Best DNP Programs

Arizona

Best DNP Programs In Arizona 2026

7 institutions in Arizona hold CCNE accreditation for the Doctor of Nursing Practice. Published in-state graduate tuition among them starts at $10,138 a year, at Grand Canyon University.
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Key Takeaways

  1. 1

    Arizona is a small field. Only 5 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 sit in a narrow band. The 5 Arizona institutions that publish an annual in-state rate run from $10,138 to $16,215, the highest only about 1.6 times the lowest, so cost separates them less here than it does nationally.

  3. 3

    Mostly public, and that is a residency question. 3 of the 5 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. 3 of the 5 carry the federal distance-education flag, which covers coursework and never the supervised practice hours.

A Metro Guide Inside This State

Narrower than this page and organized around a commute rather than a border. Each one counts a census metropolitan area, so it can cross a state line where this page cannot.

How This Ranking Is Scored

Three published figures, weighted. Scores are relative to the 5 institutions on this page and to nothing else.

  1. 50%

    Published in-state graduate tuition

    Institution-level. Average annual tuition for full-time graduate students, 2023-24, from IPEDS. Not a DNP per-credit rate, not including program differentials, 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.

The Best 5 DNP Programs In Arizona, 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 5 institutions on this page and not to the country, the same program carries a different number on the national list. How this is built.

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

Ranked 1 of 5

Grand Canyon University

Phoenix, AZ

92 of 100
  • CCNE-accredited
  • Private for-profit
  • Professional practice doctorate
  • Offered online

Grand Canyon runs two versions of the doctorate, and the difference between them is one course and one practicum. The base program is the comprehensive doctorate. The organizational leadership version adds a leadership course and a practicum aimed at systems strategy and organizational change, and it runs 33 credits online in eight-week blocks. Eight-week courses mean fewer subjects at once and each one finished faster, which suits a nurse who would rather sprint through one topic than juggle three. The university runs a transfer evaluation before you commit, so what your existing graduate credit is worth gets settled up front rather than after you enroll. This is a large online university, and the doctoral cohort is spread across the country.

Tuition
$10,138
In-state
Tuition
$10,138
Out-of-state
DNP Awards
91
Completion
43%
Undergraduate
About the tuition figures
School-wide graduate average, 2023-24. Excludes DNP add-on charges.

Scored on

  • Published in-state graduate tuition 100
  • Established program 100
  • Institution-wide undergraduate completion 46.8

Visit Grand Canyon University →

Ranked 2 of 5

Arizona State University Campus Immersion

Tempe, AZ

81.6 of 100
  • CCNE-accredited
  • Public
  • Professional practice doctorate

Arizona State runs its DNP majors at 84 credit hours and publishes the practicum inside that total rather than alongside it. The primary care pediatric track puts 13 of those credits, 585 clock hours, into practicum in a community setting. The acute care pediatric track goes considerably further at 1,170 practicum hours, which the college notes exceeds what the degree standard requires, and 600 of those must be direct patient care supervised by a nurse practitioner or a physician preceptor. If you already hold a master’s, up to 30 credit hours can be carried across, though that needs sign-off from your supervisory committee and the Graduate College rather than being automatic. Delivery is not uniform either: the education major is online while the pediatric majors sit at Downtown Phoenix.

Tuition
$12,376
In-state
Tuition
$25,722
Out-of-state
DNP Awards
70
Completion
68%
Undergraduate
About the tuition figures
School-wide graduate average, 2023-24. Excludes DNP add-on charges.

Scored on

  • Published in-state graduate tuition 63.2
  • Established program 100
  • Institution-wide undergraduate completion 100

Visit Arizona State University Campus Immersion →

Ranked 3 of 5

University of Arizona

Tucson, AZ

78.8 of 100
  • CCNE-accredited
  • Public
  • Professional practice doctorate

Arizona publishes a credit total and a clinical total for every specialty, and the ratio between them is the interesting part. The pediatric nurse practitioner route is 64 credit hours with 720 clinical hours. Executive health systems leadership is 50 credits with 630 practicum hours, so the leadership route trades away classroom time while giving up very little time in practice, which is not what most people assume about a track that is not primarily clinical. From a master’s, the post-master’s DNP is 35 credit hours. Setting that against the 64 the pediatric route takes from a bachelor’s is the clearest way to see what the master’s you already hold is worth in time rather than in money.

