Duke's 93-credit DNP runs 36 months at $2,345 a credit hour for 2026-27, and applications close August 1 for an August start. There is no GRE and the CCRN is encouraged rather than required, but the 3.2 science GPA floor sits above the 3.0 cumulative minimum and is where most files get screened out. The class of 2025 passed the National Certification Exam at 92% on the first attempt with 7.4% attrition.
Every figure on this page was read off Duke University's own pages on 22 September 2026. Where the program publishes nothing, this page says so rather than guessing. The National Certification Exam, or NCE, is the exam every graduate has to pass, and a program that publishes its first-time pass rate is handing you the single most useful number it has.
Duke CRNA Program: Key Facts
| Degree awarded | Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) |
|---|---|
| Program length | 36 months |
| Credits | 93 |
| Start | Fall |
| Application deadline | August 1 (opens June 1) for August/Fall matriculation |
| Minimum ICU experience | 1 year minimum (2 years preferred) |
| CCRN | Strongly encouraged (not required) |
| GRE | Not required |
| Minimum GPA | 3.0 cumulative (science GPA minimum 3.2) |
| Class / cohort size | Not published — verify on the program site |
| Format | Not published — verify on the program site |
| Tuition (in-state) | Not published — verify on the program site |
| Tuition (out-of-state) | Not published — verify on the program site |
| Tuition (as published) | Per-credit and per-semester rates only (no single total-program figure, no in-state/out-of-state split): $2,345 per credit hour and $36,340 average per semester for 2026-2027; $2,250 per credit hour and $35,230 average per semester for 2025-2026 |
| NCE first-time pass rate | 92% first-time pass rate, Class of 2025 |
| Attrition | 7.4% Class of 2025; 6% five-year (Classes 2021-2025) |
| Employment | 100% within 6 months, Class of 2025 |
Anything marked “Not published” is genuinely absent from the program's own pages. Programs are not required to publish tuition, cohort size or acceptance rate, and many do not. We would rather leave a gap than fill it with a third-party guess.
Admission Requirements
The critical-care floor is one year minimum, with two years preferred. That is the hard rule, and a file sitting exactly on it is eligible rather than competitive — committees read high-acuity time in a CVICU, SICU, trauma or neuro unit very differently from a monitored floor.
On grades the program asks for a 3.0 cumulative minimum and a 3.2 science minimum. Treat that as a screen rather than a target, because admitted classes at doctoral programs usually sit well above the stated floor and science coursework is weighed separately.
CCRN: Strongly encouraged, not required.
GRE: Not required.
Published prerequisites
- Bachelor's degree in nursing (ACEN/CCNE accredited)
- BLS, ACLS, PALS certifications
- Graduate research methods or inferential statistics course
- Current unencumbered RN/APRN license
Deadline and Timeline
Applications close August 1, opening June 1, for an August start, and the program starts in the autumn.
Deadlines move year to year, and a doctoral cohort is usually decided nine to twelve months before it starts. Confirm the current cycle on the program site before you plan around this date. Our CRNA application timeline works backwards from a start date through references, shadowing, CCRN and transcripts.
Cost
$2,345 a credit hour for 2026-27, or about $36,340 a semester. Duke publishes no single total and no resident split.
Tuition is not the whole number. Fees, health insurance, board-exam and licensure costs, relocation and the lost income of three years out of a staff job all land on the same ledger. Our CRNA school cost guide works through the full picture, and cheapest CRNA programs ranks by published tuition.
Outcomes
First-time NCE pass rate: 92% first-time for the class of 2025
Attrition: 7.4% for the class of 2025, with a 6% five-year average
Employment: 100% within six months for the class of 2025
These three figures are worth more than any ranking. COA requires accredited programs to publish them, and read together they tell you whether a program gets the people it admits through to a licence. National context: the first-time NCE pass rate was 90.5% in 2025 (NBCRNA), with a five-year average of 86.6%.
How Duke Compares in North Carolina
If Duke is on your list, price it against the rest of North Carolina before you commit an application fee. See all North Carolina CRNA programs, or start with these:
| Program | City | Degree | Cost | Acceptance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carolinas Medical Center | Charlotte | DNP | Varies | N/A |
| East Carolina University | Greenville | DNP | $72,000 | 18% |
| University of North Carolina - Greensboro | Greensboro | DNP | $78,000 | 20% |
Cost and acceptance in that table are directory figures rather than program-verified ones. "Varies" and "N/A" mean the program publishes neither.
Sources and How We Verified This
Every figure above was read off Duke University's own pages on 22 September 2026. Accreditation status and review dates come from the COA list of accredited programs. We publish no number we could not read at its source.
- https://nursing.duke.edu/academic-programs/dnp-program-nursing/nurse-anesthesia-dnp
- https://nursing.duke.edu/academic-programs/curricula/dnp-nurse-anesthesia
- https://nursing.duke.edu/academic-programs/dnp-program-nursing/nurse-anesthesia-admission
- https://nursing.duke.edu/academic-programs/dnp-program-nursing/dnp-tuition-fees
Programs change requirements and prices between admission cycles. If something here no longer matches the program site, tell us and we will fix it.