CRNA Schools in Virginia: Programs, Requirements and Costs

Virginia's CRNA schools come down to three accredited entry-to-practice nurse anesthesia programs: Old Dominion University, Mary Baldwin University and Virginia Commonwealth University. The degree names won't tell you much. What you need to know is which experience counts, when it has to be complete, which location you'll attend and how each school prices your entering cohort.

VCU's regional locations all belong to one program, so they don't add extra schools to the count. And a hybrid schedule doesn't mean your clinical training can happen remotely.

Which CRNA programs are in Virginia?

It's these three, and all of them appear in the COA accreditation directory. Mary Baldwin is listed with initial accreditation, which is accredited status. It isn't a pending application.

Program and profile	Location	Entry degree and format	COA status
Old Dominion University	Virginia Beach; clinical education across Hampton Roads and secondary sites	DNP; 100 credits, 36 months, full-time; hybrid on-campus and online coursework; May start	Continued accreditation
Mary Baldwin University	Murphy Deming College of Health Sciences, Fishersville	DNP; 36 months, 104 credits; hybrid coursework with in-person simulation and clinical education; fall start	Initial accreditation
Virginia Commonwealth University	Richmond and regional teaching sites	Entry-to-practice DNAP; 36 months; hybrid opening phase followed by intensive clinical education; January start	Continued accreditation

Sources: ODU program, Mary Baldwin program, VCU department and VCU accreditation.

These are entry pathways for nurses preparing to become CRNAs. VCU's post-master's DNAP serves a different audience, so leave it out when you're comparing entry admissions or attendance.

How do admission requirements differ?

Requirement	ODU	Mary Baldwin	VCU
Degree and GPA	2026-2027 catalog requires a nursing bachelor's and at least 3.0 GPA; program page also specifies grades of 3.0 or higher in each required science and nursing course	BSN; cumulative GPA at least 3.0 for the nursing bachelor's degree and subsequent graduate work	Nursing or related-science bachelor's; application page describes cumulative undergraduate 3.0 as preferred
Critical care	Two full-time years at application	One current, continuous full-time year or part-time equivalent within two years of application; two years preferred	Minimum 12 full-time months or equivalent; competitive applicants generally have two or more years
GRE	Required; published scores (300 total, 150 verbal, 150 quantitative, 4 writing) are preferences rather than guaranteed admission cutoffs	Not among its published anesthesia admission requirements	Not required and not scored as part of the application
CCRN	Mandatory, including score in the catalog checklist	Strongly recommended	Required
Other preparation	Catalog requires at least 16 clinical shadowing hours	Supervisor-signed critical-care checklist and Casper assessment, which you must complete to be considered for an interview	NursingCAS application must reach verified status, according to the program FAQ

Sources: ODU 2026-2027 catalog, Mary Baldwin nursing admissions, Mary Baldwin catalog, VCU application requirements and VCU FAQ.

ODU's catalog lists a nursing bachelor's for this program, so if your bachelor's is in another field, get a written eligibility answer before you pay to apply. VCU accepts a nursing or related-science bachelor's and invites applicants to contact it about the related-science route. Either way, you still need an RN license.

VCU's two-year figure describes competitive candidates. It isn't the published minimum. ODU's two years, on the other hand, have to be complete at application. Take a hypothetical nurse with 18 months of eligible independent ICU experience. She may meet VCU's duration minimum and still need more time before she can apply to ODU. That example says nothing about whether either program would select her.

Can NICU, PICU or emergency experience qualify?

Mary Baldwin's official criteria list pediatric and neonatal ICUs among its examples of critical-care settings. It may also consider other areas if you can show you manage unstable patients, invasive monitoring, ventilators and critical-care pharmacology. That's an individual assessment. It doesn't mean every emergency or recovery role gets accepted.

VCU's application page quotes the COA critical-care definition, which includes pediatric and neonatal ICU examples. Ask the program how it evaluates your particular population and responsibilities. ODU excludes emergency, recovery, operating-room, labor-and-delivery and step-down experience, so ask ODU directly how it views pediatric or neonatal ICU time before you apply.

A job title alone won't answer it. When your eligibility is unclear, send each school your orientation dates, independent-practice dates, patient population and typical responsibilities. Then save the written response with your target cohort's checklist.

Which prerequisites should you check first?

ODU's current catalog requires a B or better in anatomy and physiology, organic or biochemistry at the specified level, statistics, pathophysiology and pharmacology. Chemistry and statistics have to be completed within ten years. The catalog also adds the shadowing requirement, which is easy to miss on the general program page.

Mary Baldwin lists anatomy and physiology with lab, chemistry, microbiology, pharmacology and statistics, and its chemistry can be general, organic or biochemistry. VCU requires three-credit statistics and biochemistry or organic chemistry completed within five years. It prefers graduate statistics or biostatistics, and pathophysiology is recommended, not required.

Use the CRNA prerequisite guide to audit course names, credits, grades and completion dates. And before you buy a replacement course, ask the school to review any unclear equivalency. A class that works for one Virginia program may not meet another program's age or content rule (chemistry gets ten years at ODU but five at VCU, for example).

How much does CRNA school in Virginia cost?

