CRNA Schools in Louisiana: Four Programs, Costs & Admissions

If you're looking at CRNA schools in Louisiana, you're comparing four nurse anesthesia programs: FranU, LSU Health New Orleans, Loyola University New Orleans and Northwestern State University. Each one offers a DNP pathway, but the curricula, application requirements and training locations differ. Loyola now describes two tracks inside one shared cohort, an anesthesia-only track and a dual anesthesia/Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner track. Count those as one school, not two.

When you compare requirements, keep the program, the track and the entering term together. One academic year's tuition rate is a different number from a full-program estimate. And an annual deadline only helps you once you know which entering class it feeds.

Which nurse anesthesia programs are located in Louisiana?

Program and official source	Location and curriculum	Admissions distinction
Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady University, FranU	Baton Rouge, 36-month, 100-credit DNP	Weighted cumulative GPA includes attempted undergraduate and graduate courses. GRE optional. CCRN and Casper required before interview.
LSU Health New Orleans	New Orleans, 36-month, 138-credit DNP	GRE required, including a writing threshold and five-year score window. One recent full-time critical care year at application.
Loyola University New Orleans	New Orleans, hybrid 87-credit anesthesia track, separate 96-credit dual track	Current CCRN and one full-time critical care year at application. PICU is among preferred settings. NICU, PACU and ED are excluded.
Northwestern State University	University based in Natchitoches, 36-month DNP. Spring 2026 curriculum is 123 credits, with specified online courses	GRE required. Apply through NursingCAS and the NSU Graduate School. Confirm your assigned teaching and clinical locations instead of assuming all attendance is in Natchitoches.

The COA directory lists FranU and LSU with continued accreditation, and Loyola and Northwestern State with initial accreditation. Initial accreditation is an actual accreditation category. Don't read it as a program that's only applied for accreditation. A scheduled review also isn't a closure or an adverse decision.

Loyola's dual track adds acute care nurse practitioner coursework to the anesthesia curriculum within a stated 36 months. Its overview describes a shared cohort of 24 across both tracks. So ask which track you'd be applying to, which clinical requirements apply and how the added scope fits your career plans. (And a shared cohort size isn't an acceptance rate, so don't read it as one.)

Which GPA, GRE and certification rules vary?

They vary on how the GPA gets calculated, whether the GRE is required and which certifications and assessments you need. A "3.0 minimum" label hides how each school reads your transcripts, so use the exact calculation each one names.

FranU requires a cumulative weighted GPA of 3.0, counting all attempted undergraduate and graduate coursework before admission. LSU requires a 3.0 GPA for all undergraduate and graduate coursework on your transcripts. Loyola names a nursing bachelor's degree from a nationally accredited program with at least a 3.0 GPA. Northwestern's current admissions document requires a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0, and its handbook specifies the undergraduate cumulative GPA. If you've got substantial graduate coursework, ask Northwestern to confirm which calculation it uses.

Program	GRE policy	CCRN and other application preparation
FranU	Optional, recommended for less competitive applicants	CCRN and Casper completed before interview. BLS and ACLS are admissions requirements. PALS before coursework.
LSU Health New Orleans	Combined verbal/quantitative score at least 300 and writing at least 3.0, within five years	BLS, ACLS and PALS listed. CCRN isn't among its listed admission requirements.
Loyola	The GRE isn't among its listed admission requirements	Current BLS, ACLS and CCRN. PALS before clinical practicum.
Northwestern State	Combined verbal/quantitative score at least 290 and writing at least 3.0, within five years	Emotional Intelligence assessment and specified supporting forms. Its listed certifications are BLS and ACLS, and CCRN isn't among them.

FranU's Casper requirement affects when you're ready to interview, even though its GRE is optional. Northwestern also requires an Emotional Intelligence assessment, a work-experience and technical-skill form, and a professional organization/certification/licensure record. Give yourself time for these school-specific pieces, because a submitted NursingCAS form isn't the whole application.

References differ too. FranU asks for three professional letters, including a current immediate supervisor and a peer. LSU also requires at least one peer and one current supervisor. Northwestern names a former faculty member, an immediate clinical supervisor and a character reference. Loyola wants professional colleagues in critical care leadership positions and excludes references from family, friends or didactic instructors. Match your references to each school's instructions before you send a single request.

Which ICU experience and prerequisite rules should you check?

Check timing and accepted settings at every school. All four describe a minimum critical care year, but those years aren't interchangeable.

FranU requires one full-time recent year in adult critical care, and it defines recent as within the previous two calendar years. It may consider other areas, such as PICU or NICU, if you can show competence with unstable patients, invasive monitoring, ventilators and critical care pharmacology. That's an individual review. It doesn't mean every NICU position gets accepted.

Loyola requires one full-time, current critical care year at application. Its preferred areas include surgical, cardiothoracic, neurosurgical, burn, pediatric and medical ICU, and it explicitly excludes PACU, NICU and ED experience. So a PICU nurse and a NICU nurse face different published rules at the very same school.

LSU requires one full-time critical care year within the previous two years at application. Northwestern's 2026-27 handbook also requires a full-time recent critical care year within the last two years at application. Neither school lists accepted units by name, so if you want a determination for yours, send a description of your actual acuity, responsibilities and dates.

