Master of Science in Nursing
Why pursue a Master of Science in Nursing from North Central College?
North Central College offers an innovative, interprofessional approach to fostering the next generation of healthcare leaders who embrace diversity, promote health equity, and improve population health outcomes.
The North Central College’s Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) program offers a personalized approach to the online student experience. The core principles of the program equip students with the skills and foundation necessary for lifelong learning, personal responsibility and sustained achievement in the nursing profession.
The MSN program offers four graduate nursing tracks, as well as two post-graduate APRN certificates. Please click below for more information on each track.
- MSN: Family Nurse Practitioner
- MSN: Nurse Educator
- MSN: Nurse Executive Leader
- MSN: Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner
- Post-Graduate APRN Certificate: Family Nurse Practitioner
- Post-Graduate APRN Certificate: Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner
Learn how you can reduce your tuition cost by up to 25%!
North Central College offers several scholarships and awards, including:
- Alliance Partnership
- Opportunity Award
- North Central College Alumni
- Offer can be extended to family of alumni
Core Values
Caring: We believe caring is essential to the practice of nursing and seek to treat those we serve with sensitivity, respect, and empathy. We embrace holistic care through therapeutic relationships directed toward health, comfort and well-being.
Communication and Collaboration: We believe that open communication and collaboration require accountability, honesty, integrity, and respect for all participants. We seek to practice shared decision-making with our fellow nurses as well as inter-professionally.
Cultural Inclusivity: We believe in the practice of cultural inclusivity, recognizing the rich diversity of humanity. We endeavor to honor that diversity by continually broadening our scope of care to include all members of our community and by modeling respect and equality for all.
Critical Thinking: We believe critical thinking is essential to nursing as a self-reflective and purposeful approach to thinking. We value the ability to make connections between patient data and acquired knowledge, leading to appropriate clinical interventions for our patients.
Evidence-Based Practice: We believe in the use of evidence-based practice to guide our nursing practice. We foster the integration of current research, clinical expertise, and the rigorous evaluation of the effectiveness of nursing interventions to make sound decisions in the care of our patients. We identify safety as having the utmost importance to the practice of nursing and strive to prevent harm to our patients and ourselves while delivering quality care.
Social Justice: We believe social justice in nursing embodies the principles of fairness, equality, dignity, and equal opportunity for health for all. We embrace a moral mandate to improve access to quality health care for the marginalized and under-serviced.
Accreditation Statement
The master's degree programs in nursing and the post-graduate APRN certificate programs at North Central College are accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education, 655 K Street NW, Suite 750, Washington, DC 20001, 202-887-6791.
Mission Statement
The North Central College Graduate Nursing Programs will prepare advanced nurse professionals for life-long learning, transformational leadership and to function as ethical change agents in the local, national and global healthcare system and community.
Program Goals
- Prepare graduates to engage in clinical reasoning that provides safe, evidence-based, patient-centered care to diverse populations across the lifespan.
- Deliver a curriculum grounded in the liberal arts and sciences that promotes nursing’s unique way of knowing and caring to support the development of clinical judgement, compassionate caring and diversity, equity, and inclusion.
- To provide an innovative interprofessional approach for fostering the next generation of healthcare leaders who embrace diversity, promote health equity, and improve population health outcomes locally, nationally and globally.
- Graduate advanced nursing professionals, dedicated to leading with moral courage to promote evidence-based practice and health policy to advance population health.
Graduate Nursing Program Outcomes
The graduate nursing program is designed to build on baccalaureate education to prepare the graduate for the advanced nursing role in accordance with The Essentials: Core Competencies for Professional Nursing Education, and relevant standards and guidelines. Upon completion of the graduate nursing program, students will have the requisite skills and knowledge to accomplish the following:
- Integrate, translate and apply established and evolving scientific knowledge from diverse disciplines as a basis for clinical judgement and innovation in nursing practice.
- Use evidence-based best practices to design, manage, and evaluate comprehensive person-centered care that is within the regulatory and educational scope of practice.
- Integrate foundational evidence-based knowledge into ethical, just, culturally competent practices to promote equitable population health outcomes at a local, national and global level.
- Generate, synthesize, translate, apply and disseminate nursing knowledge to improve health outcomes and transform health care.
- Utilize knowledge and principles of translational and improvement science methodologies to mitigate potential harm and improve quality and safety for providers, patients, populations and systems of care.
- Collaborate with the interprofessional team to optimize care and strengthen outcomes through meaningful communication and active participation in person-centered and population-centered care.
- Effectively lead and proactively coordinate resources to provide safe, quality, equitable care to diverse populations within complex systems of healthcare.
- Utilize informatics and health care technologies to manage and enhance delivery of safe, high-quality, and efficient healthcare services in alignment with professional and regulatory standards.
