California State University, Los Angeles offers 2 Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner tracks:
- MSN
- Post-Master’s Certificate
Both options are based at the main campus and focus on caring for acutely ill adults in settings such as ICUs, step-down units, emergency departments, and acute hospital units.
Program Tracks Overview
| Program | Est. Tuition | Est. Duration | Credit Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| MSN AGACNP | $24.1K | 2.5 years (5 semesters) | 56 |
| Certificate AGACNP | $14.5K | 1.5 years (3 semesters) | 32 |
Tuition is calculated rather than published. Durations are published by the School of Nursing.
The School of Nursing runs a clinical placement office that secures sites for students across Greater Los Angeles. That support is attached to a fully in-person, full-time-only program with a single annual fall intake.
Quick Facts
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Program Types | MSN and post-master’s certificate. No DNP or BSN-to-DNP acute care pathway. |
| Population Focus | Adult-Gerontology Acute Care (AGACNP) for both tracks. |
| Format | Campus |
| Campus Attendance | Year one, at least two days weekly. Year two, three to four days weekly. |
| Clinical Hours | 900 supervised hours in both tracks, across three practicum courses. |
| Clinical Placement | School of Nursing placement office secures sites across Greater Los Angeles. |
| RN Experience | No minimum published. Experience is weighed qualitatively in review. |
| License Requirements | Current unrestricted California RN license. |
| Enrollment Pace | Full-time only. No part-time option for either track. |
| Start Terms | Fall only. Every program begins in August. |
| Application Deadlines | Filing opens October 1. Priority January 15, final April 15. |
| GPA Minimum | 3.0 cumulative and 3.0 nursing. |
| Cohort Size | MSN admits 20 to 30 per option. Certificate admits 5 to 10. |
| Tuition | About $430 per unit for California residents, derived from flat semester rates. |
| Certification | ANCC Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner examination. |
| Accreditation | CCNE accredits the master’s and the post-graduate APRN certificate. |
Requirements Shared Across All Tracks
Both tracks run the same six-course AGACNP specialty sequence, the same clinical hours, and the same campus schedule. The certificate is that sequence without the graduate core or the culminating requirement.
Clinical Requirements
- Total hours: 900 supervised clinical hours in both the MSN and the certificate
- Practicum sequence: NURS 5401 (315 hours), NURS 5402 (315 hours), NURS 5403 (270 hours)
- Hours per credit: 45 clock hours per practicum unit in all three courses
- Placement: the School of Nursing clinical placement office identifies sites throughout the Greater Los Angeles area and holds the agency agreements
- Student-sourced sites: permitted on request, but a signed university-agency contract is required first
- Concurrency: theory and clinical courses must be taken together in the published sequence
- Scheduling: clinical hours are negotiated between the student and the preceptor
- Settings: intensive and critical care units, emergency departments, acute hospital settings, and clinics
Pre-Clinical Clearances
- Certification: American Heart Association BLS for healthcare providers, renewed every two years
- Driving: a California driver license or state ID plus auto liability insurance carrying the student’s name
- Insurance: personal health insurance and university student liability insurance, purchased yearly
- Screening: COMPLIO background check, plus drug screening and Live Scan where a clinical site requires them
- Health: annual physical exam, MMR and varicella titers, Tdap, hepatitis B series or declination, and two-step TB testing
Campus Requirements
- Year one: on campus a minimum of two days per week
- Year two: three to four days per week, one class day plus two to three clinical days
- Delivery: classes are in person at the main Los Angeles campus; some courses mix in-person and virtual sessions, but the school tells students to plan on in-person attendance throughout
- Orientation: mandatory School of Nursing orientation before the fall term opens
- Sequence changes: any deviation from the published roadmap needs option coordinator approval
RN Experience and Licensure
- Licensure: current unrestricted California RN license, required of MSN and certificate applicants alike
- Timing: a license in progress supports conditional admission, but must be complete before the first day of fall classes
- Experience minimum: none published for either track
- Screening: candidates are assessed qualitatively on experience, academic record, and references
- Interview: a second-phase interview on campus or by Zoom, required of everyone invited
You Should Know
- One intake a year: applications are accepted for the fall term only, so a missed April 15 deadline costs a full year rather than a semester.