Tuition
$12,718
In-state
Tuition
$32,290
Out-of-state
DNP Awards
105
Completion
68%
Undergraduate
About the tuition figures
School-wide graduate average, 2023-24. Excludes DNP add-on charges.

Scored on

  • Published in-state graduate tuition 57.5
  • Established program 100
  • Institution-wide undergraduate completion 100

Visit University of Arizona →

Ranked 4 of 5

Northern Arizona University

Flagstaff, AZ

50.1 of 100
  • CCNE-accredited
  • Public
  • Professional practice doctorate
  • Offered online

Northern Arizona wants 74 to 79 graduate units for a doctorate entered from a master’s, a much heavier load than the thirty-something most post-master’s routes ask for, and that is the first thing to weigh here. On top of it sit 1,000 hours of clinical practice. The condition that catches people out is documentary: accepted students must obtain an official letter, sent directly from the institution that awarded their master’s, stating the actual number of clinical hours completed. Chasing a former registrar for that takes time, so start early. The program runs online and points its leadership training at rural and underserved populations. Admission wants a 3.0 in your bachelor’s and a 3.0 across all nursing coursework in the master’s.

Tuition
$11,674
In-state
Tuition
$21,204
Out-of-state
DNP Awards
7
Completion
61%
Undergraduate
About the tuition figures
School-wide graduate average, 2023-24. Excludes DNP add-on charges.

Scored on

  • Published in-state graduate tuition 74.7
  • Established program 0
  • Institution-wide undergraduate completion 85.1

Visit Northern Arizona University →

Ranked 5 of 5

University of Phoenix-Arizona

Phoenix, AZ

35 of 100
  • CCNE-accredited
  • Private for-profit
  • Professional practice doctorate
  • Offered online

Phoenix attaches a recency condition that most schools leave out. You need a master’s in nursing, an unencumbered RN license, a cumulative grade point average of 3.0, and the equivalent of three years of full-time nursing work within the past ten years. That last clause is the one to read twice. Experience that has aged past a decade does not count, so a nurse coming back after a long stretch away from practice has a problem here that another school would not create. This is a for-profit university and the largest institution on this site by enrollment, though the nursing doctorate is a small part of it. Phoenix confers about thirty a year, which against an enrollment above a hundred thousand is among the lowest doctoral outputs for size in the country.

Tuition
$16,215
In-state
Tuition
$16,215
Out-of-state
DNP Awards
31
Completion
21%
Undergraduate
About the tuition figures
School-wide graduate average, 2023-24. Excludes DNP add-on charges.

Scored on

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

Visit University of Phoenix-Arizona →

Also Accredited In Arizona

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.

  • Aspen University CCNE-accredited DNP

    Aspen builds its doctorate out of 11 courses, entirely online, with start dates every two weeks rather than one intake a year. The practice requirement is 1,000 immersion hours, and the school lets you serve them at a project site of your own choosing, of which 125 are tied specifically to the DNP project. Aspen also publishes something almost nobody else does: a monthly price. It quotes one payment of $450 a month across 83 months, which is a different way of thinking about cost from a per-credit rate and makes the total unusually easy to work out. The school says the degree can be finished in as little as 24 months.

  • Midwestern University CCNE-accredited DNP

    Midwestern runs one of the shorter doctorates on this list: 45 credits over 18 months, delivered online, ending in a quality improvement project you choose yourself rather than one assigned from a faculty list. That is the whole of what the university publishes about the program, and it is worth reading as a design rather than as an omission. A 45-credit post-master's doctorate is sized for a nurse who already holds an advanced practice credential and wants the terminal degree without repeating clinical preparation. If you are entering from a bachelor's, this is not the program shape you are looking for, and the school's admissions office is the place to confirm that before you apply.

Choosing A DNP Program In Arizona

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

Settle your residency before you compare anything else

Across the 3 public institutions in Arizona publishing both rates, the out-of-state rate runs a median of 2.1 times the in-state one. At University of Arizona the gap is $19,572 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 Arizona 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.

