Last Updated: October 1, 2026
Program Overview
Stanislaus State’s Accelerated Second BSN is a 19-month, face-to-face program at the Stockton Campus, with specialty clinical placements across the surrounding region.
The Accelerated Second Bachelor of Science in Nursing (ASBSN) is designed for students with a non-nursing bachelor’s degree who want to become registered nurses. The program advertises 59 credits, spring entry and full-time study at Stockton rather than the main Turlock campus.
The curriculum combines nursing science, skills development and clinical practice, ending with a prelicensure seminar and clinical practicum. Graduates earn a BSN and may pursue RN licensure and, after meeting the separate requirements, California Public Health Nurse certification.
Accreditation
Stanislaus State’s baccalaureate nursing program is accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education and approved by the California Board of Registered Nursing. Graduation prepares students to pursue licensure; the degree itself does not confer an RN license.
Admissions
Next Application Cycle: Spring 2028 Entry
The university has announced new holistic admissions criteria for the June 1–August 1, 2027 application cycle, leading to spring 2028 entry. These include:
- A non-nursing BA or BS from an accredited institution, conferred before application.
- Overall GPA of at least 3.0.
- Science-prerequisite GPA of at least 3.2, covering chemistry, anatomy, physiology and microbiology.
- TEAS score of at least 73.
- Completion of all eight prerequisites by the application deadline, with letter grades of C or higher.
Optional scoring factors include healthcare work or volunteering, veteran status, residence in the service region, bilingual ability and first-generation college status. The service region comprises Calaveras, Mariposa, Merced, San Joaquin, Stanislaus and Tuolumne counties.
The new process divides applicants into Stanislaus graduates and graduates of other universities, initially selecting 20 from each pool and allowing vacancies to be filled from qualified alternates. The program eligibility page links the new criteria and their effective dates.
The spring 2027 application cycle closed August 1, 2026 and used earlier requirements. For context, the university reports 112 applicants and 40 seats for spring 2026, with an admitted average overall GPA of 3.742 and average TEAS score of 86.54%. These historical averages describe competitiveness; they are not admission minimums or a prediction of the next cohort’s results.
Prerequisites and Application Materials
The eight prerequisites are separate from the 59-credit nursing curriculum:
- Chemistry: an accepted college-level chemistry course.
- Human Anatomy with lab.
- Human Physiology with lab.
- Microbiology with lab.
- Statistics.
- Oral Communication.
- Written Communication.
- Critical Thinking.
All must be completed by the application deadline. No more than one science prerequisite and one nonscience prerequisite may be repeated; this is not permission to repeat every course once. Online and hybrid prerequisite courses are accepted, and equivalencies should be checked against the university’s grids or ASSIST agreements.
Introductory Psychology and an approved Ethnic Studies course are separate co-requisites, each 3 credits. Any outstanding requirement must be completed before graduation; students should have existing coursework evaluated rather than assume it must be repeated.
Apply through Cal State Apply, submit transcripts and required program materials, and arrange official ATI TEAS reporting as directed by the program. Optional experience and language documentation supports the applicable selection criteria. Admission remains contingent on required health screening, background checks and other clinical clearances. See how to apply for submission instructions.
Curriculum
Assessment, research, professional nursing and medication science establish the foundation for adult and specialty nursing. Pediatric, reproductive, mental-health and population nursing link theory with clinical work; advanced adult care and leadership lead into the final seminar and practicum.
The tables below follow the university’s published 59-credit ASBSN roadmap, organized by subject rather than assigning every course to a calendar semester. Students receive a cohort-specific schedule, and the program’s course schedule page provides the dates for each entering class.
Prerequisites and any outstanding psychology or ethnic-studies co-requisites are outside the 59 nursing credits. The published program tuition covers the 59-credit ASBSN, so there is no additional nursing-credit allowance embedded in the tuition figure.
