Changing Careers Into Nursing: Denver’s Accelerated Routes for Graduates of Other Fields
You finished a degree once already. Maybe it was in business, psychology, education or a science. Going back for nursing does not mean repeating four years of college, but it also does not mean skipping the hard parts of nurse training. Around Denver, a small group of prelicensure programs are built around the degree you already hold. Each runs the nursing major at a pace that leaves little slack in the week.
This page covers four of those routes: one that finishes in a year, others that run longer, and one that is not a twelve month program at all. Details and prices come from official school material reviewed on October 23, 2026. Cohorts change, so confirm any figure with an admissions office before you rely on it. Our wider guide to BSN programs in Denver sets these routes beside traditional and completion study if you want the full picture first.
First Question: Do You Count as a Second Degree Applicant?
Eligibility is the gate everything else hangs on, so start here rather than with prices or start dates. In broad terms, these programs are looking for someone who has completed a bachelor degree in a subject other than nursing and who is not yet a registered nurse. That second part matters. If you already hold RN licensure, you are shopping in a different category altogether, and the page you need is the one on RN to BSN programs in Denver.
A master degree or another graduate qualification can also open the door at some schools, Regis among them, provided the underlying pattern fits: a completed degree from a regionally accredited institution, in a field outside nursing. Holding a graduate degree does not, by itself, shorten the nursing coursework or excuse you from prerequisites.
| Your situation | Where you probably belong | What to check first |
|---|---|---|
| Bachelor degree outside nursing, no RN license | An accelerated or second degree prelicensure route | Whether your sciences are recent enough and complete |
| Graduate degree outside nursing, no RN license | Possibly the same routes, school by school | Whether the school accepts a graduate degree as the qualifying credential |
| College credit but no completed bachelor degree | Possibly a route built around prior credit, such as the Denver College of Nursing option below | How much general education you still owe |
| Already licensed as an RN | Completion study, not an ABSN | RN to BSN entry rules instead |
| No degree yet and no prior college | A traditional BSN or an associate route | ADN nursing programs in Denver and traditional BSN entry |
Two naming warnings will save you wasted applications. First, a program title containing the words completion option does not automatically mean it is for licensed nurses. At Denver College of Nursing, the BSN Completion Option discussed below is a prelicensure route, aimed at people seeking a first license. Second, an accelerated BSN is not a graduate entry master program; those are separate structures with separate admissions. The simplest test is one question: can someone who entered without a nursing license finish this program and then seek initial RN licensure? If not, it is not the program this page is about.
Structured transfer arrangements, including the Integrated Nursing Pathway linked to CU and a route running from the Community College of Denver toward MSU Denver, belong to the traditional BSN story. They are covered in full in the BSN guide and are not described again here.
Finally, fix the end point before you apply anywhere. Completing a program satisfies an education requirement; it does not hand you a license. Colorado licensure is a separate process run by the state, and it involves passing the NCLEX-RN. Our guide to how to become an RN in Colorado lays out that sequence in full.
What Your First Degree Clears, and What It Does Not
Applicants often assume a completed degree wipes the admissions slate clean. It does not. What it usually clears is breadth: English, humanities, electives and much of the general education layer of a bachelor degree. What it rarely clears is the specific scientific preparation nursing schools insist on, because many first degrees never included those courses, or included them too long ago to count now.
Expect admissions teams to look course by course at subjects such as anatomy and physiology (taken separately or as an approved combined sequence, usually with laboratory work), microbiology, and general chemistry. Whether a course counts can turn on its content, its credit value, whether it carried a lab, and how long ago you completed it. A class that satisfied your first university can still fail on any of those grounds, so get an unofficial transcript review early, and do not book an expensive online laboratory course until the school has accepted it in writing.
Grades are judged on more than one scale. At Regis, the published floor is a cumulative GPA of 3.0, and prerequisite courses need a grade of C minus or better. For UCAN at CU Anschutz, individual prerequisite courses need a C or better, and, calculated separately, the grade average across your prerequisites must reach at least 3.0. A prerequisite average is not the same number as the GPA on your old transcript, especially if you have repeated courses since, and each school calculates by its own rules. Get an individual evaluation rather than guessing.
Timing rules are just as varied, and they catch people out. UCAN expects every prerequisite to be finished by the point its application deadline falls. Regis works differently: out of its four laboratory sciences (anatomy, physiology, microbiology and chemistry), three need to be finished when you apply, and the fourth must be done before classes begin. Regis also sets a recency limit: science coursework must fall within ten years of the program starting. Its further requirements reach beyond the sciences to statistics, nutrition and a religious studies course.
UCAN requires healthcare experience as part of admission, evidence that you have seen the work up close. Elsewhere, experience in a paid, volunteer or shadowing capacity may be weighed alongside your grades, a statement about your reasons for changing direction, and recommendations. If an entrance examination forms part of a given cycle, establish which one, what score is expected, how retakes work and how long a score stays valid. Do not borrow answers from a traditional BSN page or a previous year.