Grand Canyon University, Northern Arizona University and University of Phoenix-Arizona carry the distance flag

3 of the 5 measured institutions in Arizona 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

Aspen University and Midwestern University 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 ranking 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 Arizona

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

AANP places Arizona in its full practice category, which it defines this way: state law lets nurse practitioners evaluate patients, diagnose, order and interpret tests, and initiate and manage treatments including prescribing medications and controlled substances, under the exclusive licensure authority of the state board of nursing.

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 with the board is the licensure route itself: what it accepts as an equivalent program, which certification it recognizes for your track, and how long endorsement takes if you are licensed elsewhere. Endorsement runs to months, and it is the step people leave until after they have accepted a place.

Practice environment from AANP's Arizona 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 Arizona

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, ArizonaEmployedRankNational median
Nurse practitioners29-1171$134,4207,22017 of 51$132,300
Nurse anesthetists29-1151$248,66031021 of 44$236,590
Registered nurses29-1141$99,50073,15018 of 51$97,550
Nursing Instructors and Teachers, Postsecondary25-1072$78,9801,93030 of 51$80,250

Nurse practitioners in Arizona have a median of $134,420, which ranks 17 of the 51 jurisdictions the survey publishes a median for, across about 7,220 people in the state. That sits in the upper third of the jurisdictions the survey covers, and the cost of living behind it is not in the figure.

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
227
Of those, rural
109
Median score
17
Highest score
21

Unusually, most of the designated shortage in Arizona is not rural. Only 109 of the 227 designations are, so the approved site that qualifies you is as likely to be a city clinic as a country one. A designation is a statement about how many primary-care providers serve a defined area relative to its population. It describes supply, not hiring.

Priority varies between them: a median score of 17 against a highest of 21. Worth asking what a specific site scores rather than assuming the state figure applies to it.

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 Arizona

3 of the 7 accredited doctorates in Arizona 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 Arizona 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 5 institutions with federal figures here, 3 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.

3 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 Arizona. The degree-wide questions are answered on the guides.

How many DNP programs are there in Arizona?

7, and the cheapest published rate belongs to a private institution: Grand Canyon University at $10,138 against University of Phoenix-Arizona at $16,215. That inverts the assumption most applicants arrive with, because a private school charges one rate wherever you live while a public one prices residency.

How much does a DNP cost in Arizona?

Published in-state rates sit between $10,138 and $16,215, which is a tight band. Price will not narrow your list in Arizona; the track, the placement arrangement and the schedule will.

Is a DNP cheaper in Arizona if you live there?

Yes, by $19,572 a year at the widest of the 3 public institutions publishing both rates. Enrolling in a distance program does not confer residency; the state sets it under its own rules.

Can a nurse practitioner practice independently in Arizona?

AANP puts Arizona in its full practice category, the least restricted of the three: state law lets nurse practitioners evaluate, diagnose, order and interpret tests and prescribe under the board's own licensure authority. That is AANP reading the statute, not a federal designation, and legislation moves it.

What do nurse practitioners earn in Arizona?

A median of $134,420, within $2,120 of the national $132,300. Arizona pays the going rate rather than a premium or a discount, which makes the other variables the deciding ones.

Does federal loan repayment apply in Arizona?

It can. 227 designated primary-care shortage areas, 109 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 Arizona?

3 of the 5 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 7 in Arizona 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 Arizona, 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

    Arizona State University

    Tempe, AZ · Public · carries federal figures · filed federally as Arizona State University Campus Immersion

  2. 2

    Aspen University

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

  3. 3

    Grand Canyon University

    Phoenix, AZ · Private for-profit · carries federal figures

  4. 4

    Midwestern University

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

  5. 5

    Northern Arizona University

    Flagstaff, AZ · Public · carries federal figures

  6. 6

    University of Arizona

    Tucson, AZ · Public · carries federal figures

  7. 7

    University of Phoenix

    Phoenix, AZ · Private for-profit · carries federal figures · filed federally as University of Phoenix-Arizona

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