Degree Requirements for the RN-BSN Student

A minimum of 128 semester hours and satisfactory completion of all RN-BSN program requirements is required, including prerequisites, general education and elective requirements, and 32 semester hours of required and elective nursing major courses.

Must be in-progress or completed at the time of application to the RN-BSN program:

1. Prerequisites (9 s/h):

- 3 s/h  Comp II
- 3 s/h  Speech
- 3 s/h  Statistics

2. General Education Requirements (12 s/h):

- 3 s/h  Values, Society & Diversity
- 3 s/h  Literary, Visual & Performing Arts
- 3 s/h  International & Global Issues
- 3 s/h  Additional course from one area above

You may complete all prerequisites and GERs at your local community college. To find courses that transfer to Iowa for each requirement, use our Course Equivalency Guide at myui.uiowa.edu. This is a tool for you to search for courses that transfer from the community college to the University of Iowa.

Brief instructions on how to use the transfer tool are as follows:

  • Click on the above link and use the drop-down boxes
  • Transfer Institution = put in school where you want to take your courses
  • UI College = College of Liberal Arts
  • Select the curriculum area of courses = put in whatever is marked “X” need on your transcript evaluation (i.e. Literary, Visual & Performing Arts, International & Global Issues, Rhetoric, etc)
  • Hit search

The courses that appear will transfer to Iowa for that particular requirement.

Must be complete at the time of matriculation (beginning) the RN-BSN program:

1. Nursing Degree (ADN/Diploma)
2. RN License

Complete prior to conferring (graduating) with your BSN:

1. General Education Electives (11 s/h):

- 5 s/h  completed prior to matriculation into the program
- 6 s/h  completed prior completing the nursing major

Students should work with the RN-BSN program office for assistance in selecting electives. Recommendations would be a college-level chemistry course and/or an upper level statistic course.