BS-DNP Admission Requirements

Your application must be complete, fees must be paid, and supporting documents must be received before the deadline in order to be considered for admission. View the Application Deadlines page for important dates regarding this program.

Within your NursingCAS application, you will be asked to upload an essay which responds to the following prompts. Your completed essay can be uploaded into the “Documents” section of your NursingCAS application.

• Describe your past work in your proposed specialty, including educational and non-course educational experiences, laboratory research, teaching or other relevant employment, publications, theses, research in progress, or other scholarly activities.
• Describe your plans for graduate study and a professional career and how this program will contribute to them.

Selected applicants are required to attend Interview Day if they wish to proceed with the admissions process. The interview date is listed on the Application Deadlines page.

Applicants must have achieved a minimum undergraduate nursing degree GPA of 3.0.

For those applicants whose undergraduate nursing degree GPA is less than 3.0, the GRE and/or (12) credits of graduate level coursework are required. The official GRE score and/or graduate coursework must be completed prior to the application deadline.

Please upload a copy of your current, unencumbered RN license with your application.

The primary application fee is charged by and paid to NursingCAS; have a credit card for payment. A $50.00 Supplemental Application fee paid to the University of Colorado College of Nursing is also required; instructions for payment are included in the NursingCAS application.

All applicants to the College of Nursing must meet the minimum requirements outlined in the Technical Standards.

Applicants must have at least a Bachelor's Degree in Nursing from a CCNE or ACEN accredited program and Regionally Accredited Institution.

Individuals applying to the i-LEAD or Health Care Informatics option are not required to have a BSN degree. They may have an Associate Degree in Nursing and a BA or BS degree in another field.

Both an (undergraduate) nursing research and statistics course are required before starting the program. Both courses need to have been completed at an accredited institution and a grade of “C” or higher must have been earned.

Official Transcripts (Domestic)

All applicants must request official transcripts from each former/current institution attended. You will need to order all official transcripts to be sent directly to NursingCAS for verification (regardless of the years attended or previous coursework completed). This includes any concurrent/dual enrollment courses you took in high school; you must submit official transcripts for any post-secondary school(s) from which you earned college credit while in high school. For additional information regarding submitting official transcripts, please visit the NursingCAS transcripts help section.

International/Foreign Transcripts

Applicants holding a degree from an international or foreign institution require a course-by-course transcript evaluation. For additional information regarding submitting international transcripts and course-by-course evaluations, please visit the NursingCAS transcripts help section.

All applicants must submit three letters of reference. We recommend that at least one reference be from an academic source. References are submitted as part of the NursingCAS application process.

Due to the clinical nature of the nursing profession, all students must meet the following communication standards, as outlined in the Technical Standards of our Student Handbook:

1. A student must be able to communicate clearly and effectively in English with clients, teachers and all members of the health care team. Written and oral communication must use standard, professional medical terminology.
2. He/she must communicate with clients clearly and effectively in English to elicit information regarding history, emotional status and activity, and to perceive nonverbal communications.
3. Communication includes speech, hearing, reading, writing and computer literacy.
4. A student must be able to clearly and effectively report in English to members of the health care team. Additionally, students must be able to relay appropriate information to clients, as well as teach, explain, direct and counsel a wide variety of individuals.
5. In some instances the student will be required to provide clear, direct communication in English during highly stressful, crisis situations. These skills necessitate a strong command of the English language and prompt, timely interpretation of pertinent patient data.
6. Students must be able to communicate online in a timely, professional manner, e.g., enter an electronic medical record immediately after the patient visit.

If your primary language is not English, or if you are an International Student, you will need to demonstrate required English language proficiency by meeting one of the following criteria:

1. You are a citizen of a country whose official language is English including Australia, Belize, Botswana, Canada (except Quebec), Commonwealth Caribbean, Ghana, United Kingdom, Ireland, Kenya, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, and Zimbabwe.
2. You have obtained a total score of at least 560 on the paper-based TOEFL and 50 or above on the Test of Spoken English (TSE); a score of 83 on the Internet-based TOEFL with 26 or above on the spoken English section. For other minimum subscores see internationaladmissions.ucdenver.edu. The College of Nursing TOEFL Exam Code is 3377. Be sure to use this code when registering for the exam to ensure that we will receive the results.
3. You have obtained a total score of 6.5 on IELTS with a minimum speaking subscore of 8. Official IELTS scores must be sent directly to the College of Nursing.
4. You have graduated from the University of Colorado Denver’s ESL Academy.
5. You have graduated from a US/UK accredited school abroad with English as the medium of instruction.
6. You have earned a Bachelor’s degree in the U.S. or you have successfully completed a minimum of 2 semesters of full-time study in a master’s program at an accredited institution in the U.S.

*For non-international applicants whose primary language is not English (i.e. permanent residents), there may also be an opportunity to complete an English language evaluation to demonstrate language proficiency. Candidates may be identified and contacted during the application cycle if proof of English language proficiency is required.