Pennsylvania and Concordia University Wisconsin: the NP licensure picture
Concordia University Wisconsin's disclosure places Pennsylvania under "Does Not Meet Requirements" for every graduate nurse practitioner table it publishes. If you mean to practice as an NP in Pennsylvania, settle that with CUW before you enroll. Below: the row, Pennsylvania's direct rule for RN students licensed elsewhere, its 2025 compact start, and where we help.
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What CUW's table says about Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania is one of 24 states in the MSN's Does Not Meet column; the doctoral, certificate and online RN to BSN tables agree, and only the campus BSN tables count it as meeting.
| CUW program | CUW's answer for Pennsylvania |
|---|---|
| Master of Science in Nursing - Primary Care Nurse Practitioner | Does Not Meet Requirements |
| Doctor of Nursing Practice - Post BSN to DNP Program | Does Not Meet Requirements |
| Doctor of Nursing Practice - Post MSN to DNP Program | Does Not Meet Requirements |
| Certificate After Graduate Education in Nursing (CAGE) (FNP/AGPCNP) | Does Not Meet Requirements |
| Certificate After Graduate Education in Nursing (CAGE) (PMH NP) | Does Not Meet Requirements |
| PMHNP MSN and PMHNP DNP | Not in the table |
CUW's program pages flagged Pennsylvania before the table did. The 2022 and 2024 MSN pages and the 2022 Post-MSN DNP page all put Pennsylvania on their lists of states CUW was not accepting new students from, even while the 2023 to May 2024 disclosure still had it meeting for the MSN and both DNPs. The August 2024 table brought the two into line; the licensure disclosure guide walks through it.
Section 21.118: Pennsylvania's rule for visiting RN students
Pennsylvania is one of the few states whose own code speaks to the CUW case. Section 21.118 of Title 49 covers a working RN licensed by some other U.S. state or territory, or in Canada, who is taking an accredited graduate or BSN program: that student can carry out the clinical practice the program calls for with no Pennsylvania license at all. Two limits apply. The clinical time must be unpaid, scholarships and program awards aside, and taking an RN job in Pennsylvania mid-program means applying for licensure by endorsement, bridged by a temporary permit.
Schools get less attention. Pennsylvania's published rules and guidance on record set no approval step for a distance program sending students in, and the Board's Distance Education Application serves programs it approved itself. Rules are moving, though: a comprehensive nursing-education package, IRRC file 16A-5141, reached final form in September 2026, the IRRC takes it up in mid-October, and its final annex carries § 21.118 forward largely unchanged. CUW's own catalog rule is on clinicals outside Wisconsin.
Collaboration for a whole career
AANP puts Pennsylvania in its reduced-practice group, and for a Pennsylvania NP collaboration never ends: the written agreement with physicians runs the whole career, and prescribing rests on agreements with two or more of them. When such an NP precepts, those physicians are part of the practice you join. No Pennsylvania preceptor incentive is on record.
The Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington metro alone holds some 4.2 million of the state's residents, plus more across three other state lines; Pittsburgh ranks second, then Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton and Harrisburg-Carlisle. Large systems include UPMC and Geisinger, the University of Pennsylvania Health System under its Penn Medicine name, Jefferson Health, and Penn State Health, each running student requests its own way.
A compact state since 2025
Multistate licensing came late to Pennsylvania: full compact implementation dates only to July 7, 2025. Since that day a nurse whose home-state multistate license is active and clean, Wisconsin's included, can practice in Pennsylvania on it. For CUW students the change mostly matters for paid RN work, since § 21.118 already covered unpaid student practice.
The APRN Compact is a separate question, and Pennsylvania has not adopted it; that compact still waits on enough states to begin. For CUW's own license expectations, see your RN license for CUW clinicals.
Who this page helps, and how we help
In the east, crossing a river changes nothing: CUW lists New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland as not meeting too, as it does New York and West Virginia. The western border is different. Ohio meets in all five CUW NP tables, the only Pennsylvania neighbor that does.
CUW students choose us when their NP license will sit in Ohio or another Meets state. Your placement advisor begins with your program's row for that state, sequences all three clinical courses around your move, sources primary care preceptors near the new address and hands CUW's graduate faculty a proposal with nothing missing. Send your program and timeline through the contact form.
Questions CUW students ask
Does CUW accept students who live in Pennsylvania?
CUW publishes no enrollment restriction by state today, although archived MSN pages from 2022 and 2024 said it was not taking new Pennsylvania students. Every graduate NP table still lists Pennsylvania as not meeting. If a Pennsylvania NP license is your aim, ask CUW admissions in writing what that means for you before applying.
Do I need a Pennsylvania license for student clinicals there?
Pennsylvania's code says an RN licensed elsewhere who is in an accredited graduate program can do unpaid program clinicals without one, and since July 2025 a compact multistate license covers paid RN work as well. The harder question is CUW's: its table marks Pennsylvania as not meeting, so the Graduate Clinical Coordinator has to agree before you plan Pennsylvania hours.
Is CUW's PMHNP an option for a Pennsylvania psychiatric NP career?
CUW has published nothing that says so. The MSN PMHNP and PMHNP DNP are missing from the disclosure page entirely, and the PMHNP certificate's table puts Pennsylvania in the Does Not Meet column. A Pennsylvania nurse eyeing psychiatric practice at home should get CUW's written answer for the specific program before applying.
Would living in New Jersey or Delaware help a Philadelphia-area CUW student?
Not for CUW's NP programs. New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland share Pennsylvania's Does Not Meet answer in every graduate NP table. Of the states touching Pennsylvania, Ohio alone meets across all five.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-26
We check these pages against CUW's own academic catalog, program pages and published nursing documents. Your course faculty and the Graduate Clinical Coordinator have the final word.
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