Best DNP Programs

Akron metro

Best DNP Programs In Akron 2026

Two public universities eleven miles apart, both under $13,000 in-state, in a metro that sits forty miles from a larger one.
A city at dusk under a heavy bank of cloud, low buildings and lit streets in the foreground with a church spire and taller blocks beyond
On this page

Key Takeaways

  1. 1

    Price will not narrow this list. The published in-state rates here sit inside a band of roughly 1.2 times, which is tight for a metro. That pushes the decision onto track, cohort size and who arranges the clinical placement.

  2. 2

    Every institution here is public. All 2 are public, so in-state status is the largest single number in your plan and it is set by the state that funds them rather than by how far you live from campus.

  3. 3

    Output is concentrated in one school. Kent State University conferred 5 of the 8 DNP awards recorded across this metro, with University of Akron next at 3. A number that lopsided says where the cohorts and the placement relationships are, which a ranking position does not.

  4. 4

    1 of 2 reach you at a distance. That many carry the federal distance-education flag, which covers taught content and never the supervised practice hours. Ask for the number of on-campus days and the months they fall in.

Two Public Programs, No Private Option, And The Cheapest Pair On This Site

The University of Akron publishes $10,735 in-state and Kent State publishes $12,742. Both are public, no private institution in this metro files an accredited DNP, and the ceiling here is therefore lower than the floor in several metros on this site. Nashville’s cheapest option is $40,560; this metro’s dearest is $12,742.

For a non-resident the figures are $18,415 and $21,397, which is still modest by the standards of this dataset. Ohio carries four metro guides here and this is the least expensive of the four by a clear margin.

The doctoral cohorts are small. Kent State conferred 5 DNP awards in the reporting year and Akron conferred 3, which is eight doctorates across a metro of seven hundred thousand people. Kent State is the one flagged for distance education. With Cleveland forty miles north and considerably deeper, a reader here should treat the two metros as one search rather than two.

How This Ranking Is Scored

Three published figures, weighted. Scores are relative to the 2 institutions on this page and to nothing else.

  1. 50%

    Published in-state graduate tuition

    Institution-level. Published annual graduate tuition, not a DNP per-credit rate and not net of aid.

  2. 35%

    Established program

    Program-level. DNP conferrals in this CIP and award level in the reporting year, saturating at 25. Above that a program scores full marks and gains nothing further for size.

  3. 15%

    Institution-wide undergraduate completion

    Institution-level and undergraduate. The IPEDS 150%-of-normal-time rate for first-time, full-time bachelor's students.

Nothing is imputed. A program that does not publish a figure is scored on the ones it does publish, with the remaining weights renormalized; below 2 published figures it is listed without a position rather than ranked on a single number. Accreditation is a condition of appearing at all, not a factor that earns points. What the rubric cannot see.

Accredited Schools In The Akron Metro, Ranked

Ordered on the same three published figures the state guides use: in-state tuition, annual conferrals and completion rate. One row per institution, not per federal filing.

# Program In-state tuition DNP awards UG completion Score of 100
1 of 2 Kent State University at Kent Kent, OH · Public · offered online $12,742 5 64% 50
2 of 2 University of Akron Main Campus Akron, OH · Public $10,735 3 52% 50

What This Guide Counts As The Akron Metro

This guide follows the Akron, OH metropolitan statistical area. Both institutions are public and both are inside it: the University of Akron in the city and Kent State University at Kent, about eleven miles east. Cleveland is a separate metropolitan area to the north with its own guide, and the two fields do not overlap.

Municipalities Included

  • Akron, OH
  • Kent, OH

Deliberately Not Included

  • Cleveland, OH Its own metropolitan area about forty miles north, with a larger field and its own guide. The two metros are adjacent and a reader here may well consider both.
  • Canton and North Canton, OH The Canton-Massillon metropolitan area immediately south, separately delineated.
  • Columbus and Cincinnati, OH Separate metropolitan areas, each covered by its own guide.

