Colorado Mesa University offers one AGPCNP pathway: the Master of Science in Nursing with the Adult-Gerontology Nurse Practitioner – Primary Care cognate (MSN-AGNP). There is no BSN-to-DNP, MSN-to-DNP, or post-master’s certificate option in this population focus. CMU’s DNP is family nurse practitioner only.
The distinguishing feature is how much of the curriculum is committed to settings most AGPCNP programs treat as optional. A 100-hour congregate care rotation in long-term care facilities and a 150-hour capstone practicum in rural or underserved communities are both required, not electives. The trade-off is time: 46 credits are spread across nine terms and roughly three years, and students arrange their own preceptors and clinical sites.
Program Track Overview
| Program | Est. Tuition | Est. Duration | Credit Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| MSN – Adult-Gerontology Nurse Practitioner, Primary Care | ~$33,400 | ~3 years (9 terms) | 46 |
Tuition is a calculated estimate: 46 credits multiplied by the published Health Sciences Graduate – Online rate. It excludes future rate increases.
Quick Facts
| Program Types | MSN only (AGNP cognate) |
| Format | Online coursework; in-person OSCE and GPSI sessions in spring semesters |
| Clinical Hours | 750 direct patient care hours, plus indirect hours |
| Clinical Placement | Student-arranged preceptors and sites; faculty approve |
| Population Focus | Adult-gerontology primary care |
| Distinctive Coursework | Congregate/long-term care practicum; rural and underserved capstone practicum |
| RN Requirement | Unencumbered RN license, maintained throughout enrollment |
| Start Term | Summer (one intake per year) |
| Tuition | Same rate for residents and non-residents |
| Accreditation | CCNE |
MSN – Adult-Gerontology Nurse Practitioner, Primary Care
Estimated tuition is about $33,400 for 46 semester credits, completed over roughly three years on the published plan of study. Eligibility is limited to BSN-prepared RNs. There is no bridge entry for associate-degree nurses and no shortened option for master’s-prepared nurses seeking a second population focus.
MSN Curriculum
The 46 credits split into 31 didactic credits and 15 practicum credits. Eight core courses cover the advanced practice foundation: pathophysiology, pharmacology, health assessment, theory, evidence-based practice, health promotion, and policy, quality and ethics. The AGNP cognate adds primary care of adults, primary care of older persons, mental and behavioral health, rural and underserved populations, and a capstone project.
Course sequencing is unusual in two ways. The plan never exceeds eight credits in a term, and three of the nine terms carry two or three credits. This is a program paced for nurses who keep working, and the three-year length is a consequence of that pacing rather than a heavier credit load. Separately, the adult and older-adult primary care rotations land in year two, before the procedures and diagnostic testing practicum in year three. Most NP programs place procedures earlier.
The capstone is a service-learning project developed with a health care partner, presented publicly before graduation, with an expectation that students disseminate the work professionally.
Required core (17 credits)
- NURS 500 – Theoretical Foundations (3)
- NURS 501 – Evidence-Based Practice (2)
- NURS 525 – Advanced Pathophysiology (3)
- NURS 526 – Advanced Pharmacology for Nursing (3)
- NURS 527 – Advanced Health Assessment (2)
- NURS 535 – Health Promotion and Disease Prevention (2)
- NURS 536 – Leading Through Quality, Policy, and Ethics (3)
- NURS 577 – Clinical Practicum: Advanced Health Assessment (1)
AGNP cognate (29 credits)
- NURS 600 – Advanced Practice Nursing Issues (2)
- NURS 602 – Primary Care of the Adult (3)
- NURS 603 – Primary Care of the Older Person (3)
- NURS 604 – Primary Care of Rural and Underserved Populations (1)
- NURS 605 – Mental and Behavioral Health (2)
- NURS 575 – Capstone Project (2)
- NURS 586 – Clinical Practicum: Procedures and Diagnostic Testing (2)
- NURS 597 – Clinical Practicum: Congregate Care of Adults & Older Persons (2)
- NURS 615 – Clinical Practicum: Mental and Behavioral Health (1)
- NURS 620 – Clinical Practicum: Adult (3)
- NURS 630 – Clinical Practicum: Older Person (3)
- NURS 640 – Clinical Practicum Capstone: Rural and Underserved Populations (3)
Full course list and suggested sequence
MSN Clinical Requirements
AGNP students complete 750 direct patient care hours across seven practicum courses, uniformly valued at 50 hours per practicum credit.
