VCU CRNA Program

Virginia Commonwealth University, located in the Old Dominion of Richmond, Virginia offers one of the top CRNA programs in the United States. The VCU CRNA program length is 36 months (93 credit hours) beginning in the calendar month of January each year.  This detailed summary will discuss the degree, course structure, class size, acceptance rates, admissions, tuition costs and other helpful information for the school.

VCU DNAP

Upon graduation from the CRNA program, you will receive a Virginia Commonwealth University DNAP (Doctor of Nursing Practice – Anesthesia) degree.  Certainly, CRNA master’s degrees will no longer be offered by CRNA schools from 2022. Therefore, all degrees offered from CRNA schools will be Doctor degrees such as:

• DNP (Doctor of Nursing Practice)
• DNP-A (Doctor of Nursing Practice – Anesthesia)
• DNP-NA (Doctor of Nursing Practice – Nurse Anesthesia)
• DMPNA  (Doctor of Management Practice – Nurse Anesthesia)

For instance, many healthcare professions, like Pharmacy, are also moving towards the doctorate degree as the entry level to enter the profession.

#6 Best CRNA Schools – VCU CRNA

We spent hundreds of hours interviewing nurse anesthetists to come up with the list of Best CRNA schools where we include real feedback on all CRNA schools from nurse anesthesiologists all over the US.  In our Best CRNA School survey, the VCU CRNA has a CRNA School Ranking of #6 out of 124 CRNA Schools.  This is what real CRNAs had to say about the VCU CRNA program:

VCU has outstanding faculty and resources. Clinical site opportunities are varied. High quality graduates.

Virginia Commonwealth CRNA: Had close friend attend here, I had applied also. She told me that her clinical experience was lacking, had to share cases with both SRNAs and MD residents. Didactic was also very technical/science heavy without a lot of correlation to anesthesia itself.

VCU Nurse Anesthetist School – good didactic but clinical is varied by quality. They take too many students in distance cohort for quality clinical and quality applicants to hold true.

I got my Doctorate in Anesthesia practice from VCU. Excellent. Highly recommend.

VCU CRNA – I am rating 10/10 based on quality of graduates I have encountered.

For more information on all CRNA schools, check out Best CRNA Schools and CRNA School Rankings.

VCU CRNA Program Course Load

The VCU CRNA DNAP degree program is based on an front loaded course load.  In other words, an integrated CRNA degree is one where clinical experience begins in the first year with both clinical hours and classroom lectures throughout the program length. On the other hand, this is different than a front loaded CRNA degree where the first year is considered mainly academic with classroom education while the remaining years are focused on clinical rotations. In general, there is no right or wrong method of teaching – roughly 33% of schools have integrated course loads in the first year and 67% are front loaded. Therefore, the trend of more clinical hours in the first year has been increasing in recent years as CRNA schools realize the importance of practical experience and knowledge sooner rather than later.

Virginia Commonwealth University CRNA Program Class Size

To sum up, the VCU CRNA program class size is 44 students and considered very large.  To give a frame of reference, the average class size of CRNA programs across the nation is 24 CRNA students.

VCU Acceptance Rate & Admissions

The application deadline for the VCU CRNA program is on September 1.  The VCU CRNA program does accept applications via NursingCas.  The program charges an application fee of US$70, which is on par with the average CRNA application fee of US$54. In summary, the VCU CRNA acceptance rate is 24% and is deemed competitive. As a comparison to other CRNA schools, the average CRNA school acceptance rate across the United States is 26%.

VCU CRNA Program Tuition

In-State tuition is US$72,225, which is very affordable.  The average In-State tuition for CRNA schools is US$89,490 in the United States. Out-of-State Tuition is US$136,203, which is very expensive.  This is one of the most expensive schools for out of State students.   The average Out-of-State tuition for CRNA schools is US$105,291 across the country. Above all, for both In-State and Out-of-State tuition, these tuition figures include the total cost of the entire program excluding living expenses.  Consequently, after one year of living in many States, you would be considered an ‘In State’ resident for tuition purposes.  In short, rules vary state by state.  Therefore, please do additional research on this if you are applying as an Out-of-State CRNA student. To conclude, you might have to leave a tuition deposit once you are accepted into the VCU CRNA program.  This is usually a one-time deposit and off-set with your tuition bill. Most CRNA schools charge this reservation fee and the average across the nation is US$1,358.  The VCU reservation fee is US$1,000. Always remember that CRNA Scholarship programs do exist to help students with tuition.

VCU CRNA Program Additional Information

For your guidance, we have listed out additional information (GRE requirement, student attrition, first time test taker pass rate, etc.) that may be helpful to you on the nurse anesthesia program in the table below.

Best CRNA School Rating	US News Ranking	Name	State	City	Degree Offered	Program Length (Months)	Credit Hours	Application Deadline	NursingCas (Yes/No)	GRE	Acceptance Rate %	Student Attrition %	Test Taker Pass Rate %	In-State Tuition (US$000's)	Out-of-State Tuition (US$000's)
6	1	VCU CRNA Program	Virginia	Richmond	DNAP	36	93	Mar	Y	Required	24%	18%	94%	$72	$136

CRNA Salary in VA

Since you’ve shown interest in the CRNA Program at VCU, you should definitely check out our CRNA Salary Guide and CRNA Starting Salary Guide. If you’re still a student or wondering how much a nurse anesthetist earns fresh out of school, this info is very useful.  After all, it’s important to know how long it will take to pay off student loans and your payback period on time spent studying and tuition.  Hundreds of hours were spent analyzing CRNA salary information.  We go over data from BLS, the yearly AANA survey from +5,000 actual CRNAs in addition to my own nurse anesthetist job offers I received after graduating.  I strongly believe that you’ll find the information helpful in becoming a better and more informed nurse anesthetist!

Other Information on VCU CRNA Program

Website: Virginia Commonwealth University Click on the image gallery below for more information on CRNA Schools in VA and CRNA Salary in VA. Note: We have updated all the information for the 2021 academic school year.