Prerequisite course lists are where Louisiana applicants most often guess wrong. If a course is missing from a short specialty page, that doesn't mean it's waived. And a required course inside the doctoral curriculum isn't automatically an admission prerequisite. Before you pay for an extra chemistry, statistics or science course, get approval for its title, level, lab, grade, age and delivery format. The prerequisite guide walks through the questions to bring to each school.

Which deadlines and start dates should you track?

Program	Official timeline	What it means for you
FranU	January 1 to June 1 annual application window, with classes beginning the following January. In-person interviews run July 26 to 30 and August 2 to 6, 2027	FranU admits once a year. Classes begin the following January.
LSU Health New Orleans	June 1 annual deadline, one year before the summer admission term	The 2026 deadline was June 1.
Loyola	September 15 to December 15 application window on both track pages, with on-campus interviews in the spring	The current window closes December 15, 2026. Ask admissions which term the cohort starts before you plan your notice at work.
Northwestern State	January 1 to May 31 application period for the following spring	Complete both NursingCAS and the NSU Graduate School application.

Planning example: say you're preparing for a future January intake at FranU and a spring intake at Northwestern. One statewide June deadline won't work for you. Northwestern's annual May 31 close comes before FranU's June 1 close, and each school has different assessment and reference requirements. Confirm the cohort year first, then work backward from each school's complete-file instructions.

How much does CRNA school in Louisiana cost?

It depends on what the number covers, because the official figures below each have a different scope. Use them for budgeting questions. They won't give you a cheapest-school ranking.

Program and official cost source	Amount and basis	What it leaves out
FranU program tuition table	2026-27 nine-semester, 100-credit table: $112,984.60 tuition/fees plus $2,248.56 course fees, total $115,233.16	Textbooks and additional program costs are excluded, and application and graduation fees are separate. Rates subject to change. The semester nine course fee includes the first NCE attempt.
LSU 2026-27 nurse anesthesia rates	Full-time fall 2026/spring 2027/summer 2027 totals: $33,997 resident, $51,987 nonresident	One academic-year schedule, not the 36-month price. Use the specific DNP-Nurse Anesthesia section. The general DNP or graduate table excludes it.
Loyola 2026-27 graduate tuition	Nurse anesthesia tuition $1,760 per credit for fall/spring and summer	The 87-credit and 96-credit tracks differ. This is an academic-year rate, not a guaranteed price for all future credits. Practicum, lab, university and insurance charges need their own review.
Northwestern fall 2026 anesthesia schedule	Example: a 12-credit semester lists $9,030.05 total, made up of tuition, registration, student-association and health-service charges	One term and one credit load, not whole-program tuition. Other fees include internet-course charges and parking. Ask for a full nine-semester estimate and how residency is treated.

At Loyola's published rate, 87 credits multiply out to $153,120 and 96 credits to $168,960. Those are constant-rate tuition calculations. They aren't official fixed full-program quotes, and they aren't total costs of attendance. They leave out fees and assume the same rate for every credit, so get a cohort-specific estimate before you put either figure in a financing plan.

LSU's nonresident schedule differs substantially from its resident schedule. Ask how residency is determined and when a change could take effect, because moving for school doesn't prove a lower rate applies to you. Then, for every program, add your own housing, transportation, health insurance, clinical travel and income plan. An academic fee schedule can't give you those personal totals.

What attendance and clinical travel should you plan for?

Plan for campus time and clinical travel even if a program calls itself hybrid. Loyola combines on-campus experiences with asynchronous coursework and strongly discourages outside employment because of how intense the program is. Hybrid teaching doesn't remove campus or clinical requirements. FranU also describes a blend of online and in-person teaching early in the curriculum, so confirm the actual attendance schedule before you assume remote study lets you live far away.

Northwestern's curriculum marks particular courses as online and starts anesthesia clinical practicum in semester four. Its handbook requires rotations outside Shreveport and Alexandria, assigns sites based on educational needs and space, and considers your preferences without guaranteeing them. Students pay the associated travel, housing and licensing costs. Employment is discouraged after the first two semesters, and that doesn't mean full-time work is manageable during those first two.

LSU's active clinical-site list includes Louisiana locations plus Beaumont, Texas, and Mississippi sites such as Biloxi and Gulfport. So a New Orleans address doesn't mean every rotation is in New Orleans. Ask which sites your cohort is currently assigned, whether you might need a second place to live and which licenses or onboarding requirements you'll pay for.

What do accreditation and student outcomes show?

The COA lists Northwestern State's next review for October 2026. A scheduled review is routine, and that timing alone doesn't mean its accreditation expired or the program is closing.

FranU reports its Class of 2025 at 94.1% first-time NCE pass and 8.1% attrition. Northwestern's 2025 row reports 75% first-time pass and 0% attrition.

LSU shows a 2026 first-time result of 80%. Don't line that up against FranU's 2025 result as if they were the same cohort year. Naming a statewide "best program" would take more than these pass-rate rows.

How should you narrow your Louisiana list?

Start with the pathway you want: anesthesia only, or Loyola's dual role. Then line up your GPA calculation, ICU setting and recency, tests, assessments and reference options against each school's intended cycle. And get answers to your open policy questions before you pay any application or course fees.

Use the program directory to keep your official-source notes right beside your shortlist. If another state's schedule or geography fits you better, compare specific programs in Texas, Mississippi or Arkansas. LSU's own site list already reaches into Texas and Mississippi, so check actual training locations and full attendance requirements before you decide a neighboring state is a practical commute.