Nurse Anesthesia DNP Admissions

Program Prerequisites

No undergraduate prerequisite courses are required to apply. 

Admission Guidelines

Applications are evaluated based on the following:

• Bachelor’s degree in nursing from an accredited institution. 
• GPAs of 3.0 or higher (on a 4.0 scale). 
  • Average cumulative GPA for admitted students is 3.56. 
  • Average prelicensure nursing GPA for admitted students is 3.6. 
  • Average GPA in science courses for admitted students is 3.37. 
• Substantive answers to personal essay questions (included in the Program Materials section of NursingCAS).
• Three letters of recommendation. 
  • One letter must be from a current supervisor/manager. 
  • Two letters must be from people in leadership positions who know your clinical abilities. 
  • One faculty member may be used if coursework was completed within the past two years. 
  • Choose people who can evaluate your current or prospective clinical and leadership abilities, critical thinking and potential for program completion.  
  • Recommendations from friends, relatives or co-workers are not accepted. Your application will be delayed or denied.  
• Resume or CV, including the following information: 
  • Community service. 
  • Educational, leadership and professional activities. 
  • Scholarly activities (publications, presentations, research, honors and awards). 
  • Work experience. 
• RN licensure in the United States. 
• CCRN certification is highly recommended. 
• GRE scores not required. Submit GRE scores (NursingCAS school code 3262) if you feel they strengthen your application. 
• TOEFL scores if you are a non-native English speaker (NursingCAS school code B506). Request a waiver if you meet the following: 
  • At least three years of higher education in the United States. 
  • A bachelor’s degree earned in the United States. 
• Interviews with faculty. 
• At least one year of recent full-time experience as an RN in an intensive care unit (ICU) by the application deadline. We strongly prefer two years of experience.  
  • The average ICU experience is 2.8 years. 

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

We strive to conduct an equitable, holistic admissions process. All faculty involved in the process receive formal implicit bias training.  

We also use a holistic rubric to review each qualified applicant in an equitable and comprehensive manner. 

Upon recommendations made by program leadership, final admission decisions are made by the College of Nursing Admissions Committee. 

How to Apply to the Nurse Anesthesia DNP 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. 
• Pay the non-refundable $80 fee to NursingCAS. 
• 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.