1 GRADUATE COUNCIL MEETING 18 January 2012 102 Kern ...

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research or community health policy and management. The advanced practice options
include: Clinical Nurse Specialist, Family Nurse Practitioner, and Adult Gerontology
Primary Care Nurse Practitioner, and Adult Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner.
The master’s degree program in Nursing is accredited by the National League for
Nursing Accrediting Commission and the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education.
The Nurse Practitioner option is designed to help prepare the professional nurse to
function in an expanded nursing role providing direct care to specific groups of clients in
a variety of health care settings. Since that practice is inherently interdisciplinary in
nature, advanced knowledge and research from nursing is combined with knowledge
from science, medicine, and related disciplines. The Nurse Practitioner may also
function in supervisory, consultative, education, and research roles.
The Clinical Nurse Specialist option prepares advanced practice nurses in Adult
Gerontology or Community Health to plan, implement, and evaluate care in a variety of
settings. They function in direct care, supervisory, consultative, education, and research
roles serving individuals, families, and communities.
Admission Requirements for M.S. and Ph.D. Programs
1. For admission to the Nursing program, an applicant must hold either (1) a bachelor's degree in Nursing
from a U.S. regionally accredited institution or (2) a postsecondary degree in Nursing that is
equivalent to a U.S. baccalaureate degree earned from an officially recognized degree-granting
international institution.A baccalaureate degree in Nursing from a regionally
accredited program is required for all applicants. Students entering the doctoral
program via the traditional post-master’s route must have earned a master’s
degree with a major in nursing from a program accredited by a national
accrediting agency for nursing. Well-qualified doctoral applicants with a
baccalaureate degree in nursing and master’s degree in a related discipline (e.g.,
public health) will be evaluated individually to assess the need for prerequisite
master’s-level course work in nursing for doctoral program admission.
2. Strong letters of evaluation and a well-crafted statement of purpose.
3. Applicants must submit transcripts of all previous course work from institutions of
higher learning. For M.S. applicants, a cumulative grade-point average of 3.0 3.3
(on a 4.0 scale) for junior/senior baccalaureate degree is expected with a B or
better in all science and nursing courses. College chemistry and statistics are
also required. For doctoral applicants, a cumulative grade-point average 3.5 (on
a 4.0 scale) for master's and subsequent course work is expected.
4. Two letters of evaluation are required for the master's program and three letters of
reference are required for the doctoral program. The letters should be solicited
from professional colleagues who can attest to the applicant's ability.
5. All applicants must submit a statement of purpose. In addition, doctoral applicants
must also submit a published or unpublished scientific paper, thesis, or other
scholarly writing sample and a complete curriculum vitae.
6. The language of instruction at Penn State is English. All international applicants must take and
submit scores for the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) or the IELTS
(International English Language Testing System), with the exceptions noted below. The
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