Best DNP Programs

Alabama

Best DNP Programs In Alabama 2026

10 institutions in Alabama hold CCNE accreditation for the Doctor of Nursing Practice. Published in-state graduate tuition among them starts at $8,832 a year, at Auburn University at Montgomery.
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Key Takeaways

  1. 1

    Alabama is a small field. Only 8 schools here carry enough published figures to be scored, so a position says how one compares to its in-state neighbors and nothing about how it compares nationally.

  2. 2

    In-state rates vary enormously here. Published annual in-state graduate tuition among the 8 Alabama institutions that report one runs from $8,832 to $39,000, a 4-fold spread inside one state and one reporting year.

  3. 3

    Mostly public, and that is a residency question. 7 of the 8 institutions with federal figures are public, and a public in-state rate is a residents-only price, the private rates beside them apply to everyone.

  4. 4

    Some are delivered at a distance. 5 of the 8 carry the federal distance-education flag, which covers coursework and never the supervised practice hours.

How This Ranking Is Scored

Three published figures, weighted. Scores are relative to the 8 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, Ranked

Ordered on published in-state tuition, annual DNP conferrals and institution-wide undergraduate completion, weighted for a state page so cost leads. Scores are relative to the 8 institutions on this page and not to the country, the same program carries a different number on the national list. How this is built.

# Program In-state tuition DNP awards UG completion Score of 100
1 of 8 University of Alabama at Birmingham Birmingham, AL · Public $9,048 178 64% 94.1
2 of 8 The University of Alabama Tuscaloosa, AL · Public $11,380 50 73% 93
3 of 8 University of Alabama in Huntsville Huntsville, AL · Public · offered online $10,374 28 64% 91.9
4 of 8 University of South Alabama Mobile, AL · Public · offered online $8,976 178 53% 90.9
5 of 8 Jacksonville State University Jacksonville, AL · Public · offered online $10,440 31 55% 89.1
6 of 8 Auburn University Auburn, AL · Public $11,016 4 82% 61.4
7 of 8 Auburn University at Montgomery Montgomery, AL · Public · offered online $8,832 6 33% 57.1
8 of 8 Samford University Birmingham, AL · Private nonprofit · offered online $39,000 9 77% 28.2

The Best 8 DNP Programs In Alabama, Ranked

Every ranked institution in Alabama, with what the federal record publishes for it and how its score was composed.

Ranked 1 of 8

University of Alabama at Birmingham

Birmingham, AL

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

Birmingham confers 178 nursing doctorates a year, which puts it seventh out of the 311 accredited institutions on this site. Scale matters here in a practical way: a program that size runs its courses when the catalog says it will, and the faculty teach at doctoral level as their job rather than as an overload. Teaching happens alongside the university’s own academic medical center, so clinical exposure runs from pediatrics through geriatrics and includes level one trauma care without students being sent to a partner hospital across town. The doctorate carries no distance flag in its federal filing, so plan on Birmingham. In-state tuition sits in the lower quarter of the programs on this site.

In-State Tuition
$9,048
Out-Of-State
$22,512
DNP Awards
178
UG Completion
64%

Scored on

  • Published in-state graduate tuition 99.3
  • Established program 100
  • Institution-wide undergraduate completion 63.3

Visit University of Alabama at Birmingham →

Ranked 2 of 8

The University of Alabama

Tuscaloosa, AL

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

Alabama sets clinical hours by concentration rather than by degree, and the spread is wide. The college publishes 1,080 to 1,620 post-baccalaureate hours depending on which concentration you pick, against 540 for a post-master’s entry. A gap that size between two concentrations at one school is worth pinning down before you apply, because at the top end it is most of a year of placement. There is also a transfer rule that can buy time: the direct care core, meaning advanced pathophysiology, advanced physical assessment and advanced pharmacology, may transfer if you took those courses with a B or better within five years of applying. Five years is the part people miss. The doctorate carries no distance flag federally, so plan on Tuscaloosa.

