Best DNP Programs

Baltimore metro

Best DNP Programs In Baltimore 2026

Three accredited institutions that conferred 367 doctorates between them, more than any metro on this site except Chicago, and two of the three account for almost all of it.
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Key Takeaways

  1. 1

    One metro, two price worlds. Published in-state rates here run from $5,032 to $64,730, a spread of about 13 times inside one commuting area. Which end applies to you turns on residency and control, not on which campus you can reach.

  2. 2

    2 public, 1 private, and the cheap end is public. Coppin State University publishes $5,032 in-state, against $10,024 at the next option up. Residency is the lever here, and that figure is one school's published year rather than a typical cost: it leaves out fees, insurance and what reaching a clinical placement costs.

  3. 3

    Output is concentrated in one school. Johns Hopkins University conferred 203 of the 367 DNP awards recorded across this metro, with University of Maryland next at 156. A number that lopsided says where the cohorts and the placement relationships are, which a ranking position does not.

  4. 4

    Nothing here is distance-flagged. No institution in this metro carries the federal distance-education flag. It records an institutional filing rather than how a program runs, so ask each school directly, but plan on being in the room.

Two Schools Produce Almost Every Doctorate, And They Sit At Opposite Ends Of The Price Range

Johns Hopkins University conferred 203 DNP awards in the reporting year and the University of Maryland, Baltimore conferred 156. That is 359 of the 367 recorded across this metro, and it leaves 8 for the third institution. Very few metros are this concentrated in two places rather than one.

The two are also the price extremes. Hopkins publishes $64,730 a year and Maryland publishes $10,024 in-state, so the pair that produces almost everything is separated by a factor of more than six. A reader here is not choosing along a ladder of five options; they are choosing between two large programs at opposite ends of what a doctorate costs, with a third much smaller one below both.

Coppin State University is that third, and it publishes $5,032, the lowest in-state rate in this metro. It conferred 8 doctorates. Reading the three figures together, the cheapest option is also the smallest by a wide margin, which is a different trade from the one the tuition column alone suggests.

How This Ranking Is Scored

Three published figures, weighted. Scores are relative to the 3 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 Baltimore 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 3 University of Maryland, Baltimore Baltimore, MD · Public $10,024 156 Not published 95.1
2 of 3 Coppin State University Baltimore, MD · Public $5,032 8 26% 50
3 of 3 Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, MD · Private nonprofit $64,730 203 94% 50

What This Guide Counts As The Baltimore Metro

This guide follows the Baltimore-Columbia-Towson metropolitan statistical area. All three institutions report Baltimore itself as their city, so unlike most metros here the municipality list and the city limits are the same thing. The Maryland institutions in the Washington suburbs sit in a different metro and are excluded below; the Washington guide says the same in reverse.

Municipalities Included

  • Baltimore, MD

Deliberately Not Included

  • Washington, DC and Northern Virginia The Washington-Arlington-Alexandria metro, separately delineated and covered by its own guide.
  • Salisbury, MD The Eastern Shore, about two and a half hours away and its own metropolitan area.
  • Towson and Columbia, MD Named in the metro title, but no institution in the accredited dataset reports either as its city. Nothing is being left out; there is nothing there to leave out.

The Best 3 DNP Programs In Baltimore, Ranked

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

Ranked 1 of 3

University of Maryland, Baltimore

Baltimore, MD

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

Maryland’s scale buys specialization most schools cannot staff. Alongside family practice it runs acute care pediatrics and neonatal tracks aimed at genuinely different jobs: acute care pediatric practitioners are hired into pediatric intensive care, inpatient pediatrics, cardiovascular surgery units and emergency departments, while neonatal practitioners go into level II, III and IV neonatal intensive care. The family track deliberately spreads practicum hours across women’s health, adult, geriatric and pediatric populations rather than concentrating them. The school also names the background it wants: emergency, pediatric cardiac surgery ICU, neurosurgical ICU or hematology-oncology experience. That is a clearer signal than a GPA floor. A Conway Scholarship covers half of in-state tuition, fees and books for those who qualify. Its pathways page publishes 37 credits for a nurse already practicing as an APRN against 80 to 93 for bachelor’s entry.

In-State Tuition
$10,024
Out-Of-State
$41,197
DNP Awards
156

Scored on

  • Published in-state graduate tuition 91.6
  • Established program 100

Visit University of Maryland, Baltimore →

Ranked 2 of 3

Coppin State University

Baltimore, MD

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

Coppin State splits the clinical hours in a way worth knowing about: at least 300 have to be done inside this program, and up to 700 can transfer from an accredited master’s. The floor is 300 whatever you bring, and the transfer ceiling is generous next to schools that stop at 500. Entry runs from a bachelor’s in nursing accredited by the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing or the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education, and the pathways run in a traditional or hybrid format rather than fully online. In-state tuition is in the cheapest five percent on this site, which for a Maryland resident is the strongest thing on this card.

