Admission is open-enrollment: a five-minute free application, no SAT, ACT, GRE, or GMAT, an attestation of your high school credential for undergrad or your bachelor's for grad, and transcripts SNHU requests for free. Undergraduates face no GPA requirement; graduate programs want a 2.75 undergraduate GPA for full acceptance or 2.00 for provisional. Undergrad terms are eight weeks with six starts a year; graduate terms are ten weeks with five. Transfer is the lever: up to 90 of 120 credits toward a bachelor's and up to 12 toward a master's, evaluated free.
The application, minus the mythology
Three steps, no essay, no fee: the short online application, the attestation form, and transcripts, which SNHU chases on your behalf at no cost. Decisions arrive within days, and an admission counselor walks the process one-on-one. A few programs carry extra gates, the MSN tracks verify your RN license and nursing GPA, and the FNP adds prerequisites and a clinical pathway, but the general funnel is deliberately gateless. If a counselor's call is the only thing between you and enrolling, take the call; they also know which start date your transcript evaluation can realistically make.
The 2026-27 calendar, verified
| Level | Term length | Verified start dates |
|---|---|---|
| Undergraduate | 8 weeks, six terms a year | Aug 31, Oct 26, Jan 4, Mar 1, May 3, Jun 28 |
| Graduate | 10 weeks, five terms a year | Sep 21, Dec 7, Mar 1, May 17, Aug 2 |
Graduate students get a one-week break between every term; undergraduates every other term. The practical read: a new cohort starts roughly every eight to ten weeks, so "I missed the deadline" is never more than two months true, and momentum lost to a bad term can be rebuilt at the very next start.
Transfer credit: the only entrance exam worth studying for
- Bachelor's programs accept up to 90 of 120 credits, three quarters of the degree, from prior coursework with a C-minus or better
- Associate degrees accept up to 45; master's programs up to 12 graduate credits with a B or better
- Evaluation is free and happens at admission, so every old transcript is worth sending, including the ones you are not proud of
- Residency minimums still apply: 30 credits at SNHU for a bachelor's, 12 in the major; some IT and accounting credits carry five-year freshness limits
- Each transferred course is a course you never pay $1,062 (undergrad) or $1,977 (grad) for, the arithmetic is in the tuition manual
Starting smart, not just fast
Pick the start date after your transfer evaluation lands, not before, or you may burn a term on a course that credit would have cleared. Begin with a two-course load only if your calendar genuinely holds ten weekly deadlines; a one-course first term that ends in an A beats a two-course term that ends in triage. And from day one, run the deliverable rhythm the grading manual describes, discussions never skipped, rubric documents read in week one. Students who start with that operating system rarely need rescue orders; students who want the whole rhythm managed from the first Thursday hire the team before the term opens.
Enrolling for the next start
Send your program and transcript situation. We map the transfer play and the first term's plan, free.
Sources and verification
Facts on this page come from official and independent sources, and anything that matters is worth checking against the originals:
- www.snhu.edu: SNHU's official site, the primary source for program, tuition, and calendar facts
- www.snhu.edu/admission/online/term-start-dates: official term start dates published by SNHU admission
- www.neche.org: New England Commission of Higher Education, the institutional accreditor
- www.ccneaccreditation.org: Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education, the nursing accreditor
- apastyle.apa.org: APA Style, the official style authority behind the formatting rules