CRNA Programs in North Carolina: Schools, Requirements and Costs

There are six accredited entry-to-practice CRNA programs in North Carolina: Carolinas Medical Center/UNC Charlotte, Duke, East Carolina, UNC Greensboro, Wake Forest and Western Carolina. All six show up as accredited programs in the Council on Accreditation of Nurse Anesthesia Educational Programs (COA) directory.

A plain list of school names won't show you where these six split apart. Some programs require adult ICU experience, and others list pediatric or neonatal settings. GPA calculations differ. Application windows may close a year before you'd enroll. And a published cost of attendance can include living expenses, so it isn't always tuition alone.

Start with eligibility and the earliest entry year that's realistic for you, then compare location and cost. The national CRNA program directory helps you organize programs alongside these six North Carolina options.

Which nurse anesthesia schools are in North Carolina?

The six below are accredited entry programs. The count doesn't include every hospital where students rotate. Carolinas Medical Center and UNC Charlotte run one collaborative program, and Wake Forest is its own separate program, even though both involve Atrium Health facilities.

Program and profile	Location	Degree and training format	Accreditation
Carolinas Medical Center/UNC Charlotte	Charlotte	DNP and certificate in nurse anesthesia, 36 months, full-time, summer entry	COA continued accreditation
Duke University	Durham	DNP, 36 months, with in-person clinical and simulation education	COA continued accreditation
East Carolina University	Greenville	DNP, nine semesters/36 months, May entry, campus-based anesthesia coursework	COA continued accreditation
UNC Greensboro	Greensboro	DNP, 36 months, 107 credits, campus, online and hybrid courses, May entry	COA continued accreditation
Wake Forest University School of Medicine	Winston-Salem	DNP, three years, first fall semester remote, later semesters include in-person work	COA continued accreditation
Western Carolina University	Asheville, Biltmore Park	DNP, 36 months, 86 credits, in-person program	COA continued accreditation

Sources: COA directory, CMC, Duke, ECU FAQ, UNCG, Wake Forest and WCU.

If you hear about a proposed new program, check the current COA listing. A university's nursing accreditation, or a degree it's planning, doesn't show that its nurse anesthesia entry program has COA accreditation. And if Cedar Crest College turns up in a North Carolina search, it isn't a seventh option. Its nurse anesthesia program is based in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

How do North Carolina admissions requirements compare?

They differ on which grades count toward the GPA minimum, which ICU work qualifies and when that experience has to be done. A minimum GPA only helps you once you know which grades the school includes. Same with "one year of ICU." It needs a completion date and a definition of qualifying work before it tells you anything.

Program	GPA and ICU rules	GRE and CCRN policy
CMC/UNC Charlotte	3.3 for all undergraduate work after high school and 3.3 for basic undergraduate sciences. 18 months of current full-time adult critical care before enrollment	GRE required, MAT not accepted. CCRN isn't among its listed admission requirements, which name BLS, ACLS and PALS
Duke	Cumulative undergraduate GPA 3.0 or evidence of outstanding graduate achievement. Science GPA at least 3.2. One current, continuous full-time critical-care year at application, two preferred	GRE not required. CCRN strongly encouraged
ECU	Preferred minimum BSN GPA 3.0. One full-time adult ICU year, specified in the FAQ as 2,080 hours before interview	GRE required within five years, including if you have a graduate degree, and the MAT isn't accepted. CCRN encouraged, not required
UNCG	Cumulative GPA at least 3.2 and science GPA at least 3.0. At least one continuous full-time critical-care year, with adult experience required	GRE or MAT listed within five years, with a discretionary master's-degree waiver. CCRN required before admission consideration
Wake Forest	Nursing bachelor's or master's GPA at least 3.0. One full-time critical-care year or part-time equivalent within two years before application. Orientation and managerial time don't count	GRE within five years, CCRN numerical score report and Casper required
WCU	Last 60 credits GPA at least 3.0 and science GPA at least 3.0. 2,080 direct-care hours within two years before the deadline, not counting orientation and supervisory work	GRE required. CCRN is an additional credential considered in selection, and it isn't listed as a mandatory entry credential

Sources: CMC requirements, Duke admissions, ECU admissions and FAQ, UNCG program requirements, Wake Forest academic nursing admissions and WCU requirements.