In-State Tuition
$11,380
Out-Of-State
$33,372
DNP Awards
50
UG Completion
73%

Scored on

  • Published in-state graduate tuition 91.6
  • Established program 100
  • Institution-wide undergraduate completion 81.6

Visit The University of Alabama →

Ranked 3 of 8

University of Alabama in Huntsville

Huntsville, AL

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

Huntsville runs two ways in and they suit different people. The post-master’s route builds on advanced practice knowledge you already hold and is aimed at sharpening clinical or administrative work rather than starting it. The post-bachelor’s route carries you from a BSN through the MSN and on to the doctorate as one sequence rather than two applications. What decides whether the program fits a working nurse is the campus requirement, and Huntsville states it precisely instead of promising flexibility: coursework is distance-accessible, and you come to campus for one intensive conference every other year. Full-time and part-time are both open. Its doctoral output puts it in the upper third of accredited institutions nationally, so the cohort is real without being large.

In-State Tuition
$10,374
Out-Of-State
$24,650
DNP Awards
28
UG Completion
64%

Scored on

  • Published in-state graduate tuition 94.9
  • Established program 100
  • Institution-wide undergraduate completion 63.3

Visit University of Alabama in Huntsville →

Ranked 4 of 8

University of South Alabama

Mobile, AL

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

South Alabama runs its DNP online, and the routes differ in length as much as in price. Enter with a BSN and you take the full 64 credit hours, MSN core and specialty included. Already practicing in an advanced role? The MSN-to-DNP route is 39 credits, because you take only the DNP core, project development and residency. Adding a new specialty on top of an MSN puts you back at 64. You get seven years either way, and the college wants the master’s portion finished in the first five. There is no dissertation. You complete an evidence-based project instead, and the residency behind it can be done in your own region rather than in Mobile. Two states are closed: the college is not accepting applications from South Dakota or New York.

In-State Tuition
$8,976
Out-Of-State
$17,952
DNP Awards
178
UG Completion
53%

Scored on

  • Published in-state graduate tuition 99.5
  • Established program 100
  • Institution-wide undergraduate completion 40.8

Visit University of South Alabama →

Ranked 5 of 8

Jacksonville State University

Jacksonville, AL

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

Jacksonville State audits your master’s hours before it admits you rather than after. If your MSN carries fewer than 500 clinical practicum hours you are admitted conditionally and referred to an advanced experiential clinical course, and the admissions committee runs a gap analysis to decide how many of those hours, between one and five, you need to reach 500 and move on to the residency courses. Both the family nurse practitioner and the adult-gerontology acute care tracks then carry 700 clinical hours of their own, split between simulation and direct patient care. Entry wants a 3.0 GPA, taken on either your whole baccalaureate nursing program or its last 60 hours, whichever is higher.

In-State Tuition
$10,440
Out-Of-State
$20,880
DNP Awards
31
UG Completion
55%

Scored on

  • Published in-state graduate tuition 94.7
  • Established program 100
  • Institution-wide undergraduate completion 44.9

Visit Jacksonville State University →

Ranked 6 of 8

Auburn University

Auburn, AL

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

Auburn runs its doctorate as a hybrid program and is upfront about what that means: scheduled on-campus intensives you attend in person, with distance-learning delivery in between. Knowing there is a fixed campus obligation before you apply is the difference between a program that fits your life and one that quietly does not. The college publishes separate pages for admission and progression, curriculum models, graduate assistantships and scholarship information, so the funding routes are laid out rather than left to an advising appointment. Auburn’s doctoral output is small against the size of the university, so expect a compact cohort inside a large public institution.

In-State Tuition
$11,016
Out-Of-State
$33,048
DNP Awards
4
UG Completion
82%

Scored on

  • Published in-state graduate tuition 92.8
  • Established program 0
  • Institution-wide undergraduate completion 100

Visit Auburn University →

Ranked 7 of 8

Auburn University at Montgomery

Montgomery, AL

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

Auburn Montgomery teaches its graduate nursing programs online, the doctorate included, inside a college that also houses medical laboratory science and communication disorders rather than nursing on its own. That mix shows up in the master’s offerings beneath the doctorate, one of which trains nurse educators specifically for interprofessional teaching rather than for classroom nursing education in isolation. If you are still choosing between a master’s and the doctorate, the ladder here runs through family practice, nurse education and health systems leadership. It is a small doctoral program at a regional public campus, and in-state tuition sits in the lowest quarter on this site.