| Course | Hours |
|---|---|
| NURS 577 – Advanced Health Assessment | 50 |
| NURS 586 – Procedures and Diagnostic Testing | 100 |
| NURS 597 – Congregate Care of Adults & Older Persons | 100 |
| NURS 615 – Mental and Behavioral Health | 50 |
| NURS 620 – Adult | 150 |
| NURS 630 – Older Person | 150 |
| NURS 640 – Rural and Underserved Capstone | 150 |
All 750 hours are direct care. Hours from OSCEs, simulation, GPSI sessions, and service-learning are logged separately as indirect care and do not count toward the 750. For applicants comparing programs, that distinction matters, because some schools count simulation and seminar time inside their headline total.
Placement is the student’s responsibility. Students identify preceptors local to them, confirm the preceptor meets qualification criteria, verify that a current affiliation agreement exists between CMU and the site, and obtain written faculty approval before accruing any hours. CMU’s clinical placement coordinator maintains the affiliated-site list and processes new agreements, but does not source placements. The Clinical Practicum Handbook warns that a new site agreement may take several months to process, which argues for starting outreach a full semester or more before a rotation begins.
Preceptors must be an NP, MD, DO, or PA-C licensed in the state where hours are accrued, hold a master’s degree or higher, work in a primary care setting relevant to the course, and have at least one year of experience in the role. Family members, friends, supervisors, and supervisees are excluded. Faculty conduct on-site or remote visits at least twice per semester.
Hours are tracked in Typhon, which charges students directly for accounts. Hours accrued beyond a course minimum do not carry forward to the next course. Clinical evaluation thresholds rise as students progress: 80% to pass the first two practicums, 85% for the third and fourth.
You should know: the rural and long-term-care requirements have a practical consequence. A student in a dense metro area may need to travel to satisfy NURS 640, and a student without a nearby skilled nursing or assisted living facility with a qualified NP or physician preceptor may struggle with NURS 597. Both are worth mapping against local options before applying.
Campus Attendance
Coursework is delivered online, but this is not a no-travel program. The catalog states that OSCEs and graduate program student intensives (GPSIs) are held online in fall semesters and in person in spring semesters. The Department of Health Sciences page describes OSCEs more loosely as held both in person and virtually, and the Clinical Practicum Handbook says OSCEs may be in-person or remote.
Be aware: CMU does not publish a specific number of required campus visits. Applicants who would need to fly to Grand Junction should treat annual spring travel as the working assumption and confirm the current schedule with the program.
MSN Admissions Requirements
- BSN from an accredited nursing program
- Minimum 3.0 GPA in nursing coursework
- Unencumbered RN license in a U.S. state or territory, maintained throughout enrollment
- Three letters of professional and academic recommendation
- Personal essay, 500 words or fewer, on why a graduate nursing degree is necessary for your goals
- Application through NursingCAS with a $50 fee
- CPR certification, malpractice insurance, criminal background check, drug screen, and current immunizations
- Proof of HIPAA and cultural competency training before clinical enrollment
- Possible additional screening of ethical or critical reasoning ability
- No grade below “B” counts toward the degree; 3.0 cumulative GPA required
You should know: the start term is summer, and the published deadlines conflict. The graduate nursing application page sets an early application deadline of February 1 for summer admission, with rolling review based on seat availability and a final close on April 15. The catalog’s nursing section instead says rolling applications are accepted for a fall start. The published plan of study begins with a summer semester, which supports summer entry. Applicants should treat February 1 as the operative target.