Then there is intensity. An accelerated sequence squeezes nursing theory, skills laboratories, simulation and supervised clinical practice into a short calendar. Clinical days can begin early, can fall outside a tidy weekday pattern, and can move as rotations change. Anyone caring for children or a relative needs a fallback for early placement starts and for weeks when the schedule shifts. UCAN states plainly that holding a full time job alongside the program is not recommended, and that warning is worth extending, in softer form, to every route on this page: some students keep limited, flexible work going, but planning around an unchanged forty hour job is a gamble. If your income cannot flex at all, a longer prelicensure route may fit your life better. The Denver nursing school admission requirements resource goes deeper on preparing an application.
The Four Routes, School by School
University of Colorado Anschutz, College of Nursing: The UCAN Pathway
UCAN is the one year route here: twelve months of full time nursing study, arranged across three semesters, leading to a prelicensure BSN for people whose first bachelor degree sits outside nursing. The main teaching base is the Legacy Campus in Lone Tree, and some classes take place at CU Anschutz in Aurora. If you live around Highlands Ranch or Littleton, that pattern may suit you, but a clinical placement is not guaranteed to sit near either campus or near home.
CU itself describes this route as its most competitive undergraduate pathway. Healthcare experience is required, not merely welcomed. Every prerequisite must already be complete when the application deadline arrives, with the grade standards set out in the previous section. If your sciences are old, or were taken under combined titles that do not map neatly onto that list, work from the current published admissions list rather than any older equivalency document.
Regis University: Accelerated BSN in Denver
Regis runs its accelerated program in Denver for applicants holding a bachelor or a graduate degree in a non nursing field, awarded by a regionally accredited institution. Regis counts 64 credits of nursing study, delivered across one year, inside a degree plan totalling 120 credits once the credit you bring from your earlier study is included. Applications go through NursingCAS, and the school also weighs your written statement of motivation, recommendations, and any healthcare or volunteer background alongside cumulative and science performance.
The detailed entry pattern was covered above: a cumulative GPA floor of 3.0, prerequisite grades of C minus or better, three of the four laboratory sciences finished by the deadline for applying and all four finished before the start, and sciences no older than ten years at the point the program begins. Statistics, nutrition and religious studies also feature among the requirements. Ask Regis for a personal review of what transfers and what remains, rather than assuming a first degree covers every category. Its application windows are associated with January and May starts, and those windows need to be reconfirmed for the cohort you actually intend to join.
MSU Denver: The Accelerated Nursing Option (ANO)
ANO is designed for holders of an earlier bachelor degree in a subject other than nursing. It is taught in person in Denver, and its nursing sequence is structured across four semesters. It builds on a completed degree rather than promising a finish inside a calendar year. It sits alongside, and should not be mixed up with, the university’s traditional route for students without a first degree and its online completion route for nurses who are already licensed.
Admission comes in two distinct stages. Being admitted to the university, even under a pre nursing label, does not admit you to the clinical nursing major. The nursing application is separate and competitive, run by the department on its own terms, so follow its instructions and calendar rather than the general university one, and ask an adviser how any summer term fits your cohort’s sequence. On standing, the university reports CCNE accreditation for its bachelor level nursing program, together with approval from the Colorado Board of Nursing. It also publishes a first attempt NCLEX pass rate of 90 percent in 2025 for the accelerated program. Read that as one reported cohort measure: it describes a group of past students, not a forecast of any individual’s result.
Denver College of Nursing: BSN Completion Option
The fourth route takes longer. Denver College of Nursing describes its BSN Completion Option as prelicensure study, open to applicants bringing earlier college work that can include a non nursing degree. The nursing courses run across seven quarters, which typically works out at about 21 months of full time study once the general education you still need is in place.
Read the catalog language carefully here. The college also lists a separate full degree track and marks it as not currently offered. That inactive listing is not the program on offer. The active route is the completion option described above. The college describes four starts across a year, subject to enrolment availability, so confirm the start you are counting on before arranging work or housing around it.
What It Costs, and How Long It Really Takes
Now put the money and the calendar together. Every length quoted on this page measures the nursing sequence itself. None of them includes the terms you may spend finishing prerequisites beforehand, and an applicant who still owes science courses should add that time, and that tuition, to any headline figure before comparing routes.