- Enrollment-dependent: Cal State LA states that all graduate nursing programs run pending sufficient enrollment, and the certificate admits only five to ten students.
- No part-time route: both tracks are built for full-time attendance, with theory and clinical courses locked together each term.
Be aware that:
- Option changes: students cannot switch NP options after enrolling, so the AGACNP decision is fixed at application.
- Conditional admission: pending requirements not finished by the day before classes begin result in being dropped from the program.
- Time limit: the university requires master’s degrees to be finished within seven years; certificate extensions are handled case by case.
MSN AGACNP
The estimated tuition for the MSN Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner option at Cal State LA is approximately $24,100 for California residents (five semesters at the current full-time graduate rate). The School of Nursing publishes the program as five semesters, which works out to about 2.5 years.
MSN Curriculum
The 56 units divide into a 21-unit graduate core in year one, 32 units of AGACNP specialty coursework across years two and three, and a 3-unit culminating requirement.
- NURS 5020: Role, Health Care, and Policy
- NURS 5280: Advanced Pharmacology
- NURS 5660: Advanced Pathophysiology
- NURS 5720 and 5730: Advanced Health Assessment and Diagnostic Reasoning, with practicum
- NURS 5800: Nursing Informatics
- NURS 5900: Nursing Theory, Research, and Practice
- NURS 5301, 5302, 5303: Advanced Care Management I, II, and III (4 units each)
- NURS 5401, 5402, 5403: Advanced Therapeutics Practicum I, II, and III (7, 7, and 6 units)
- Culminating requirement: thesis, project, or comprehensive examination
The two culminating routes carry different entry gates. Thesis and project students need a 3.5 GPA, an A in NURS 5900, and a committee of at least two faculty members they recruit themselves. Comprehensive exam students take the NURS 5850 directed elective instead, in either the second fall or the second spring.
More curriculum details are available here.
MSN Admissions
- Degree: BSN from an NLN- or CCNE-accredited program
- GPA: 3.0 cumulative and 3.0 nursing; applicants below either figure may be evaluated on their last 60 or 90 semester units, or raise the average with additional coursework
- Prerequisite courses: inferential statistics, baccalaureate nursing research, and health assessment with lecture and lab, all finished before the program starts
- Assessment recency: a refresher is required when the health assessment course is more than five years old, and online refreshers are accepted
- References: three letters from a nursing professional, physician, NP, or professor
- Essay: three pages maximum, prompt supplied in Cal State Apply
- Transfer credit: no more than 9 units taken before the start date count toward the degree
- Second choice: files not selected by the AGACNP coordinator move to a second-choice option only when that option still needs candidates
Post-Master’s Certificate AGACNP
The estimated tuition for the Post-Master’s Certificate in Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner is approximately $14,500 for California residents (three semesters at the current full-time graduate rate). The School of Nursing publishes the certificate as three semesters, or about 1.5 years.
Certificate Curriculum
The 32 units are the same six specialty courses the MSN uses, carrying the same 900 clinical hours and the same campus schedule described in the shared section. What the certificate drops is the graduate core and the culminating requirement.
- Term one: NURS 5301 with NURS 5401 (11 units, 315 clinical hours)
- Term two: NURS 5302 with NURS 5402 (11 units, 315 clinical hours)
- Term three: NURS 5303 with NURS 5403 (10 units, 270 clinical hours)
- Transfer credit: no more than 8 units substituted from another institution
You Should Know
- The 32-unit figure excludes prerequisites. The roadmap places a 15-unit block ahead of the specialty sequence covering APRN role, advanced pathophysiology, advanced pharmacology, and advanced health assessment with lab.
- Waiver conditions: that block is dropped only when a transcript review establishes equivalency or the applicant is already a practicing nurse practitioner.
- Ceiling: an applicant carrying none of the four courses faces 47 units and a fourth term, not 32 units and three.
- Open University: prerequisite courses can be taken at Cal State LA through Open University, admitted on a space-available basis.
More curriculum details are available here.