Required Courses and Credits
Foundations and professional practice
| Course | Credits | What you study |
|---|---|---|
NURS 3000 — Health Assessment (with a Lab) | 3 | Comprehensive assessment across the lifespan, connecting the nursing process with prevention and health promotion. |
NURS 3700 — Critical Appraisal of Evidence Based Practice | 3 | Evaluating nursing research and translating findings into patient care. |
NURS 2820 — Foundations of Clinical Nursing Practice | 3 | Developing the knowledge, practical skills and professional attitudes needed for safe care. |
NURS 2810 — Professional Nursing | 2 | Professionalism, communication, ethics, quality, safety and advocacy. |
NURS 2865 — Pathopharmacology in Nursing | 3 | Medication actions and therapeutic use linked to body-system disease processes, safe administration and patient education. |
NURS 3010 — Palliative Care & End of Life | 1 | Person-centered palliative care, family support and interprofessional care at the end of life. |
NURS 3605 — Diversity and Equity in Healthcare | 3 | Cultural humility, self-reflection and the effects of power and inequality on healthcare. |
Adult, family and population nursing
| Course | Credits | What you study |
|---|---|---|
NURS 2900 — Adult Health Nursing I | 3 | Foundational adult nursing care for acute and chronic illness across settings. |
NURS 2910 — Adult Health Nursing I Clinical | 3 | Evidence-based adult care planning, clinical judgment, prevention and patient safety. |
NURS 3800 — Pediatric Nursing | 3 | Development and illness in infants, children and adolescents, with family-centered nursing care. |
NURS 3820 — Reproductive Health Nursing | 3 | Reproductive and perinatal health, connecting development and pathophysiology with care for women and families. |
NURS 3850 — Maternal-Child Health Clinical | 3 | Applying pediatric and perinatal nursing with women, infants, children and families. |
NURS 3900 — Mental Health Nursing | 3 | Mental-health promotion and assessment and management of psychiatric conditions across the lifespan. |
NURS 3910 — Mental Health Nursing Clinical | 2 | Supervised psychiatric care using evidence-based assessment and interventions. |
NURS 4405 — Population Health Nursing | 3 | Prevention, health promotion, equity and population-focused approaches across the care continuum. |
NURS 4420 — Population Health Nursing Clinical | 2 | The community and population-health clinical component listed in the ASBSN roadmap. |
Complex care and transition to practice
| Course | Credits | What you study |
|---|---|---|
NURS 4800 — Adult Health Nursing II | 3 | Complex adult illness, evidence-based judgment, technology and quality improvement. |
NURS 4810 — Adult Health Nursing II Clinical | 3 | Integrating advanced adult nursing knowledge, person-centered care and quality improvement in practice. |
NURS 3330 — Nursing Leadership and Management | 3 | Nurse-leader roles and management in changing healthcare systems; also satisfies upper-division writing proficiency. |
NURS 4820 — Pre-Licensure Seminar | 2 | Preparing for transition to professional nursing practice. |
NURS 4830 — Pre-Licensure Clinical Practicum | 5 | An individualized clinical experience integrating the professional nursing role across practice settings. |
Clinical Integration and Final Practicum
Theory courses are paired with adult, maternal-child, mental-health and population-health clinical experiences. The 2026–27 catalog specifies 225 hours for NURS 4830, the five-credit final clinical practicum; this is one course’s requirement, not a total for the entire program.
NURS 4820 supports the transition into professional practice alongside that practicum. NURS 3010 addresses palliative and end-of-life care, and its catalog description states that successful completion earns ELNEC certification.
Clinical Requirements and Facilities
Most placements are in Stockton, but the university also identifies Modesto and Sacramento sites and a weekend pediatric rotation at Children’s Hospital in Madera. Sites are assigned by the program; students do not choose their clinical location.
Classes and clinical assignments can require attendance three to five days a week, including weekends and night shifts. Students should plan for travel beyond Stockton and a schedule that can change with clinical availability. The ASBSN FAQ explains these placement and attendance expectations.
Skills instruction, simulation and ATI learning resources support clinical preparation. Clinical eligibility also depends on the required health, screening and facility documentation being maintained throughout the program.
Tuition and Costs
Published program tuition is $44,840 for 59 credits. ATI and laboratory course fees are additional: the current fee schedule lists $1,723.95, producing a combined tuition-plus-course-fee estimate of $46,563.95.
- Tuition: $44,840.
- Published additional course fees: $1,723.95, covering the listed ATI and nursing laboratory charges.
- Tuition plus those course fees: $46,563.95.
- Acceptance deposit: $400 applied toward tuition, not an additional $400 above the tuition total.
The published tuition installments total $44,840, but their timing depends on the cohort’s payment schedule. Books, uniforms, a laptop, health insurance, screening and clearance expenses, transportation and living costs require separate budgeting. Prerequisites and outstanding co-requisites are also outside this nursing-program estimate.
Rates and fees can change. The official tuition and financial-aid page lists cohort payment dates, individual course fees and financial-aid information.
Outcomes and Public Health Nursing
The California BRN reports a 92.47% first-time NCLEX-RN pass rate among 93 Stanislaus State testers for July 1, 2024–June 30, 2025. This is the school-level prelicensure result and should not be treated as an ASBSN-only pass rate. See the BRN results for reporting definitions.
Graduates seeking California Public Health Nurse certification apply separately after RN licensure and arrange the required degree and transcript verification. The certificate is not issued automatically with the BSN.
Other Nursing Programs
Stanislaus State also offers an online RN-to-BSN pathway for registered nurses, graduate nursing study and a psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner certificate. Those options serve different applicant groups and should not be confused with this face-to-face, prelicensure second-degree program.