FAQs
You must first submit a SUNY application as a transfer student. The SUNY application can be found on the Undergraduate Admissions website. You must submit all official transcripts from your previous academic programs (which may include high school) and the required deposit fee before your application will be considered for approval. Make sure to request all your transcripts to be sent to admit@brockport.edu (if by email) or Undergraduate Admissions Office 350 New Campus Dr. Brockport, NY 14420 (if by USPS mail). Do not have them sent to the School of Nursing, as this will delay your application since we do not handle the transcripts. You must ensure you meet all deadlines as specified in the application system. You will be given a checklist specific to the semester you wish to enroll in. Failure to meet any deadlines will result in your application being deferred to the next semester’s cohort. Once accepted as a Brockport student, your application will be forwarded to our program, which the program director and coordinator will review. If accepted, you will be notified directly by the program coordinator of the next steps of the admission process.
The Admissions website will guide when the SUNY application is open each semester. The RN-BSN program admits three times a year—Spring, Summer, and Fall. Since our seats are limited, our applications are not rolling. We have particular timeframes for when the Nursing applications will be accepted.
- Fall Admissions: April 1 - June 15
- Spring Admissions: October 1 - December 1
- Summer Admission: February 1 - March 31
You must apply before the deadline to be admitted during the semester you want, or your application will be deferred to the following semester.
**Please note, if you are accepted as a student and decide to defer to an upcoming semester, you must contact the Admissions office to request a deferral via email.
When the Admissions Office receives your transcripts, a formal audit is conducted to determine your transfer credits. These include your general education, liberal arts, and pre-requisite credits. They are trained to identify which courses at other institutions qualify for these credits and which meet SUNY qualifications. The program director and program coordinator will be able to review your transcripts once the Admissions Office has created a Degree Works audit report showing what transferring credits have been honored. Once that report has been completed, the program director will determine what credits are required for program completion. The Admissions office will only create this report once you receive your application, transcripts, and deposit. Please refer to Transfer Credit Services for more information.
Students will need anywhere from five to nine additional classes in addition to the RN to BSN classes. Those who already have a bachelor’s degree will be exempt from this requirement. When you meet with your advisor halfway through your first semester for advisement for subsequent semesters, they will have more details about your degree plan.
You will be able to follow the status of your application and see what might need further follow-up directly in the Admissions Portal. You must do this to make sure all required documents are submitted promptly.
An admission criterion is having your registered nursing license before starting the RN to BSN program. This will allow you to have sufficient time to study for your NCLEX exam before starting the program.
A BSN degree requires 120 total credits. A BSN degree also requires a minimum of 60 Liberal Arts credits. You may transfer up to 75 credits from the associate degree level and up to 90 credits from courses completed at a baccalaureate level. The RN to BSN program consists of 30 credits which are called residency credits**, meaning credits earned from courses taught by Brockport faculty. You must earn these credits to earn a degree at SUNY Brockport. The RN-BSN program has 11 core Nursing courses (30 credits) that account for those residency credits. If you still have any Gen Ed, Liberal Arts, or Nursing pre-requisite needs, those would be in addition to the core nursing courses. The Nursing prerequisites required are Anatomy & Physiology I & II, Microbiology, Psychology, and Sociology (all with a “C” or better). If you have not taken one or more of the prerequisites in your previous programs, you will be allowed to take them concurrently with your nursing courses, but you cannot graduate until you have completed all pre-requisite requirements.
There are many electives that are taught online in the 15-week format that may be completed to meet the 120 credits needed to earn the BSN degree, which will certainly augment the required coursework in the RN to BSN program. These may be found in the RN to BSN Student Handbook (link).
**NOTE—the 30 residency credits are mandated for each NEW degree earned. You will still be required to meet this requirement to earn a BSN degree, even if you have previously completed another program at Brockport.
Our RN to BS website has additional information and resources available to you.
The tuition costs and fees are not managed or collected by the Nursing department. Therefore, the program director and coordinator will not be able to tell you the cost of your program. Current tuition fees are available at Admissions & Aid.
Specific financial aid questions can be sent to faid@brockport.edu, and specific program costs/fees questions can be sent to bursar@brockport.edu. If you have a Banner ID number issued to you (you will get this when you are accepted into the College), provide it, along with your full legal name, in your email.