UNCG is the only program here that lists the MAT as an alternative to the GRE, and it wants competitive scores in the 50th percentile range or higher. Its master's-degree waiver is at the program's discretion, so don't count on it being automatic. CMC and WCU publish preferred GRE scores, and those are preferences. Hitting one doesn't guarantee you a spot.

Which schools accept NICU or PICU experience?

Duke lists pediatric ICU and Level III neonatal ICU among its preferred experience areas. WCU lists both pediatric and neonatal ICU as appropriate experience. Their full experience requirements still apply, though.

UNCG requires adult critical-care experience. CMC excludes both PICU and NICU, and ECU requires adult ICU experience. Wake Forest accepts neonatal and pediatric ICU experience and describes critical care by what you do (independent decisions, advanced monitoring, physiology and pharmacology).

Say you've spent two years only in a NICU. Your first stop is Duke's and WCU's complete criteria, because that experience alone won't meet UNCG's adult requirement. (That's an eligibility illustration. It isn't an admission prediction.) And please don't switch units because of a directory checkbox. Send admissions the details instead: your patient population, your ventilator and vasoactive-medication responsibilities, your orientation dates and your independent-practice dates.

Which prerequisites need advance planning?

Duke requires graduate research methods or graduate inferential statistics, and you may finish that course after you submit your application. ECU requires statistics with at least a C and highly recommends recent physiology and chemistry. CMC requires undergraduate statistics with at least a B.

UNCG lists undergraduate health assessment, chemistry with a lab and statistics, with no prerequisite expiration dates. WCU requires statistics and research with at least a C, on top of its science-grade requirements. Wake Forest requires health assessment, nursing research, statistics including inferential statistics, and three-credit-equivalent chemistry, all with at least C grades.

Use the CRNA prerequisite course guide to organize your transcript review. If a course title doesn't match the school's wording, save the course description and syllabus. The program makes the equivalency call.

How much does CRNA school in North Carolina cost?

North Carolina programs publish their costs on very different bases, from a program total to a single semester to one year's budget. So keep every number's billing period and its included expenses right next to it.

Program	Official figure	What it covers
ECU	$50,638.61 in-state, $96,233.57 out-of-state	Published DNP nurse anesthesia tuition-and-fee summary. Other expenses are listed separately, including a $570 SEE exam and $4,695 for liability insurance, an earpiece, textbooks and professional conferences
WCU	Fall 2026 to spring 2027: $9,267.50 in-state or $14,627 out-of-state per full-time semester	DNP-CRNA-specific rate, including tuition differential and $2,366.50 health-insurance fee. Eligible students may waive insurance. Full-time means at least nine credits
Duke	Fall 2026 entering cohort's first academic year: $94,973 tuition	Sum of $37,520 fall, $29,313 spring and $28,140 summer from its 2026-2027 cohort budget. Mandatory fees and non-billed living allowances are separate
Wake Forest	2026-2027 first-year budget: $63,096 tuition, $114,283 total cost of attendance	Twelve-month budget includes estimated lodging, food, transportation, health insurance and program fees. Cost of attendance isn't tuition

Sources: ECU expenses, WCU graduate tuition and fees, Duke's 2026-2027 nurse anesthesia budget and Wake Forest costs.

Duke's figure above adds up one academic year. It isn't a three-year quote, and future rates can change. You also can't multiply WCU's fall/spring full-time rate by nine to get a total, because summer and part-time semesters may use different rates.

Wake Forest bills its entering 2026-2027 class by the credit hour, at $1,434 per credit, with the heaviest load (44 credits) in the first year. That's why its first-year tuition is so much higher than the later years. Ask for your entering cohort's full three-year tuition plan before you calculate a degree total. For CMC/UNC Charlotte and UNCG, get a current tuition-and-fee calculation for your entering year and a clinical travel estimate from the program before you compare.

