Prerequisite Requirements

You may have completed one or several of the required courses as a part of your non-nursing undergraduate degree.

Our Admissions Reviewers ultimately determine which courses will be accepted during the application review process, but we generally look for prerequisite courses that are a minimum of 3 credits and typically accept:

Anatomy and Physiology I and II with labs: We will also accept a stand-alone Anatomy course with a lab combined with a stand-alone Physiology course with a lab. Only human-specific Anatomy and Physiology courses will be accepted.

Microbiology with lab: This one is usually just called Microbiology. May also be called Medical Microbiology or Microbiology for Health Care Professionals.

Human Nutrition: We typically accept a general human nutrition course that is not specific to any certain group. Other titles for this course may be Fundamentals of Human Nutrition or Introduction to Nutrition. We do not accept any plant or animal nutrition course to fulfill this requirement.

Human Growth & Development: This is a course that covers the fundamentals of human development across the lifespan, from birth to death. Other common names for this course are Lifespan Development or Developmental Psychology, and this is typically listed as a Psychology course.

Statistics: We typically accept any statistics course even if the course was specific to a student’s previous field of study, such as Biostatistics.

If you have questions about whether a course meets our requirements please connect with the Admissions Office to review transcript(s) and plan to submit official transcripts with your application.

We require proof of successful course completion (official transcripts) at least three weeks before the intended start date in the program. Refer to the Academic Calendar for program start dates. 

We DO NOT require all prerequisite requirements be fulfilled by the appropriate application deadline. However, we strongly encourage students to complete at least three hard sciences (A&P I & II and Microbiology) as it may help reviewers assess their ability to succeed in this type of foundational, science-based coursework. Some students choose to complete coursework before submitting their application to allow adequate time to complete any remaining courses and labs in the 2-3 months leading up to the program. 

At the time of application submission, students should submit all official transcripts for any prerequisite coursework completed to date. If a student is accepted to the program with outstanding prerequisite courses, the acceptance offer will be contingent on whether they successfully complete the remaining courses.

The Center for Lifelong Learning, the School of Nursing's health care career development center, offers the prerequisites online. Complete one or all of the listed required courses by registering as a non-matriculated student at the University of Rochester. If admitted to the program, students will receive a scholarship to cover tuition costs of all prerequisite coursework taken at the University of Rochester School of Nursing. 

If registering at other schools (must be from an accredited institution), please feel free to email the Admissions Office to check that the course description is appropriate.