In-State Tuition
$8,832
Out-Of-State
$19,800
DNP Awards
6
UG Completion
33%

Scored on

  • Published in-state graduate tuition 100
  • Established program 20.4
  • Institution-wide undergraduate completion 0

Visit Auburn University at Montgomery →

Ranked 8 of 8

Samford University

Birmingham, AL

28.2 of 100
  • CCNE-accredited
  • Private nonprofit
  • Doctorate (professional)
  • Offered online

5 DNP tracks at this institution, Emergency and trauma, Family nurse practitioner, Nursing administration, Nursing practice (general), Psychiatric-mental health NP. Ranked once, on the largest.

Samford files six separate DNP records federally, covering nurse anesthesia, family practice, psychiatric mental health, emergency and trauma, nursing administration and a general track. That much specialty breadth is unusual for a private university of about 6,000 students, and it puts Samford in the top tenth of accredited institutions both for the number of nursing doctorates it confers and for how many it confers against its size. The nurse anesthesia program is accredited by the Council on Accreditation of Nurse Anesthesia Educational Programs, and the next review is scheduled for spring 2035, which is settled well past the length of any program you would start now. The nurse leader track pairs online coursework with practicum blocks you attend in person.

In-State Tuition
$39,000
Out-Of-State
$39,000
DNP Awards
9
UG Completion
77%

Scored on

  • Published in-state graduate tuition 0
  • Established program 42
  • Institution-wide undergraduate completion 89.8

Visit Samford University →

Also Accredited In Alabama

These programs hold current CCNE accreditation. They file their DNP conferrals under a specialty classification rather than under Nursing Practice, so the federal tuition and conferral figures used above are not available for them and they are not scored.

  • University of Mobile CCNE-accredited DNP

    Mobile runs the doctorate on two entries, from a bachelor's and from a master's, both online with three on-campus intensives spread through the curriculum. You present your DNP capstone at one of them, so the final intensive is a defense rather than a networking day. Admission wants a BSN from a regionally accredited institution, a cumulative GPA of at least 3.0 and an unencumbered RN license, and the graduate admissions committee may ask you in for an interview. The detail worth knowing is the money: through the federal Nurse Faculty Loan Program, Mobile's graduate nursing students can reach up to 85% loan forgiveness if you teach after you finish.

  • University of North Alabama CCNE-accredited DNP

    North Alabama prices its doctorate by the credit rather than by the year, at $550 a credit hour plus fees for 2025-2026, which is the honest shape for a degree most nurses take while working. It runs 18 months full-time and 30 months part-time, and the school states both figures rather than the flattering one. Delivery is online with three in-person intensives, so plan on being in Florence three times rather than never. That combination, a published per-credit rate and a stated part-time length, lets you build a real cost estimate before you apply, which is more than most program pages allow.

Choosing A DNP Program In Alabama

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

Settle your residency before you compare anything else

Across the 7 public institutions in Alabama publishing both rates, the out-of-state rate runs a median of 2.4 times the in-state one. At Auburn University the gap is $22,032 a year on its own. Residency is decided by the state under its own rules and a distance program does not confer it, so for an out-of-state applicant this one question is worth more than the difference between most of the programs on this page.

The Alabama board of nursing decides the license, not the diploma

No doctorate confers authority to practice or prescribe. That authority comes from an advanced practice license the state issues and the national certification behind it, which is why a DNP-prepared and a master's-prepared nurse practitioner on the same license prescribe the same things. What varies between states is the licensure requirement itself, so take it from the board rather than from a program page, and take it early: several programs want an active license in the state where your practicum will happen rather than wherever you hold one now, and licensure by endorsement runs to months. What the degree does and does not grant sets out the distinction.

The distance flag here records delivery, not your week

5 of the 8 measured institutions in Alabama carry it. That flag records only that taught content can be delivered at a distance. It says nothing about campus days, and nothing about the supervised practice hours, which happen in a building with a preceptor present wherever you enroll. Ask for the number of on-campus days and the months they fall in, because that is what you hold against a roster. Online DNP programs ranks the distance-flagged field nationally.