Residency can move a public university's price by a LOT, and ECU's and WCU's published figures show it. Ask the university which residency classification applies to you and whether you could be reclassified later. Moving to North Carolina doesn't guarantee resident tuition by itself. And keep tuition, mandatory fees, living expenses and forgone RN income on separate budget lines.

When should you apply?

Most North Carolina deadlines fall in the summer or early fall of the year before you'd start. The WCU and UNCG windows for summer 2027 entry closed in August and September 2026, so match each program's calendar to the cohort you're actually aiming for.

Program	Published application calendar	What it means for you
CMC/UNC Charlotte	June 10 and September 10 deadlines in the year before intended entry, with two interview sessions	You interview once per cycle. You have to apply to both CMC and UNC Charlotte
Duke	August 1 for fall (August) entry	Duke has to receive the complete application, with every supporting document, by August 1. Incomplete applications aren't considered. Confirm which fall cohort that deadline feeds
ECU	August 31 for the following May start	ECU takes one class a year, and interviews run in the fall, about six months before the May start
UNCG	Summer 2027: April 15 to September 15, 2026, with an August 1 priority deadline	The 2026 final deadline was September 15.
Wake Forest	May 30 (summer interviews) and September 1 (fall interviews), both for fall entry the following year	You can interview only once per calendar year, so apply in the round where your file is strongest
WCU	Summer 2027: March 1 to August 1, 2026	This cycle has closed. Applications missing GRE scores on the deadline aren't considered, so test at least a month early

Sources: the official admissions pages above, CMC's application instructions and Wake Forest's how-to-apply page, which walks through the Casper, GRE and CCRN score-report steps.

Are hybrid programs a way to avoid relocation?

Not on their own. A hybrid label describes some of the coursework, and it doesn't promise you can stay home for all of school. UNCG teaches campus courses at Union Square in Greensboro and assigns rotations across North Carolina based on case requirements. Its FAQ says plainly that students can't pick only a site near home.

Wake Forest's first fall semester is remote. After that, semesters include on-site anesthesia instruction, simulation and clinical education, and its clinical list includes facilities both inside and outside North Carolina. WCU calls its Biltmore Park program in person and lists regional clinical partners, including South Carolina facilities.

ECU's FAQ describes a more localized setup, with no travel requirements outside the area apart from two two-week electives within 60 minutes of the College of Nursing. Ask each school which rotations are required and which are elective, how placements get assigned, and who pays for transportation or temporary housing. A clinical-site list helps you plan. It doesn't guarantee where you'll personally be assigned.

How should you compare board results?

Compare them with the graduation year and the first-attempt definition sitting right beside each number. The official pages report these first-time NCE results:

Program	Graduation year	First-time NCE result
CMC/UNC Charlotte	2026	95%
ECU	2026	75%
WCU	2026	100%
Duke	2025	92%
UNCG	2025	100%
Wake Forest	2025	92%

Sources: each official program page linked in the roster, plus ECU's program page for its year-by-year results. These numbers don't come from one shared graduating year, so please don't turn them into a statewide ranking or average. One cohort's result shouldn't be the thing you judge the whole program on.

Ask for several cohorts, with denominators, attrition and eventual certification results. An overall pass rate and a first-time pass rate answer different questions.

What should go on your shortlist?

Put a school on your list when you meet its experience definition and can finish its prerequisites by the date it requires. Then compare your earliest realistic cohort, the full clinical footprint and a budget built from the same cost categories for every school.

If adult ICU rules or timing shrink your North Carolina options, look at South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee and Georgia in the national directory. Check attendance and clinical travel before you decide an out-of-state campus is commutable. And when you're getting ready to explain your experience and why you chose each school, the CRNA interview question guide gives you a place to practice.

With six programs in the state, you have room to read every one of them closely. Save your first comparison in the free School Database, and keep the official admissions link, the date you checked and the entering year beside each school. That way your plan still holds up when a program updates its rules.