Certificate Admissions
- Degree: Master of Science in Nursing from an NLN- or CCNE-accredited program
- GPA: 3.0 MSN GPA
- Core coursework: APRN role, advanced pathophysiology, advanced pharmacology, and advanced physical assessment with lab, all completed before the program begins
- Pharmacology content: must include pharmacodynamics, pharmacokinetics, and the Schedule II updates the California BRN requires
- Documentation: non-NP applicants have transcripts and syllabi reviewed by a faculty subcommittee, and may submit a letter from a school official confirming advanced practice level
- Applicant pool: certificate candidates are compared only against other certificate applicants, with 10 to 20 applying each cycle
You Should Know
- Furnishing number rule: Cal State LA will not sign the California BRN furnishing application for an advanced pharmacology course taken at another university.
- Who this catches: a nurse practitioner applicant without a valid furnishing number has to retake advanced pharmacology with Schedule II content, adding units and a term to the plan.
Tuition
Cal State LA charges a flat semester rate rather than a per-unit rate. Full-time graduate tuition and mandatory campus fees run $4,821.04 per semester for California residents in fall 2026, and every term in both AGACNP roadmaps carries more than the 6.1 units that trigger the full-time band.
| Program | Credits | Estimated Tuition |
|---|---|---|
| MSN AGACNP | 56 | $24,100 |
| Certificate AGACNP | 32 | $14,500 |
Both totals multiply the current fall rate by the published number of terms, which works out to roughly $430 per unit for the MSN and $452 for the certificate. Non-residents add $471 per unit on top, taking the MSN past $50,000.
Beyond tuition and campus fees, the School of Nursing charges a nursing lab fee of $100 to $200 and student liability insurance of $20. Comprehensive exam students pay a $10 course fee.
You Should Know
- Flat rates cut both ways. A student taking 12 units pays the same as one taking 7, so the heavier terms in the specialty sequence cost nothing extra.
- Spring rates differ: spring semesters have historically run a few hundred dollars below fall, and CSU adjusts both annually, so the totals above should be read as current-rate estimates.
See the official student fees page for more details.
Financial Aid
Cal State LA does not publish an AGACNP-specific scholarship. Certificate students should confirm aid eligibility before enrolling, since post-master’s certificates are non-degree programs and federal aid rules treat them differently from the MSN. Details are on the financial aid and scholarships page.
Why Choose This ACNP Program?
- School-arranged clinical placement. A dedicated placement office holds the agency agreements and identifies sites across Greater Los Angeles. Students may propose their own preceptor, but the default is that the school does the work.
- 900 clinical hours in both tracks. The certificate carries the identical practicum sequence as the MSN, at 45 clock hours per practicum unit.
- Public-university pricing in Los Angeles. Flat CSU semester rates put the resident MSN near $24,100 and the certificate near $14,500.
- Small cohorts with a required interview. Each MSN option admits 20 to 30 from roughly 60 to 80 applicants, and every finalist interviews.
- No RN experience gate. Neither track publishes a minimum, so an applicant with a strong academic record and a California license can compete without a set number of ICU years.
This fits a nurse already living within commuting range of East Los Angeles who can restructure two to three years around a fixed weekday schedule. Nurses needing distance delivery, part-time pacing, or a spring start should look elsewhere.
Accreditation and Certification
The baccalaureate, master’s, and post-graduate APRN certificate programs at the Patricia A. Chin School of Nursing are accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education. Naming the certificate separately matters, because ANCC requires certificate holders to have completed an accredited post-graduate APRN program.
California State University, Los Angeles is regionally accredited by the WASC Senior College and University Commission.
Both tracks carry an adult-gerontology acute care population focus. Graduates are prepared for recognition as nurse practitioners by the California Board of Registered Nursing and are eligible to sit for the ANCC Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner certification examination.
Furnishing authority in California is a separate step from certification, and the School of Nursing will only sign the BRN furnishing application when the advanced pharmacology coursework was completed at Cal State LA.
Additional ACNP Programs for California Students
- California Baptist University - Riverside
- CSU Long Beach - Long Beach
- Loma Linda University - Loma Linda
- University of California San Francisco - San Francisco
- West Coast University - Anaheim