The schools without figures are not the weaker ones

University of Mobile and University of North Alabama file conferrals under a specialty classification rather than under Nursing Practice, so the federal columns this page ranks on do not exist for them. They carry the same CCNE accreditation as everything in the table above. A missing figure here is a filing convention rather than a verdict, and reading it as one would put a real option out of your reach for no reason. The notes beside those names come from the schools' own pages.

Who Licenses You In Alabama

Practice environment, as AANP classifies it
Reduced Practice
Licensing body
Alabama Board of Nursing
Verify a license
Nursys, the national license verification system operated by the boards themselves

AANP places Alabama in its reduced practice category, which it defines this way: state law reduces the ability to engage in at least one element of practice, typically by requiring a career-long collaborative agreement with another health provider, or by limiting the setting in which an element of practice may happen.

A degree confers no prescriptive authority. It comes from a state advanced practice license and the national certification behind it, so a DNP-prepared and a master’s-prepared nurse practitioner holding the same license prescribe the same things.

So the thing to settle here is not the degree, it is the collaborative agreement. Ask the board what the agreement has to contain and who may sign it, then ask a prospective employer whether they already have one in place, because a license you cannot use until a physician signs is a different proposition from one you can.

Practice environment from AANP's Alabama fact sheet, read 2026-09-08; AANP last revised the classification 05/2026. It is AANP's reading of state statute rather than a federal designation, and statutes move each legislative session, so confirm it with the board before you rely on it. Board details read from the NCSBN member directory on 2026-09-08. Licensure requirements change by legislative session, so treat anything you read here as a pointer to the board rather than a substitute for it.

What The Work Pays In Alabama

BLS OEWS, May 2025. BLS classifies by occupation, not by credential: there is no DNP wage series, and every figure here covers everyone in the occupation regardless of which degree they hold.

OccupationMedian, AlabamaEmployedRankNational median
Nurse practitioners29-1171$105,7505,64051 of 51$132,300
Nurse anesthetists29-1151$190,3001,81041 of 44$236,590
Registered nurses29-1141$77,08054,34051 of 51$97,550
Nursing Instructors and Teachers, Postsecondary25-1072$79,6901,46025 of 51$80,250

Nurse practitioners in Alabama have a median of $105,750, which ranks 51 of the 51 jurisdictions the survey publishes a median for, across about 5,640 people in the state. That sits in the lower third of the jurisdictions the survey publishes, which is worth setting against local costs before reading it as a verdict.

A median is the midpoint of what people in the occupation are paid, so half earn less and half earn more; it is not a starting salary and not an offer. Every row is one federal series, ranked against every jurisdiction that series covers. Nothing here is a job-board average. DNP salary sets out the national picture.

Shortage Areas, And The Debt Relief Attached To Them

HRSA designated primary-care Health Professional Shortage Areas, read 2026-09-08.

Designated areas
109
Of those, rural
75
Median score
16
Highest score
24

Most designated shortage in Alabama is rural, 75 of 109 designations, but the remaining 34 sit in urban and suburban areas, so eligibility is not only a country question here. A designation is a statement about how many primary-care providers serve a defined area relative to its population. It describes supply, not hiring.

The designations here differ widely in priority. The median scores 16 against a highest of 24, so which approved site you join moves your funding position further than anything about the state as a whole does.

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.

Whether a particular employer counts as an approved site is settled by the program, not by the designation, so check the site before you take the job rather than after. HRSA's shortage-area data portal maps the designations. Paying for a DNP covers the routes that do not depend on where you practice.

Studying From Outside Alabama

5 of the 10 accredited doctorates in Alabama 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 Alabama this cycle, and whether it will place you for supervised clinical hours near where you live.

What The Figures On This Page Are

Tuition is the institution's published annual graduate rate. It is not a DNP per-credit price, it is not a total program cost, and it is not what anyone pays after aid. A DNP taken part-time over four years does not cost four times the annual figure, because most programs bill by the credit.