| Route | Tuition as published | What that figure leaves out |
|---|---|---|
| CU Anschutz, UCAN | For 2026 to 2027 and 66 nursing credits: $33,198 for a resident who qualifies for the Colorado Opportunity Fund stipend; $40,854 for a resident without that stipend counted; $71,676 for a nonresident | Living costs, travel, prerequisite classes, books, supplies, fees, and health coverage you cannot waive |
| Regis, Accelerated BSN | $599 for each credit in 2026 and 2027. Across the 64 nursing credits, that multiplies to $38,336 | Fees and any prerequisites still outstanding. The multiplication is an illustration of tuition only, not a quote for the full cost of attending |
| MSU Denver, ANO | No tuition figure specific to ANO is given here | Ask the university for an itemised ANO estimate. Do not borrow a general undergraduate rate, or another school’s price, as a stand in |
| Denver College of Nursing, BSN Completion Option | $59,930 published as program tuition. A school illustration puts the total at $65,903 once assumed costs for general education still to be taken are added | Your actual transfer position, fees and supplies. The larger number is a scenario built on the school’s assumptions, not a quote prepared for you |
Ask each school whether its charges can rise after you enrol, what its refund position is, and whether a payment plan alters what you pay overall. The largest cost no table captures is often earnings: a year at a full time, intensive pace can mean a year on sharply reduced income, while a route spread over 21 months or four semesters spreads both the bills and the lost wages differently. The cheaper tuition figure is not automatically the cheaper path to a license.
Funding a second bachelor degree has its own wrinkles. Whether federal loan eligibility looks the same for a second degree as it did for a first one, and how any need based grant help is treated, are questions only a financial aid office can answer for your circumstances, so ask them early. File the FAFSA where it applies, and ask about institutional scholarships, employer support and payment timing. Financial aid and scholarships may be available to those who qualify, but nothing should enter your budget as certain until a school has confirmed it for you, in writing, for your program and your start. The companion resources on tuition, financial aid and scholarships in Denver and NCLEX preparation and testing in Colorado cover funding and the examination stage in more detail.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need healthcare experience before I apply?
At one school on this page, yes. UCAN requires it. At the others, relevant experience, paid, voluntary or gained through shadowing, may strengthen an application. Ask each admissions office what kinds of experience it counts and whether a minimum number of hours applies, because those definitions are not shared between schools.
Is getting into a second degree program easier than a traditional BSN?
Do not count on it. Accelerated cohorts tend to be small, and a compressed curriculum gives schools reason to select carefully. Your first degree can satisfy a large block of general education, but it earns you no automatic preference and waives none of the prerequisites a program sets.
Can I do one of these programs entirely online?
No fully online route into a first RN license is established among the programs compared here. Licensure preparation involves laboratory work and clinical practice with patients, supervised in person, and that cannot be moved online. Some classroom teaching may be delivered remotely, but that is not an online prelicensure degree.
Does finishing in twelve months make a program cheaper overall?
Not necessarily. A shorter calendar can come with a higher charge per credit and a steeper loss of earnings while you study. Set the total tuition for your own remaining credits against fees, aid you have actually been offered, and the income each schedule would cost you.
Can I apply before my prerequisites are all finished?
That depends entirely on which school you mean. Regis expects three of its four laboratory sciences to be complete at the point you apply, with the remainder finished before the start. UCAN expects everything to be complete by its deadline for applications. Carrying one school’s rule across to another is an easy way to waste an application fee.
What if my earlier degree is a master degree?
You may still be a candidate for second degree BSN study, provided you meet the entry and prerequisite conditions of the program you choose. The graduate credential alone confers no advanced standing in nursing, and it replaces none of the nursing instruction.
My undergraduate GPA fell short of 3.0. Is there anything I can do?
Start by learning how each program calculates the averages it uses, since cumulative, prerequisite and science figures can all be produced differently, and recent coursework may be weighed differently by each school. A published minimum is a floor for consideration, not a promise that clearing it leads to an offer.
How does an ABSN differ from RN to BSN study?
The dividing line is licensure. An ABSN is prelicensure education for someone who is not yet a nurse. RN to BSN study is completion education for people who already hold RN licensure, or who are in an approved arrangement that pairs the two stages. Applying in the wrong category costs time, fees and, sometimes, a whole admissions cycle.
Your Next Moves as a Career Changer
Work in two lists. The first holds the programs you could enter on the strength of what you have already completed. The second holds those that become realistic after a term or two of prerequisites. Send the same transcripts to the admissions teams on both lists and ask each for a written statement of the courses you still owe, a cost estimate built around your residency and remaining credits, and a clear account of where and when classes, laboratories and clinical sessions meet.
Before you commit, run five checks. Which of my earlier credits will you count, and which named courses must I take again? What is the documented total for someone in my position, fees included? How far from campus could my clinical placements fall, and at what times of day? Is this specific pathway currently approved for prelicensure RN education in Colorado, and what is its accreditation position? And where are the current published figures for admissions requirements, first attempt examination outcomes and student completion?
Then apply, where timing and finances allow, to more than one program that genuinely fits. Keep the end point separate from the degree: graduation completes your education, after which Colorado licensure runs through the Board’s process and requires passing the NCLEX-RN, as the guide to becoming an RN in Colorado sets out step by step.
More routes to compare: traditional and completion bachelor routes side by side · associate-level RN preparation · completion options if you already hold an RN license