The length of the program depends on a few factors, including your enrollment status upon entering the program (full-time or part-time) and the availability of courses. Students can opt to enroll full-time (12 credits per semester), part-time (9 credits per semester), or part-time (6 credits per semester). Full-time students typically can complete the program in 12-16 months. Part-time students typically can complete the program in 24-36 months. Depending on the track you have selected, you may need to take a course in the off-session winter or summer to complete the program as intended. Winter and summer course offers rotate; you will want to discuss course availability once you are assigned to your academic nursing advisor.
Some students will only take one course at a time, or even just one course per semester, for various reasons because that is most feasible for them due to time constraints or finances, which is completely fine to do. Other factors that can impact your graduation date include but are not limited to needing to withdraw or repeat courses—especially courses that are pre-requisites to progressing in the program, fulfillment of the required liberal arts credits if not completed by the start of the program, changing your status from full-time to part-time, needing to take a leave of absence for personal reasons, holds/restrictions placed on your account by SUNY Brockport preventing you from registering for courses, etc.
A full-time track would include 12 credits per fall/spring semester and 3-6 credits during an off session of summer or winter. This would translate to 4 courses per semester and 1-2 courses in the off session. All RN-BSN courses are only 7 weeks long, so two courses would be taken together during one half of the semester and 2 in the other half. Realistically, full-time students should expect to spend at least 24-36 hours on their weekly coursework.
A part-time track would include 6-9 credits per each fall/spring semester and three credits during an off session of summer or winter. This would translate to 2-3 courses per semester or 1-2 classes each half of the semester. Realistically, a part-time student should expect to spend a minimum of 16-18 hours on their weekly coursework.
**If you are working full-time, we highly recommend starting the program with one of the part-time options to aid your success. Also note that summer sessions are often condensed; therefore, if you want to take classes over summer, please consider this as it may require additional time commitments.
Our program is very flexible. Once students have completed PRO 306: Introduction to BSN Practices at the start of their first semester, their seat in the program is secure. If students must take a semester or two off for unexpected life events, they can do so and return without reapplying to the program. Please note that you will return on the same academic track that you started the program on, so this will mean that your anticipated graduation date will change accordingly. If you started the program part-time and had to take a leave of absence, you must resume full-time to make up the semester(s) lost with permission from the RN-BSN program director. There are limited full-time seats within the program, and approval will be based on availability.
**NOTE—if you take an extended leave from classes beyond three full semesters, SUNY Brockport will put your student account into an “inactive” status, which will prevent you from being able to register for classes again until you reapply as a returning student. This is a separate application process from the SUNY app submitted when entering the program, but it will require the deposit fee to be paid again before your status is returned to “active.” You will NOT have to reapply to the RN-BSN program if you have completed and passed the course PRO 306.
The RN-BSN program is fully asynchronous and online, using the academic platform Brightspace. This means that you can go into your courses and complete coursework around your schedule. Every RN-BSN course runs on a Monday-Sunday weekly schedule, with the weekly content becoming available on Mondays by 12:01 am. Most activities/assignments are due at the end of the week on Sunday by 11:59 pm. The exception to this is that discussion boards when assigned, require an initial post due midweek. Weekly content is provided to students via the online Brightspace platform. It can include assigned reading materials in article format or chapters from the course textbook, lecture videos to watch, podcasts, documentary videos, PowerPoint presentations, etc. It will be up to the student to access these teaching tools to apply to their learning and reach out with questions as they come up. When you choose to complete the weekly course activities and assignments, it is at your discretion as long as you follow the course’s assigned due dates.
The program requires two clinical courses—NUR 365 Health Assessment Clinical for the RN and NUR 472 Community Epidemiology Clinical. You will not be required to go to a clinical site each week to achieve your clinical hours as you did in your ADN program. Health Assessment clinical hours will be met through a virtual simulation program with a virtual patient. Epidemiology clinical hours will be met through a final project based on a required 10-hour volunteer experience within the student’s community at an approved site of their choosing. Epidemiology clinical hours are further completed with the completion of weekly course assignments. Clinicals may not be completed until the student is enrolled in the course where the clinical hours count.
You can view all of our courses using our official college catalog that are required to complete the RN-BSN program at SUNY Brockport. They are not the same as similar courses offered by other colleges. For example, PRO 358 is different from a College Statistics course. Although it covers basic statistics concepts, PRO 358 applies them directly to nursing research. This skill will be needed to be successful in PRO 310, NUR 471/472, and NUR 473/475. Each course in the program has specific American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) and Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) driven learning objectives that will ensure the program objectives are met by the time of graduation.