- Form and cultivate a sustainable professional nursing identity that reflects the characteristics and values of the nursing profession, and to actively engage as a dedicated and equal partner within the interprofessional healthcare team.
- Engage in self-reflective practices to develop a sustainable progression towards profession and interpersonal maturity, and improved resilience while nursing a robust capacity for leadership and nursing expertise.
Faculty and Staff
Important Dates
Master of Science in Nursing
Fall semester start only
August 8, 2025 - Deadline for Verified NursingCAS application
August 20, 2025 - First day of class
Post-Graduate APRN Certificate
Summer semester start only
August, 2025 - NursingCAS application opens
Admissions Criteria
North Central College’s nursing program is committed to holistic admission, which assesses an applicant’s unique experiences alongside traditional measures of academic achievement such as grades and test scores. Admission decisions will be made within two months of the application deadline. Applicants will be invited to participate in an on-campus and/or virtual interview format.
Master of Science in Nursing
Applicants must have:
- An earned BSN of CCNE or ACEN baccalaureate accredited program
- A current, unencumbered RN license
- While North Central accepts students from multiple states/territories, applicants outside of Illinois should check with their state regulatory body
- A cumulative GPA of 3.00 on a 4.00 scale for the last 60 hours of their BSN program
- Completed undergraduate statistics (3 credit hours) with a “C” or higher
Post-Graduate APRN Certificate
Applicants must have:
- An earned MSN from a CCNE or ACEN Master accredited program
- A current, unencumbered RN license
- While North Central accepts students from multiple states/territories, applicants outside of Illinois should check with their state regulatory body
- A cumulative GPA of 3.00 on a 4.00 scale for their prior MSN degree coursework
Application Process
All applicants must apply online via the online application service NursingCAS. Review all NursingCAS and North Central College-specific instructions prior to completing the application process.
Submit the following documents to NursingCAS:
- Official post-secondary academic transcripts
- A current, unencumbered United States RN License*
- Resume/CV with academic and work history, certificates and services
- Three letters of recommendation
- At least one from a professional nurse colleague (supervisor or preceptor)
- At least one from a professor or graduate-level prepared nursing colleague who can address the applicant’s professional and/or academic qualifications
- Completed a personal narrative including experiences (healthcare experiences, educational background, community enrichment), and attributes (resilience, integrity, intellectual curiosity, ethnicity/race, socioeconomic status, multilingual abilities, geography, faith, perseverance)
- Completed application
Apply Today!
*State Restrictions: Applicants outside of Illinois should review their home state distance education requirements before submitting an application. APRN applicants should contact the licensing board of their specific state of residence to determine if the program meets that state's requirements for nurse practitioner licensing.
State Authorization and Reciprocity Agreements
The U.S. Department of Education requires institutions offering distance education to attain authorization from the state where educational services are offered. The state of Illinois authorizes North Central College to participate in the National Council for State Authorization and Reciprocity Agreements (NC-SARA). The NC-SARA oversees post-secondary distance education, allowing the institution to provide online education to students in participating SARA member states, without obtaining authorization in that state. Regulations vary from state to state. All states EXCEPT California are currently authorized as SARA member states. SARA provides institutional reciprocity for educational offerings only and does not provide reciprocity for professional licensing. Information regarding NC-SARA can be found here.
Professional Licensure
State Board of Nursing requirements vary by state; students considering enrollment in online graduate nursing programs should contact the licensing agency of the state where educational instruction is received prior to beginning their academic program to ensure that the standards set by that state’s licensure regulations are met.
North Central College Graduate Nursing Program is offering the MSN and Post-Master Certificates to students in the following states and US Territories:
- American Samoa
- Connecticut
- District of Columbia
- Florida
- Guam
- Hawaii
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Kentucky
- Maine
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Montana
- New Jersey
- Rhode Island
- Vermont
- Virgin Islands
- Virginia
- Wisconsin
Onsite Requirements
Graduate nursing students will complete their required practicum hours locally, in their home state, at approved clinical sites. In addition, students are required to travel to the North Central College campus in Naperville, Illinois, for 2–3 on-campus visits throughout the program. The timing and duration of these visits vary by specialty. Prospective students are encouraged to contact the Graduate Nursing Program for details specific to their track.
Dates will be provided prior to the start of the program
[This] program is committed to helping its students find a clinical site that fits their educational goals. Many programs ask their students to find their own clinical site and it was a relief to have the faculty's support...The online platform makes it easy to do my work at my own pace while meeting deadlines. The deadlines are consistent enough that I can plan out my week ahead of time and make time for work, personal life, and professional responsibilities.
[I chose this program] to provide more mobility in my career, to increase my earning potential, to expand my skill set, and to step into a provider position to make a meaningful impact on my community. I chose NCC because of the amazing relationships I had formed with some of my professors from my undergraduate. This gave me the confidence to pursue my Master’s degree knowing I would have a great support system cheering me on along the way.
