Maryville's BSN-to-DNP: the longest path, and where the clinicals land

One degree, no MSN along the way

The BSN-to-DNP is fully online and offers the five concentrations Maryville's MSN does: FNP, AGPCNP, AGACNP, PMHNP and PNP. Maryville is plain about what you walk away with. Graduates earn a DNP and do not also earn an MSN, and the catalog says they are eligible to sit the certification exam for their specialty.

Admission asks for a BSN from a CCNE, ACEN or CNEA program, a cumulative GPA of 3.25, a year of professional nursing experience and an unencumbered RN license in the US. The catalog also expects current RN employment, with at least a year of it.

Because nothing in the middle awards a master's, the practicums inside this degree are your whole NP clinical preparation. They are the same courses MSN students take, with the same preceptor rules and the same Exxat approvals, just placed later in a longer program.

74 to 77 credits, or 68 to 74?

Maryville's own sources disagree on the size of this degree. Know that before you map terms around either number.

The website's 56-credit core is NURS 600, NURS 601, NURS 603, NURS 610, NURS 611, NURS 612 (5 credits) and NURS 615, plus the eleven DNP courses from NURS 700 to NURS 712. That is the DNP-NP's course list with NURS 600 and NURS 601 added, which accounts for the six credits between the website's 74 and the DNP-NP's 68.

Maryville doesn't explain the catalog's range, so your program plan is what settles which figure applies to your admission year. Ask your advisor for it in writing. The credit total decides how many terms you take, and the number of terms decides when your first practicum opens.

As few as 40 months, three entry points a year

Maryville's BSN-to-DNP pages give 40 months as the shortest time to finish and three entry points a year: spring, summer and fall. Its other online program pages list six 2026 start dates, so ask an enrollment advisor which of them open the BSN-to-DNP before you set your sights on one.

Forty months is a floor, not a schedule. The public pages give no part-time estimate for this program, so if you plan to study part time, ask how far that pushes each practicum back. A slower pace may suit a working nurse, but it moves your preceptor search back too.

Term length shapes what you ask of a preceptor. A 2023 Maryville webinar described eight-week sessions early in its programs and 16-week sessions once you reach clinical and concentration courses. Current pages don't confirm that, so check your practicum dates in Canvas before you promise anyone a weekly schedule. The start dates page has the full 2026 calendar.

When the practicums fall

Maryville doesn't publish a term-by-term map for the BSN-to-DNP, but the course prerequisites fix the order. Whatever your pace, no NP practicum can start until the NP core is complete.

1. NURS 611 and NURS 615Advanced Pathophysiology and Advanced Pharmacotherapeutics. Online, both are prerequisites for NURS 612.
2. NURS 612 Advanced Health AssessmentFive credits, with a clinical component that students holding all their approvals may start in week 5. Your compliance and approvals have to be in place for it, before any practicum.
3. The first practicumFNP and AGPCNP start with NURS 621 and AGACNP with NURS 641, each after 611, 612 and 615. PMHNP adds NURS 660 before NURS 662. PNP takes NURS 655C alongside NURS 650.
4. Practicums two and threeEach follows its didactic partner in order, such as NURS 652 after NURS 650 for PNP, or NURS 627C after NURS 620, NURS 621, NURS 623 and NURS 624 for AGPCNP.

Where the DNP project courses sit relative to the practicums isn't stated for this program. For the DNP with an NP concentration, a 2023 webinar said DNP courses come first and clinicals close the program, so ask whether your plan runs the same way. The three NP core courses page covers the first two steps in detail.

Two kinds of clinical work, one published hour count

The NP concentration carries 750 clinical hours across its three practicums, the figure Maryville's catalog has given for every concentration since Spring 2024. How those hours divide between the three courses isn't published; clinical hours by track sets out what is.

The DNP side runs through NURS 701 Foundations of Clinical Scholarship and Clinical Inquiry I to III, NURS 705 to NURS 707, and Maryville publishes no practice-hour total for it. The one DNP hour figure on a Maryville site, “at least 500” practice hours, comes from a blog post about DNP programs generally, not from a Maryville requirement. If a school-ranking site quotes you a total for this program, we found no Maryville source behind it.

In practice that means two searches: a setting for the project, which the DNP project courses page covers, and NP preceptors for the practicums. Maryville's public pages don't say whether one organization can serve both. Ask your faculty before you count on it.

Which states the BSN-to-DNP covers

Maryville's June 2026 BSN-DNP licensure grid marks New York “Does not meet” for every concentration. Louisiana is marked “Meets” only for FNP and “Does not meet” for the other four. All remaining states and territories on the grid are “Meets”. That lines up with an older Maryville status page, which says it accepts Louisiana students only into its FNP program.

The same older page, last modified in 2020, also says Maryville can't take Washington residents into its online nursing program or Oregon students into AGACNP, PNP or PMHNP. The 2026 grid shows neither limit, so confirm with Maryville before applying from those states.

Forty months or more is long enough for life to move you. If it does, get licensed in the state where your patients are and update your address in Self-Service. The grid entry for your new state may also change which concentrations are open to you. See out-of-state clinicals.

What isn't published

These gaps matter more in a long program, because an early wrong assumption carries through every later term.

• Which credit total governs you. 74 to 77 on the website, 68 to 74 in the catalog.
• A term-by-term sequence. Only prerequisites and corequisites are public.
• A DNP practice-hour total. Neither the catalog nor the program pages give one.
• Hours per practicum. Only the 750 concentration total.
• Which 2026 start dates admit BSN-to-DNP students. Three entry points on its own page, six dates elsewhere.
• Who arranges a project setting or mentor. Not stated for any Maryville DNP.

Your enrollment advisor can settle the start and credit questions before you apply. Your faculty own the rest, and the login-only Graduate Nursing Clinical Resource Center is where Maryville keeps clinical policies and deadlines.

Why BSN-to-DNP students choose us

A 40-month degree rewards the student who plans the clinical years early, and that planning is where we start. A placement advisor works from your program plan to set when the search should begin. As your practicums approach, we find NP preceptors and sites near you that fit your concentration, check each against Maryville's rules, and prepare what Maryville reviews for the Exxat request well before it is due.

Your DNP project belongs to you and your faculty, and when you want a setting for it, we can suggest organizations worth approaching. If a preceptor leaves partway through a practicum, we pick the search straight back up so your hours stay on track. Maryville approves every preceptor, site and agreement, and we prepare each request so it fits your concentration on the first review. If you have your program plan, send the term your first practicum falls in through the form below.