Best RN-to-BSN Programs in North Dakota, Ranked for 2026

In-state tuition across the 5 RN-to-BSN programs analyzed runs from $6,517 at Mayville State University to $19,940 at University of Mary, with University of North Dakota at $9,237, Rasmussen University-North Dakota at $12,359, and Minot State University at $7,168 in between. That is the full cost of the completion program stacked on top of the associate degree you already paid for once.

Registered nurses nationally earn a median $97,550 a year, according to BLS data. A BSN does not add a fixed dollar amount to that median; the real payoff is eligibility, not a guaranteed raise. Magnet-designated hospitals track toward 80 percent BSN-prepared staff under the ANCC Magnet standard, and a growing number of health systems require new hires to complete a BSN within a set window under so-called BSN-in-10 policies. Employers who do pay a BSN differential often set it around $1 to $2 an hour.

Run the math on a $2-an-hour differential over a full-time, 2,080-hour year: that is $4,160 in additional pay annually. Against Mayville State's $6,517 tuition, the payback period is about 1.6 years. Against University of Mary's $19,940 tuition, the same differential takes closer to 4.8 years to recoup. Cost matters more than the sticker price alone suggests once you run the payback.

An RN-to-BSN program does not start you over. You already hold an associate degree or diploma and an active RN license, so the completion program accepts a block of your prior nursing and general education credits and builds the remaining BSN coursework, usually leadership, community health, research, and informatics, on top. Transfer policy is the first thing to check on any school's program page: how many credits carry over determines how much of the degree you actually have left to complete.

Time to finish typically runs 12 to 24 months. Full-time students who front-load coursework finish toward the 12-month end; RNs working full shifts who take one or two courses per term land closer to 24 months. Most North Dakota completion programs are built around rolling or multiple annual start dates specifically so a working nurse is not stuck waiting a full year to enroll.

Part-time pacing is the default assumption for this degree, not the exception. Programs that publish an online or hybrid track generally structure coursework in asynchronous modules so it fits around 12-hour shifts, nights, and rotating schedules rather than a fixed classroom slot.

Of the 5 RN-to-BSN programs analyzed in North Dakota, three run online: University of Mary, University of North Dakota, and Mayville State University. Two keep an on-campus or in-person component: Minot State University and Rasmussen University-North Dakota. Which format fits depends on how your work schedule and your learning style line up.

A fully online track fits a nurse working rotating shifts, nights, or in a rural facility with no nearby campus. Coursework posts on a schedule you control within the week rather than a set class time, which matters when your own schedule changes every two weeks. An on-campus or hybrid format fits someone who wants face-to-face contact with faculty and classmates, or who is completing a program at a school closer to home where the in-person option is the more established track.

Format does not determine rigor. An online completion degree from a CCNE- or ACEN-accredited school carries the same accreditation weight as the on-campus version at the same institution.

Every RN-to-BSN program worth enrolling in carries accreditation from one of two bodies: the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE), housed under AACN, or the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing (ACEN). Both are recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. Neither is objectively better; they evaluate against different but comparable standards, and most accredited BSN programs pick one and stay with it.

Accreditation matters for a completion degree in two concrete ways. First, employer recognition: hospital HR departments and Magnet program reviewers check that a BSN came from a CCNE- or ACEN-accredited school before counting it toward BSN-prepared staffing ratios. Second, graduate school admission: MSN, nurse practitioner, and DNP programs almost universally require your BSN to carry CCNE or ACEN accreditation as a prerequisite for admission. Skip this check and you risk a BSN that does not count toward either goal.

The push behind RN-to-BSN completion has a name: BSN in 10, the policy movement, enacted in New York in 2017 for new RNs, requiring newly licensed nurses to earn a BSN within 10 years of initial licensure. Even outside states with a formal BSN-in-10 law, hospitals increasingly prefer or require a BSN at hire, and Magnet-designated hospitals must show a workforce trending toward 80 percent BSN-prepared nurses to keep that designation.

A BSN is also the gate to everything that comes after it. You cannot enroll in an MSN, a nurse practitioner track, a CRNA program, or most nursing leadership and management roles without a BSN in hand first. For a registered nurse who eventually wants to move into advanced practice or into a charge nurse, unit manager, or director role, the completion program is not optional scaffolding; it is the only on-ramp.

None of this means a nurse with only an associate degree cannot practice. It means the ceiling on where that license can go, without a BSN, has a hard stop that a completion program removes.

Start with transfer policy. Call the program and ask exactly how many of your associate-degree and general education credits transfer before you compare tuition, because a program with a lower sticker price but a stingier transfer policy can end up costing more in credits you have to retake.

Then compare pace and total cost side by side, not tuition alone. A $19,940 RN-to-BSN completion program and a $6,517 one both end in the same credential; what differs is how many of your existing credits each accepts, how the coursework is paced, and whether the format, online, hybrid, or on-campus, matches your shift schedule.

Confirm accreditation last, but never skip it. Check that the specific completion track, not just the university at large, holds current CCNE or ACEN accreditation before you enroll, since that is what an employer or a future MSN program will verify.