Virginia's three programs publish their costs in different forms, so compare them carefully.

Program	Published figure and scope	What it leaves out
ODU	Program page lists $510 per credit for Virginia residents and $1,361 for nonresidents	Tuition only, charged per credit for a 100-credit program. Mandatory and course-specific fees, books and living costs are extra
Mary Baldwin	2026-2027: $16,334 tuition per semester plus $500 annual program fee	Applies to fall 2026, spring 2027 and summer 2027; rates are set annually, not guaranteed across nine semesters
VCU	Finance page directs applicants to its tuition calculator, selecting "Graduate Doctoral - Nurse Anesthesia Entry to Practice"	The estimate depends on the year, credit load and residency you select. Books, exams and other expenses are extra

Sources: ODU, Mary Baldwin cost and aid and VCU finance.

For Mary Baldwin, three semesters at the published 2026-2027 rate come to $49,002 tuition, or $49,502 including the $500 annual program fee. That's one academic year. It isn't the price of the entire DNP. The school lists living, travel, health insurance and other indirect costs separately. Its own estimate puts living expenses at $10,500 a semester and total indirect costs at $13,331 a semester. Ask which resources tuition covers, which ones the annual fee covers, and what you'll still have to buy out of pocket.

ODU's resident and nonresident rates show why classification matters. At the posted rates, its 100 credits come to $51,000 in resident tuition or $136,100 nonresident, before fees. Ask the university which status applies to you and whether the quoted rate covers the exact entry program. Moving to Virginia doesn't guarantee resident tuition on its own. At VCU, save the calculator's program selection, academic year, credit load and residency settings along with the estimate.

Budget clinical transportation, temporary housing, health coverage and lost RN income as their own categories. If you line up one school's tuition-only rate against another school's cost-of-attendance budget, an apparent price advantage can disappear once you compare them properly.

When are applications due?

Each program runs its own calendar, so check the specific cohort before you plan around a date.

Program	Official calendar	Planning implication
ODU	July 15 for summer entry in the following year; NursingCAS required from the summer 2026 admissions cycle onward	Applications are due July 15 in the year before your summer start
Mary Baldwin	Anesthesia applications accepted September 1 to December 15; fall cohorts; February interviews and March decisions listed	The program page says Casper must be taken by December 5, and you need it done to be considered for an interview
VCU	Opens annually November 1; all requirements and documents received by March 1 at 11:59 p.m. for January entry the following year	Under this recurring rule, March 1, 2027 corresponds to January 2028 entry. Your NursingCAS application has to reach verified status, and interview notifications start in May

Sources: the official program and admissions pages linked above. These are anesthesia calendars. Mary Baldwin's general nursing spring, summer and fall deadlines explicitly exclude nurse anesthesiology, so don't mix them up.

Build your timeline backward from transcript receipt, prerequisite completion, references, assessments and whatever application status the school requires. Hitting submit in a portal and having a complete or verified application are two different milestones.

Where will you attend classes and clinical rotations?

VCU's regional teaching model is a distinctive Virginia option. Its distance-education page describes Richmond-linked instruction in Abingdon, Roanoke and Northern Virginia/Alexandria. Students attend simultaneous classes, with face-to-face faculty instruction and simulation at the regional sites. It also lists clinical affiliations beyond Virginia. Confirm which site is taking applicants for your cohort and whether particular rotations require travel.

ODU lists Hampton Roads primary partners including Sentara Norfolk General, Sentara Leigh and Sentara Virginia Beach General, plus secondary sites inside and outside the region. Mary Baldwin describes a mix of on-campus and off-campus content throughout its hybrid program. Ask for its current mandatory attendance and clinical-placement schedule before you decide where to live.

Sources: VCU distance education and the ODU and Mary Baldwin program pages. VCU advertises that students can keep working during the first two semesters. Don't stretch that into a promise that a job will fit the clinical phase. Build your finances around the complete attendance requirements.

How should you compare accreditation and board results?

Keep the cohort and the exam definition attached to every outcome. Mary Baldwin reports an 82.6% first-time NCE pass rate for its inaugural 2025 class and 4% attrition. VCU reports 96% first-time passage for its December 2025 class and 8% attrition.

ODU's program highlights report 3% attrition for 2026. Mary Baldwin VCU accreditation and performance ODU

These numbers don't support a statewide "best school" claim. Ask about multiple cohorts, class size, attrition definitions, clinical support and how the school has responded to changes in its outcomes. A first-attempt result and eventual certification measure different things.

How should you choose your Virginia shortlist?

Compare eligibility first. Then look at entry timing, location and a budget for your specific cohort. If you live in the Shenandoah Valley, you might compare Mary Baldwin's hybrid attendance with VCU's regional options. If you're in Hampton Roads, still check ODU's secondary clinical footprint instead of assuming every placement will be local.

If none of the three fits your background or calendar, use the national program directory to compare options in North Carolina, Tennessee, Maryland, West Virginia and Washington, DC. Verify the degree-granting program and its clinical geography, and don't count a hospital affiliation as a separate school.

Save your comparison in the free School Database. Once you've got a realistic list, use the CRNA interview question guide to practice explaining your clinical experience and why each program fits your plan.