as printed on each program's page when we read it. A dash means the same page does not state the credit total, so we do not multiply it out. Check whether a rate includes fees, since programs differ, and confirm it for the year you would start.

What FNP graduates borrow, and what they earn

Prices tell you what a school asks for. Borrowing tells you what the degree cost the people who finished it, after scholarships, employer tuition benefits and whatever they paid as they went. The College Scorecard publishes it per school, for every nursing master's graduate. To keep it about family nurse practitioners, we use only the 69 schools where FNP degrees are at least half of that class.

At those schools the median graduate borrowed $41,145 in federal loans, and the middle half ran from $39,611 to $54,668. A year after finishing, the median graduate was earning $107,679. The Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the median nurse practitioner at $132,300, but the two measure different people: one is graduates a year out, the other every nurse practitioner at every stage of a career, so they are not a before and after.

Two limits are worth knowing. The debt figure counts federal loans only, so private loans are not in it, and it covers the master's alone, not anything still owed from the BSN. The program cards on our ranking pages show each school's own pair of figures where the Scorecard publishes them.

Does a DNP cost more than an MSN?

Yes, and the reason is credits. The doctoral FNP programs whose credit total we read run a median of 72 credits, against 46 for the master's (9 doctoral and 44 master's programs). We do not print a dollar gap between the two, because no federal source reports one: IPEDS carries a single tuition figure per school, so at a school that teaches both degrees the two share it. Both degrees lead to the same license and the same board exams; our FNP vs DNP comparison covers what the extra credits buy.

Costs the tuition figure leaves out

• Board certification. The AANPCB family exam costs $315, or $240 for AANP members. ANCC's costs $395, or $295 for ANA members. You only need one; our certification guide compares them.
• Clinical placements. Every FNP program requires at least 500 supervised clinical hours, and getting to the sites costs time and travel. Some programs place you and some leave the search to you; finding a preceptor covers what that involves.
• Campus visits. Some online programs bring students to campus for skills checks, which means travel and time off work.
• Lost income. If you cut your shifts to study, count the income you give up as part of the cost. Part-time study and employer tuition benefits are the usual ways working nurses keep it down.

How to pay less for an FNP program

Start with residency: the median private nonprofit charges about 3.8 times the median public school's in-state rate, so an in-state public program is the cheapest route for most people. Then compare published per-credit rates rather than headline totals, since programs differ in what they include. Ask your employer about tuition benefits before you apply, and read the conditions attached. Our most affordable FNP programs ranking orders the field with cost weighted most heavily, and the online FNP rankings cover programs you can study without moving.