DNP awards are conferrals in the reporting year at that institution. The figure says a program is running and how much of it is running; it does not say the program is better than a smaller one, and the rubric stops rewarding volume above 25 conferrals for that reason.

Undergraduate completion is exactly that, the federal 150%-of-normal-time rate for first-time, full-time bachelor's students at the institution. It is the weakest input in the model and carries the smallest weight. No federal series reports DNP completion, so nothing on this site claims one.

Of the 8 institutions with federal figures here, 7 are at public institutions. In-state tuition at a public school is available only to residents; the out-of-state rate is frequently two to four times higher and is the figure an out-of-state applicant should be reading.

5 institutions here are flagged by the federal survey as offered at a distance. That flag records how the coursework is delivered. It does not mean the clinical hours are remote, and it does not mean a student never travels to campus.

Frequently Asked Questions

Answers specific to Alabama. The degree-wide questions are answered on the guides.

How many DNP programs are there in Alabama?

10 hold CCNE accreditation for the doctorate, and 2 of them file conferrals under a specialty classification, so they are listed by name rather than scored. A field this size is small enough to shortlist properly and large enough that the shortlist matters.

How much does a DNP cost in Alabama?

Published in-state rates run $8,832 to $39,000, a spread of about 4.4 times inside one state. At that width the ranking matters less than knowing which end you are looking at, and the cheap end is usually public and usually conditional on residency.

Is a DNP cheaper in Alabama if you live there?

Sharply. Auburn University publishes $11,016 in state against $33,048 out of it, 3.0 times the rate, so residency is worth more here than the difference between most of the schools on this page. Ask the registrar what establishing it takes before you assume you can.

Can a nurse practitioner practice independently in Alabama?

Not fully. Alabama is reduced practice in AANP's classification, meaning statute limits at least one element of practice and requires a career-long collaborative agreement with another provider. What that agreement must contain is set by the board, and it is worth reading before you plan a career here rather than after.

What do nurse practitioners earn in Alabama?

A median of $105,750, $26,550 below the national $132,300. Worth setting against what the degree costs here before treating the gap as a verdict on the state.

Does federal loan repayment apply in Alabama?

It can. 109 designated primary-care shortage areas, 75 of them rural, so both kinds of site exist. Eligibility attaches to an approved site rather than to the jurisdiction, which makes it an employer question.

Can you study for a DNP online in Alabama?

5 of the 8 measured institutions carry the flag. It covers taught content and nothing else, so the number to ask each school for is on-campus days and the months they fall in.

Sources

Two datasets produce every figure on this page, and the institutions those figures describe are listed under them. Nothing here is compiled from a school's own marketing material.

  1. 1 CCNE Accredited Program Directory It decides which institutions appear on this page at all: the 10 in Alabama below are the ones it lists as holding current accreditation for the Doctor of Nursing Practice.
  2. 2 IPEDS Published tuition, annual conferrals, institutional completion and the distance-education flag.

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.

The Institutions Behind These Figures

Every institution the two datasets name in Alabama, alphabetically. A link is the web address that institution reports to the federal directory, the school’s own site, not a page about the doctorate.

  1. 1

    Auburn University

    Auburn, AL · Public · carries federal figures

  2. 2

    Auburn University at Montgomery

    Montgomery, AL · Public · carries federal figures

  3. 3

    Jacksonville State University

    Jacksonville, AL · Public · carries federal figures

  4. 4

    Samford University

    Birmingham, AL · Private nonprofit · carries federal figures

  5. 5

    University of Alabama

    Tuscaloosa, AL · Public · carries federal figures · filed federally as The University of Alabama

  6. 6

    University of Alabama at Birmingham

    Birmingham, AL · Public · carries federal figures

  7. 7

    University of Alabama in Huntsville

    Huntsville, AL · Public · carries federal figures

  8. 8

    University of Mobile

    On the CCNE roster; no federal record under a nursing doctoral classification, so no directory address and no figures

  9. 9

    University of North Alabama

    On the CCNE roster; no federal record under a nursing doctoral classification, so no directory address and no figures

  10. 10

    University of South Alabama

    Mobile, AL · Public · carries federal figures

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