Transfer credit is capped at 30% of the program, roughly 13 credits at 46 total, requires a grade of B or higher, and needs program director approval. Up to nine credits taken as a non-degree-seeking student may later apply, but non-degree students cannot enroll in clinical courses without instructor permission. There is no published RN work experience requirement.
Application process and supplemental items
Tuition
CMU prices online graduate programs on a separate schedule from classroom programs. For Fall 2026 – Spring 2027, the Health Sciences Graduate – Online rate is $726.80 per credit hour.
Two features of that schedule matter more than the rate itself:
- The online rate is identical for residents and non-residents. CMU’s out-of-state graduate schedule lists the same $726.80 figure. Classroom graduate programs at CMU carry a substantial non-resident premium; online ones do not.
- The online tables list no per-credit student fees. Classroom graduate students are assessed $45.80 per credit in student and facility fees. The online tables show these as not applicable.
Estimated total tuition: 46 × $726.80 = $33,432.80. This is a calculation, not a figure CMU publishes. It excludes annual increases, which will apply across a three-year plan, and it uses the fall/spring rate. Summer terms are billed on a separate schedule at a slightly lower rate.
A one-time $140 matriculation fee applies to first-time degree-seeking graduate students. Individual courses may carry additional fees. Students also pay Typhon directly for clinical tracking accounts and carry the cost of malpractice insurance, background checks, immunizations, and travel to clinical sites and spring campus sessions.
The prior version of this page listed $702.30 per credit plus $40.80 per credit in fees and labeled the rate in-state. Both figures came from an earlier schedule, and the fee line does not appear in the current online graduate tables.
Current tuition and fee schedules
Why Choose This AGPCNP Program?
Best suited for: a working BSN-prepared RN, in or near a rural or underserved area, who already has access to a qualified primary care preceptor and prefers a lighter per-term load over a fast finish.
Required rural and long-term-care rotations
Most AGPCNP programs let students satisfy their hours in outpatient internal medicine clinics. CMU requires 100 hours in congregate living settings and a 150-hour capstone in a rural or underserved community, backed by two didactic courses on those populations. For anyone planning to practice in a skilled nursing facility, a critical access community, or an FQHC, that is a third of the clinical requirement spent in the target setting rather than adjacent to it.
Flat tuition regardless of residency
At roughly $33,400 for the degree, the out-of-state price equals the in-state price. Applicants comparing CMU against a home-state public university should compare against that school’s non-resident online rate, which is often higher.
A load built around employment, at the cost of three years
No term exceeds eight credits and several carry two or three. That makes continued full-time work realistic, but 46 credits over nine terms is slower than most MSN-NP programs, which often finish comparable credit totals in two years. Applicants who want to be certified sooner should weigh that directly.
Placement burden falls on the student
Students find preceptors, confirm affiliation agreements exist, and secure faculty approval. New site agreements can take months. This works well for a nurse embedded in a clinic willing to precept, and poorly for someone in a saturated market with no existing connections. There is no placement guarantee.
The Verdict
The strongest case for CMU belongs to a rural or small-town RN who has already identified a willing preceptor and wants a public-priced online MSN with clinical training aimed squarely at older adults in long-term and underserved care. That combination is not easy to find, and CMU delivers it at a price that does not penalize out-of-state applicants.
Applicants should look elsewhere if they need placement support, want to finish in two years, need multiple annual intakes, live somewhere that makes a rural or congregate-care rotation logistically hard, or want a doctoral option in this population focus. CMU’s DNP is FNP-only, so a CMU AGNP graduate wanting a DNP would need to go elsewhere or change population.
Accreditation
The baccalaureate, master’s, and doctoral nursing programs at Colorado Mesa University are accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE). CMU states that MSN AGNP graduates are eligible to sit for national nurse practitioner certification examinations and to apply for state APRN licensure.
More AGPCNP Programs in Colorado
- Colorado Christian University - Lakewood
- University of Colorado Anschutz - Anschutz