ABSN Prerequisites: The Courses You Need Before You Apply

Reviewed May 22, 2026 by the ScrubScope editorial team.

ABSN prerequisites are the specific college courses you must complete before an accelerated BSN program will admit you. They are not the nursing curriculum itself; they are the science and foundational courses the program assumes you bring in. For a career-changer with a non-nursing bachelor's degree, the prerequisites are the real gate. Your degree gets you eligible to apply. The prerequisites, completed with the required grades and within the required time window, are what actually open the door.

Quick verdict

Plan the prerequisites before anything else. Most ABSN programs require roughly six to eight courses, almost always including anatomy, physiology, microbiology, chemistry, and statistics, plus a developmental psychology or lifespan course and sometimes nutrition. Programs require a minimum grade in each, often a C or a B, and a minimum prerequisite GPA. Many also require that the science courses be recent, completed within the last five years. The single most common reason a qualified career-changer is delayed is not the nursing application; it is discovering, late, that a prerequisite is missing, that a grade is too low, or that a science course has aged out. Pull the prerequisite list from your target program now and audit your transcript against it.

The core prerequisite courses

The exact list varies by school, but the overlap is large. Across accredited ABSN programs, the prerequisites cluster into a predictable set.

The sciences are the heart of it. Anatomy and physiology, usually a two-course sequence with labs, microbiology with a lab, and chemistry with a lab appear on nearly every list. George Mason University requires an eight-credit anatomy and physiology sequence and a four-credit microbiology course among its six prerequisites^[1]. Drexel University's accelerated track lists eight prerequisites totaling 28 credits, including general chemistry with lab, anatomy with lab, physiology with lab, and microbiology with lab^[2].

Beyond the sciences, programs commonly require statistics, a developmental or lifespan psychology course, human nutrition, and English composition. Drexel's eight include statistics, developmental psychology, human nutrition, and English composition^[2]. George Mason's six include statistics, human lifespan development, nutrition, and bioethics^[1].

The labs matter. A science course taken without its lab component frequently does not satisfy the prerequisite, and that mismatch is a common reason a transcript audit comes back short. Read each course requirement for the words "with lab."

The grade and GPA rules

Completing a prerequisite is not enough. Programs require a minimum grade in each one, and a minimum GPA across the set.

The grade floor varies. Drexel requires a grade of C or higher in each prerequisite for the credits to transfer^[2]. George Mason requires no grade lower than C in any prerequisite course and a minimum 3.0 GPA in nursing prerequisite coursework^[1]. The University of Washington requires a minimum grade of 3.0, on a 4.0 scale, in all ABSN prerequisite courses^[3].

Two things follow from this. First, a passing grade is not always a qualifying grade. A C-minus in microbiology can satisfy your old degree and still fail an ABSN prerequisite. Second, ABSN admission is competitive, and the published minimum is a floor, not a target. A program that lists a 3.0 prerequisite GPA minimum may admit a class whose average is well above it. A grade that technically qualifies may still leave you uncompetitive.

If a prerequisite grade is too low, retaking the course is usually the fix. That costs another term and another tuition payment, which is exactly why auditing your transcript early is worth the effort: a low grade found a year out is a manageable problem, and the same grade found at application time is a lost cycle.

The recency rule that surprises people

The prerequisite trap that catches the most career-changers is not a missing course. It is an expired one.

Many ABSN programs require that the core science prerequisites be recent. George Mason states that anatomy, physiology, and microbiology coursework "cannot be more than five-years-old at the time of BSN enrollment"^[1]. Drexel requires that anatomy, physiology, and microbiology "must have been taken within five years of beginning the program"^[2].

For someone who earned a biology or psychology degree a decade ago, this is the costly surprise. The science courses are on the transcript, the grades are good, and they still do not count, because they aged out. The fix is to retake them, which adds a semester or two and real tuition before the ABSN clock starts.

The rule usually applies only to the sciences. Statistics, nutrition, and English composition are often accepted regardless of age. But the science recency window is real, it varies between schools, and it is the single detail most worth checking against your transcript before you build any timeline.

How to plan your prerequisites

A workable approach has four steps.

First, pick two or three target ABSN programs and pull each one's official prerequisite list and grade rules from the school's own catalog or admissions page. Lists differ, and planning to the wrong list wastes a term.

Second, audit your transcript against each list. Mark each prerequisite as complete, missing, too low a grade, or aged out. The science recency rule belongs in this pass.

Third, build a schedule for the gaps. Community college is the cheapest and most common route for prerequisites, and many ABSN programs accept regionally accredited community college credit. A full prerequisite load can take two to three semesters; a few missing courses can take one.

Fourth, only then plan the ABSN application timeline. The prerequisites set the start date, not the other way around. A career-changer who plans the nursing application first and the prerequisites second usually discovers the schedule does not work.

Who should look elsewhere

If you do not have a bachelor's degree, ABSN prerequisites are not your concern yet. A traditional or entry-level BSN has a different admission structure, and its prerequisites are folded into the degree itself.

If you are already a licensed RN with an associate degree, you do not face ABSN prerequisites. An RN-to-BSN has its own, lighter requirements built around your existing license.

If your science prerequisite grades are well below a program's floor and cannot be raised through retakes in a reasonable time, a more selective ABSN may not be reachable soon. That is a real constraint to face early, not at application time.

Bottom line

ABSN prerequisites are roughly six to eight foundational courses, anchored by anatomy, physiology, microbiology, chemistry, and statistics, that you must complete with the required grades, and often within a five-year recency window for the sciences, before an accelerated BSN program will admit you. They are the true gate for a career-changer, and the most common cause of a delayed start. Pull your target programs' lists now, audit your transcript honestly, and plan the prerequisites first.

Start with the ABSN overview for the full pathway and timeline, then read what "online" really means for an ABSN before trusting any program's flexibility claim.

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