The Best 2 DNP Programs In Akron, Ranked

Every scored institution above, with what it publishes and what it does not.

Ranked 1 of 2

Kent State University at Kent

Kent, OH

50 of 100
  • CCNE-accredited
  • Public
  • Doctorate (professional)
  • Offered online

Kent State is explicit about who goes to the front of the queue for its nurse executive concentration. Priority admission goes to candidates already holding ANCC or AONL nurse executive certification, or who have worked in nursing management or administration. That is a useful signal in both directions. If you have that background you are competing on favorable terms, and if you do not, this is a concentration you enter from behind rather than level with everyone else. Post-master’s students complete a minimum of 500 practicum hours, so half of the 1,000 the degree standard sets is expected to have traveled with you from your master’s.

In-State Tuition
$12,742
Out-Of-State
$21,397
DNP Awards
5
UG Completion
64%

Scored on

  • Published in-state graduate tuition 0
  • Established program 100
  • Institution-wide undergraduate completion 100

Visit Kent State University at Kent →

Ranked 2 of 2

University of Akron Main Campus

Akron, OH

50 of 100
  • CCNE-accredited
  • Public
  • Doctorate (professional)

Akron runs a nurse anesthesia track accredited separately by the Council on Accreditation of Nurse Anesthesia Educational Programs, alongside the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education accreditation covering the bachelor’s, master’s, doctorate and post-graduate advanced practice certificate. Two accreditors on one program is what a specialized anesthesia track requires, and it is worth confirming at any school offering one. Clinical rotations run through Northeast Ohio health systems, so placements are local and the network is established. The doctoral program itself is small, conferring a handful of degrees a year, which means close faculty contact and a cohort you will know by name. In-state tuition sits in the lower third on this site.

In-State Tuition
$10,735
Out-Of-State
$18,415
DNP Awards
3
UG Completion
52%

Scored on

  • Published in-state graduate tuition 100
  • Established program 0
  • Institution-wide undergraduate completion 0

Visit University of Akron Main Campus →

Choosing A DNP Program In Akron

What studying in the Akron metro changes. The questions that apply wherever you study are on the national ranking page.

Kent State University at Kent and University of Akron Main Campus are the whole of the field in Akron

Kent State University at Kent and University of Akron Main Campus file their conferrals under a specialty classification rather than under Nursing Practice, so the credit total, the entry routes and the clinical hour requirement live on their own pages rather than in the federal columns this page ranks on. Ask them who arranges clinical placements, and take the licensure question to the Ohio board of nursing rather than to the school.

Who Licenses You In The Akron Metro

Practice environment from AANP’s own state fact sheets, read 2026-09-08; AANP last revised the classification 05/2026. Boards from the NCSBN member directory, read 2026-09-08.

Ohio
Reduced Practice
Ohio Board of Nursing

Every institution on this page sits in Ohio, so one board licenses all of them and AANP classifies the jurisdiction as reduced practice. The school does not grant practice authority and never has; the license and the certification behind it do.

The board detail, the full AANP definition and the license verification route are on the state guide: DNP programs in Ohio . AANP is reading state statute rather than issuing a federal designation, and statutes move each legislative session, so confirm with the board before you rely on it.

Shortage Areas, And The Debt Relief Attached To Them

HRSA designated primary-care Health Professional Shortage Areas, read 2026-09-08. These are state counts, not metro ones.

Ohio, designated areas
209
Ohio, of those rural
81

These figures cover Ohio in full rather than the Akron metro specifically. HRSA publishes designations at the level of the individual area, and rolling them into a metro needs a county crosswalk this guide does not hold, so the state count is what is shown and it is shown as a state count. What follows from it still applies here, because eligibility never attached to a jurisdiction in the first place.

Both federal loan repayment routes open to advanced practice nurses require working at an approved site inside a designated area, and the area’s score sets funding priority when applications outrun the money: Nurse Corps Loan Repayment Program and NHSC Loan Repayment Program. HPSA primary-care scores run 0-25; funding priority for loan repayment follows the score.

