USC is the only other program in this pilot that publishes its applicant numbers: 236 applications for a cohort of 26, about 11%. The 81-credit DNAP runs 36 months at $2,539 a unit, and you need one year of ICU experience when you apply and two completed by the time the program starts. Its graduates passed the National Certification Exam at 90.9% on the first attempt, with zero attrition in the class of 2026.
Every figure on this page was read off USC's own pages on 22 September 2026. Where the program publishes nothing, this page says so rather than guessing. The National Certification Exam, or NCE, is the exam every graduate has to pass, and a program that publishes its first-time pass rate is handing you the single most useful number it has.
USC CRNA Program: Key Facts
| Degree awarded | Doctor of Nurse Anesthesia Practice (DNAP) |
|---|---|
| Program length | 36 months |
| Credits | 81 |
| Start | May |
| Application deadline | Cycle opens August 1, 2027, closes August 31, 2027 (for May matriculation) |
| Minimum ICU experience | 1 year completed at time of application; 2 years completed by program start |
| CCRN | Not a formal requirement but held by nearly every applicant |
| GRE | Not required |
| Minimum GPA | 3.0 undergraduate cumulative |
| Class / cohort size | 26 |
| Format | Hybrid first semester (remote + in-person), all remaining coursework in person |
| Tuition (in-state) | Not published — verify on the program site |
| Tuition (out-of-state) | Not published — verify on the program site |
| Tuition (as published) | Per-credit-unit: $2,539 (2025-2026 rate; Fall 2026 cost per unit also $2,539.00) |
| NCE first-time pass rate | 90.9% |
| Attrition | 0% (Class of 2026) |
| Employment | 100% within six months |
Anything marked “Not published” is genuinely absent from the program's own pages. Programs are not required to publish tuition, cohort size or acceptance rate, and many do not. We would rather leave a gap than fill it with a third-party guess.
Admission Requirements
The critical-care floor is one year completed when you apply, and two by the time the program starts. That is the hard rule, and a file sitting exactly on it is eligible rather than competitive — committees read high-acuity time in a CVICU, SICU, trauma or neuro unit very differently from a monitored floor.
On grades the program asks for a 3.0 undergraduate cumulative minimum. Treat that as a screen rather than a target, because admitted classes at doctoral programs usually sit well above the stated floor and science coursework is weighed separately.
CCRN: Not a formal requirement, though nearly every applicant holds it.
GRE: Not required.
Published prerequisites
- Baccalaureate degree in nursing or another discipline (BSN, BS, or BA)
- English comprehension or equivalent writing course
- Anatomy and physiology (1 semester each or 1 year combined course)
- Chemistry, 2 semesters (general inorganic and biochemistry or organic)
- Physics (introductory or general), 1 semester, no lab required
- Biology or microbiology, 1 semester
- Nursing research course
- All prerequisite work must be completed by March 31st of the enrollment year
Deadline and Timeline
Applications close the cycle opens August 1, 2027 and closes August 31, 2027, for a May start, and the program starts in May.
Deadlines move year to year, and a doctoral cohort is usually decided nine to twelve months before it starts. Confirm the current cycle on the program site before you plan around this date. Our CRNA application timeline works backwards from a start date through references, shadowing, CCRN and transcripts.
Cost
$2,539 a unit at the 2025-26 and Fall 2026 rate. USC publishes no single total.
Tuition is not the whole number. Fees, health insurance, board-exam and licensure costs, relocation and the lost income of three years out of a staff job all land on the same ledger. Our CRNA school cost guide works through the full picture, and cheapest CRNA programs ranks by published tuition.
Outcomes
First-time NCE pass rate: 90.9% first-time
Attrition: zero for the class of 2026
Employment: 100% within six months
These three figures are worth more than any ranking. COA requires accredited programs to publish them, and read together they tell you whether a program gets the people it admits through to a licence. National context: the first-time NCE pass rate was 90.5% in 2025 (NBCRNA), with a five-year average of 86.6%.
How USC Compares in California
If USC is on your list, price it against the rest of California before you commit an application fee. See all California CRNA programs, or start with these:
| Program | City | Degree | Cost | Acceptance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| California State University Fullerton | Fullerton | DNP | $85,000 | 12% |
| Loma Linda University | Loma Linda | DNP | $170,243 | 16% |
| National University Fresno | Fresno | DNAP | Varies | N/A |
Cost and acceptance in that table are directory figures rather than program-verified ones. "Varies" and "N/A" mean the program publishes neither.
Sources and How We Verified This
Every figure above was read off USC's own pages on 22 September 2026. Accreditation status and review dates come from the COA list of accredited programs. We publish no number we could not read at its source.
- https://keck.usc.edu/nurse-anesthesia-program/
- https://keck.usc.edu/nurse-anesthesia-program/program-admission-information/
- https://keck.usc.edu/nurse-anesthesia-program/program-admission-information/faq/
- https://keck.usc.edu/nurse-anesthesia-program/financial-aid/
Programs change requirements and prices between admission cycles. If something here no longer matches the program site, tell us and we will fix it.