Getting a Nursing Degree With a Non-Nursing Major

Reviewed May 22, 2026 by the ScrubScope editorial team.

If you already hold a bachelor's degree in a non-nursing field and want to become a registered nurse, you do not start over. There is a path built specifically for you: the Accelerated BSN, often called a second-degree or accelerated second-degree program. It uses your existing degree to skip the general-education years and put you straight into nursing coursework. The decision is not whether you can become a nurse with a degree in biology, psychology, business, or English. You can. The decision is which version of the path fits your money, your time, and your geography.

Quick verdict

For most non-nursing majors who want to be an RN, the Accelerated BSN is the right path. It is a real, accredited BSN that takes roughly 11 to 16 months of full-time study instead of four years, because your prior degree already covered the non-nursing requirements. The two honest checks before you commit: first, whether you can complete the science prerequisites your bachelor's degree probably did not include, and second, whether you can step away from full-time work for about a year of demanding study. If both are yes, an ABSN is the fastest defensible route. If either is no, a part-time or traditional BSN may fit better. Your undergraduate major itself almost never disqualifies you.

Your major does not block you, your prerequisites might

The first worry most career-changers have is that their degree is "wrong" for nursing. It is not. ABSN programs admit students from every undergraduate field. What programs require is not a specific major; it is a completed bachelor's degree plus a defined set of prerequisite courses.

George Mason University's accelerated second-degree BSN requires "a US-based, four-year, regionally accredited bachelor's degree" in any field, plus six nursing prerequisites^[1]. The University of Washington's accelerated BSN is open to applicants who "already have a bachelor's degree" in a non-nursing discipline^[2].

The prerequisites are where your major actually matters, and only indirectly. A psychology or biology graduate has likely already taken some of the required science courses. A business or humanities graduate usually has not, and will need to complete them before applying. Common prerequisites include anatomy, physiology, microbiology, chemistry, statistics, nutrition, and a developmental or lifespan psychology course. George Mason lists an eight-credit anatomy and physiology sequence and a four-credit microbiology course among its six^[1].

So the realistic framing is not "is my major eligible." It is "how many prerequisite courses do I still owe, and how long will they take." A graduate who already has the sciences can apply soon. A graduate starting from zero on prerequisites should budget a semester or two, often at a community college, before the ABSN itself begins.

How the second-degree path works

The Accelerated BSN exists because your first degree did real work. A traditional four-year BSN spends roughly two years on general education, English composition, social sciences, electives, and two on nursing. A non-nursing major has already done the equivalent of the first part. The ABSN keeps only the nursing portion.

That is why the timeline collapses. Drexel runs its accelerated track in 11 months^[3]; the University of Washington runs four consecutive full-time quarters across 12 months^[2]. The degree at the end is a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, identical on your resume to a traditional BSN. Graduates sit the same NCLEX-RN licensing exam and qualify for the same RN roles.

What does not collapse is the clinical requirement. An ABSN includes hundreds of supervised, in-person clinical hours regardless of how short the calendar is, because licensing requires them. The University of Washington program includes "600+ hours of hands-on patient care"^[2]. Your prior degree shortens the classroom years; it does not shorten the hospital hours.

The honest demands of the path

Two things decide whether the ABSN route works for a non-nursing major, and neither is the major itself.

The intensity. An ABSN is built to be done at near-full-time intensity. The University of Rochester's 12-month program tells students to plan for "an average of 32 hours per week" of scheduled class, lab, and clinical time, before independent study^[4]. For a career-changer, that usually means leaving or sharply cutting a full-time job for about a year. This is the part of the decision that is genuinely hard, and it has nothing to do with what you studied at twenty.

The cost. An ABSN is a real bill: tuition, fees, prerequisites you may still owe, and the income you give up while you study. The prerequisite courses are a separate cost for a non-nursing major who has not taken the sciences. The lost income from a year out of work is often the largest line of all, and no catalog prints it.

The reason the math still works for many career-changers is the wage on the other side. A registered nurse earned a median annual wage of $93,600 in May 2024^[5]. That figure is what makes a year of cost and intensity a defensible trade for a non-nursing major committed to the switch.

The alternative paths, briefly

The ABSN is the most common second-degree route, but it is not the only one, and a non-nursing major should know the others exist.

A direct-entry MSN lets some non-nursing-degree holders earn a master's in nursing rather than a bachelor's. These programs are longer than an ABSN and lead to a graduate credential. They suit a career-changer who already knows they want an advanced-practice or leadership track. How the two-stage structure works, from RN licensure through to nurse practitioner, is covered in the direct-entry MSN guide.

A traditional BSN is still open to you. It is slower and does not use your prior degree to save time, but it spreads the cost and intensity over more years, which can fit someone who must keep working.

For most non-nursing majors who simply want to be a staff RN as soon as is realistic, the ABSN is the cleanest answer. The longer paths are for specific goals or specific constraints.

Who should look elsewhere

If you do not yet have a bachelor's degree, the ABSN path is not open to you. You want a traditional or entry-level BSN, and the prerequisites and timeline differ enough that comparing them here would mislead you.

If you are already a licensed RN with an associate degree, you do not need an ABSN. An RN-to-BSN is the shorter, cheaper credential for your situation.

If you cannot complete the science prerequisites, because of time, cost, or the grades required, an ABSN application will not succeed yet. The prerequisites are a hard gate, and George Mason, for example, requires no grade lower than C and a minimum 3.0 GPA in nursing prerequisite coursework^[1].

If you cannot step away from full-time work for roughly a year, the accelerated structure is the problem, not the solution. A part-time or traditional BSN is the honest fit.

Bottom line

A non-nursing major becomes a registered nurse through the Accelerated BSN: a real, accredited BSN that uses your existing degree to skip the general-education years and finish in roughly 11 to 16 months. Your undergraduate major almost never disqualifies you. What decides the path is whether you can clear the science prerequisites and whether you can sustain about a year of near-full-time study. Both are answerable before you apply, and you should answer them honestly first.

Start with the ABSN overview for the full pathway and prerequisites, read what "online" really means for an ABSN before trusting any flexibility claim, then compare specific schools on the best online nursing programs page.

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