In a metro that is mostly urban the practical consequence is that eligible sites are a smaller share of the employers you are likely to interview with than the state count suggests, and they are usually federally qualified health centers, public hospital systems and university clinics rather than private practices. Whether a particular employer counts is settled by the program rather than by the designation, so check the site before you take the job.

HRSA’s shortage-area data portal maps the designations to the address. Paying for a DNP covers the routes that do not depend on where you practice, and the state guide breaks the designations down further: Ohio.

Studying From Outside The Akron Metro

1 of the 2 accredited doctorates in the Akron metro carry the federal distance-education flag, which leaves most of the local field expecting you in the room and makes an out-of-state program a real comparison rather than a fallback. Either way it turns on one thing this site cannot answer for you.

Authority to enroll a distance student is set per institution and per state, and the federal flag this page counts records delivery rather than permission, so only the school can answer it. Ask two things before tuition enters the conversation: whether the program can enroll a resident of the Akron metro this cycle, and whether it will place you for supervised clinical hours near where you live.

Which Akron Option Fits Your Situation

Each of these routes to a published figure or a named institution. None is a recommendation, and none is a statement about whether a school will admit you.

If the published price is what decides it: University of Akron Main Campus

The lowest published in-state rate among Akron's publics, at $10,735 a year. An annual rate, not a program total, and it assumes residency.

If you are moving to Akron: settle residency before you apply

Kent State University at Kent publishes a $8,655 annual gap between its in-state and out-of-state rates, the widest of the 2 Akron publics publishing both. Start with the registrar, not admissions.

If you already hold an advanced practice credential: Kent State University at Kent

Kent State University at Kent publishes a post-master's route, the shorter way in when your master's already carries supervised hours. Ask how many transfer; the ceilings differ sharply.

If you cannot relocate: Kent State University at Kent

Kent State University at Kent carries the federal distance-education flag. The flag covers taught content only. Supervised hours still happen near you, and campus days are the school's to set, so ask for the count and the months.

What The Figures On This Page Are

Tuition is the institution’s published annual graduate rate, not a per-credit price and not a program total. Awards are conferrals in the reporting year. Completion is the federal undergraduate rate, the weakest input in the model, and no federal series reports DNP completion. Wages are the metropolitan cut of the federal survey, a different survey area from the state one. How this site scores programs sets out each input and its weight in full.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many DNP programs are there in Akron?

2 institutions in the Akron metro hold CCNE accreditation for the Doctor of Nursing Practice. This guide counts the Akron, OH metropolitan statistical area rather than the city limits, so the figure includes institutions in 2 municipalities.

What counts as the Akron metro on this page?

The Akron, OH metropolitan statistical area. In practice that means these municipalities: Akron, OH; Kent, OH. Places deliberately left out are listed on this page with the reason.

Is it cheaper to study for a DNP in Akron than online?

Neither is reliably cheaper. Published in-state tuition at a public institution is usually the lowest figure available to someone who qualifies for it, and distance programs charge a single rate to everyone regardless of where they live. Which comes out lower depends entirely on whether you hold in-state status somewhere, so compare the published rates rather than the format.

Do these figures include fees and clinical costs?

No. Every tuition figure on this page is the published rate an institution reports to the federal government, which excludes fees, health insurance, textbooks and the travel a clinical placement can require. Treat it as a floor for comparison between institutions rather than a total cost of attendance.

Related Pages

Sources

  1. 1 CCNE Directory Of Accredited Programs Which institutions hold accreditation.
  2. 2 IPEDS Published tuition, conferrals and completion.
  3. 3 Metro Definition The Akron, OH metropolitan statistical area, rolled up to the municipalities listed above. Institutions are matched on city and state.

Every federal figure on this site is read from the administering agency’s own page, never from a secondary aggregator, and the reading date is recorded beside it.

Compare accredited DNP programs

Browse all programs