How to Become a Nurse: Degree Paths, Cost, and Time

Reviewed May 22, 2026 by the ScrubScope editorial team.

Becoming a registered nurse (RN) takes two things: a nursing degree from an accredited school, and a passing score on a national licensing exam. There are several ways to earn the degree, and the right one depends on the schooling you already have. This guide maps the routes in plain language, with honest figures on time and cost, so you can find your real first step instead of guessing.

Which describes you?

Start here. Most of the confusion about nursing degrees comes from skipping this question.

• You have no college degree, or a degree in another field, and you are not yet a nurse. You need a pre-licensure program: one that takes you from no nursing credential to an RN license. That is the ADN, the BSN, or the accelerated BSN below.
• You already hold an RN license with an associate degree. You are already a nurse. Your next step is an RN-to-BSN completion program, not a pre-licensure one.
• You are an RN and want an advanced role, such as nurse practitioner or nurse anesthetist. Those are graduate degrees that come later, after a BSN and work experience.

This page is for the first group. If a program name contains "RN-to-" something, or names a graduate role like NP or CRNA, it assumes you are already licensed, so a career-changer should not start there. Begin with one of the three pre-licensure routes below.

The pre-licensure routes, mapped

Three accredited routes lead to a first RN license. They differ mostly in how long they take and what they assume you already have.

All three routes qualify you for the same license. The Bureau of Labor Statistics lists the bachelor's degree, the associate degree, and (less commonly today) a diploma from an approved program as the standard entry routes into registered nursing.^[1]

The ABSN is the route most career-changers miss. If you already finished a bachelor's degree in any subject, an accelerated BSN lets you skip the general-education coursework and finish the nursing portion in a little over a year. We cover it in depth in the ABSN for non-nursing majors and in what ABSN actually means.

A practical note on the ADN-versus-BSN choice: an ADN is the faster and cheaper way to first become a nurse, but a growing share of hospitals prefer or require a BSN, and many ADN nurses later complete an RN-to-BSN. If you can commit the time and cost up front, a BSN avoids paying for the same step twice.

How long it takes and what it costs

The time figures above are the honest ranges. Cost is harder to pin down, and any single number you see online is usually misleading, because it depends on three things:

• Public versus private school. A community-college ADN and a private-university BSN can differ by tens of thousands of dollars for the same license.
• In-state versus out-of-state tuition. Public schools charge residents far less.
• Financial aid. Federal aid, scholarships, and employer assistance change what you actually pay, not the sticker price.

ScrubScope does not publish a single estimated tuition figure, because a number that ignores those three factors would mislead more than it helps. The reliable move is to price two or three specific accredited schools you could realistically attend, using their own current tuition pages, and to factor aid in before you compare.

What the route is worth is clearer than what it costs. The Bureau of Labor Statistics put the median annual wage for registered nurses at $93,600 in its May 2024 data, well above the median for all occupations, with the lowest-paid tenth earning under about $66,000 and the highest-paid tenth over about $135,000.^[1] The agency also projects RN employment to grow about 5 percent from 2024 to 2034, faster than the average for all jobs.^[1] A first nursing job pays below the $93,600 median; that figure reflects the whole workforce, including experienced nurses.

Getting licensed: the NCLEX

A degree alone does not make you a nurse. After you finish an accredited pre-licensure program, you apply to a state board of nursing and sit for the NCLEX-RN, the national licensing examination developed and administered by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing.^[2] Pass it, and the state issues your RN license. The exam is computer-adaptive, which means the test selects each question based on how you answered the last one.^[2]

Two things follow from this. First, the school you choose has to be approved by a state board of nursing, or its graduates cannot sit for the exam at all. Second, a program's NCLEX pass rate is a fair signal of how well it prepares students, which is why it is worth asking about before you enroll. Our NCLEX explained guide covers the exam in full.

Is an online nursing program legitimate?

Partly. The honest answer has two halves.

A pre-licensure nursing program cannot be fully online, because becoming a nurse requires hands-on clinical hours with real patients, supervised in person. Programs marketed as "online" at the pre-licensure stage still require in-person labs and clinical placements. Be cautious with any program that claims otherwise.

Online study is genuine and respected once you are already a licensed nurse and are completing a higher degree, such as an RN-to-BSN or a graduate program. The coursework there is largely online, and the clinical hours are arranged locally.

For any program, online or in person, the thing that actually signals legitimacy is accreditation. The two recognized nursing-program accreditors are the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE) and the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing (ACEN); our CCNE vs ACEN guide explains the difference. Check the accreditor's own website to confirm a school's status, not the school's marketing page.

The honest cons

A guide that only sells the upside is not much of a guide. Before you commit, weigh these:

• Nursing school is demanding. Pre-licensure programs are full and fast, especially the accelerated BSN, which compresses a degree into a year-plus of near-continuous study.
• The work is physical and emotional. Floor nursing means long shifts, night and weekend rotations, and difficult days. The job security and pay are real, and so is the strain.
• Cost can be significant. A private-school degree financed mostly with loans is a heavier start than a community-college ADN. Match the school to a budget you can defend.
• Licensing adds time after graduation. Applying to a state board and scheduling the NCLEX takes weeks, so the calendar to your first paycheck is longer than the degree alone.

None of this is a reason not to become a nurse. It is a reason to choose the route, and the school, with clear eyes.

Your first step

If you are starting from no college, the single first step is to pick a regionally accredited community-college ADN program and confirm it is approved by your state board of nursing. That keeps cost down while you confirm nursing is the right fit. If you already hold a bachelor's degree in another field, the single first step is to look at the accelerated BSN for non-nursing majors, usually the fastest legitimate route, because it skips the coursework you already finished.

Either way, the concrete next action is the same: list two or three accredited schools you could realistically attend, confirm each one's accreditation on the CCNE or ACEN site, and compare their cost and NCLEX pass rates before you apply.

Bottom line

Becoming a registered nurse means earning an accredited nursing degree, by the ADN, BSN, or accelerated BSN route, and passing the NCLEX-RN licensing exam. The route that fits you depends on the schooling you already hold: a career-changer with a prior bachelor's should look at the accelerated BSN, while someone starting fresh can begin with an ADN or a BSN. Whatever the route, accreditation is the gate that decides whether the degree counts.

For the program-by-program detail behind each route, start with the ABSN for non-nursing majors, and once you are licensed, the RN-to-BSN path is how many nurses finish a bachelor's later.

ScrubScope routes inquiries to the schools you choose and does not make admissions or financial-aid decisions; see our full disclosure.

We review this page and its sourced figures every 90 days.