In-State Tuition
$5,032
Out-Of-State
$11,956
DNP Awards
8
UG Completion
26%

Scored on

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

Visit Coppin State University →

Ranked 3 of 3

Johns Hopkins University

Baltimore, MD

50 of 100
  • CCNE-accredited
  • Private nonprofit
  • Doctorate (professional)

Hopkins calls the advanced practice doctorate online, and then adds the condition that decides it: from the fall 2024 intake you have to be living in Maryland or Washington DC by the third semester, because that is where the clinical placements are. Read that before anything else. The adult-gerontological acute care track runs 70 credits with 840 clinical hours plus 160 project practicum hours, and wants a year of full-time RN work with unstable, technology-dependent patients in intensive, intermediate, progressive, stepdown or telemetry care before you start. Nurse anesthesia is taught on site rather than online, and applies in a different cycle: 1 September for a summer start against 1 November and 15 January for the practitioner tracks. Undergraduate statistics has to be a B, and the school says a B minus will not be accepted.

In-State Tuition
$64,730
Out-Of-State
$64,730
DNP Awards
203
UG Completion
94%

Scored on

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

Visit Johns Hopkins University →

Choosing A DNP Program In Baltimore

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

Settle your residency before you compare anything else

Across the 2 public institutions in the Baltimore metro publishing both rates, the out-of-state rate runs a median of 4.1 times the in-state one. At University of Maryland, Baltimore the gap is $31,173 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.

A field of 3 is small enough to contact all of it

Coppin State University, Johns Hopkins University and University of Maryland, Baltimore are the accredited doctorates in the Baltimore metro, which is few enough that writing to every one of them is a morning's work rather than a project. It is also the fastest way to learn what no program page prints: who secures your clinical placement, what the school charges if a doctoral project runs past its term, and which tracks are open to new applicants this cycle. Against a field this size, a reply beats a rubric.

The Maryland 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.

Nothing measured here is flagged for distance delivery

The federal file records no distance-education flag against Coppin State University, Johns Hopkins University and University of Maryland, Baltimore. The flag is an institutional filing rather than a description of any one program, and a school can deliver a doctorate largely at a distance without carrying it, so ask each of them what reaches you where you live. If a distance program elsewhere is your alternative, two conditions decide it before tuition does: whether that program is authorized to enroll a student in Baltimore, and whether it will place you for clinical hours near you. Ask both of the school directly, because a ranking answers neither.

A metro is a commute, and Maryland is the field

This page covers the institutions inside the Baltimore area because a campus you can reach on a weekday is a different proposition from one you cannot. It is a narrower field than the one you are actually choosing from: DNP programs in Maryland carries every accredited institution in the state, and for a program you would attend at a distance the metro boundary means nothing at all.

Who Licenses You In The Baltimore 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.

Maryland
Full Practice
Maryland Board of Nursing

Every institution on this page sits in Maryland, so one board licenses all of them and AANP classifies the jurisdiction as full 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 Maryland . 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.

What The Work Pays In The Baltimore Metro

BLS OEWS, May 2025, metropolitan area cut for Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD, read 2026-09-10. 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, Baltimore metroEmployedNational median
Nurse Practitioners29-1171$131,9903,800$132,300
Nurse Anesthetists29-1151$217,620420$236,590
Registered Nurses29-1141$99,55030,930$97,550
Nursing Instructors and Teachers, Postsecondary25-1072$84,050440$80,250

Nurse practitioners in the Baltimore metro have a median of $131,990, across about 3,800 of them, which is within $310 of the national $132,300.

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. The metropolitan cut is a different survey area from the state one, so these figures will not reconcile with the state page and are not meant to. How BLS defines these areas .

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.

Maryland, designated areas
56
Maryland, of those rural
11

These figures cover Maryland in full rather than the Baltimore 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: Maryland.

Studying From Outside The Baltimore Metro

the Baltimore metro holds 3 accredited doctorates and none of the measured ones carries the federal distance-education flag. That flag is an institutional filing rather than a description of any one program, so the local field may reach further than it looks, but a program run elsewhere is the route to check first. 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 Baltimore metro this cycle, and whether it will place you for supervised clinical hours near where you live.

Which Baltimore 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: Coppin State University

The lowest published in-state rate among Baltimore's publics, at $5,032 a year. An annual rate, not a program total, and it assumes residency.

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

University of Maryland, Baltimore publishes a $31,173 annual gap between its in-state and out-of-state rates, the widest of the 2 Baltimore publics publishing both. Start with the registrar, not admissions.

If you hold a bachelor's: Coppin State University states that route

Coppin State University's own pages name a bachelor's entry. Others in Baltimore may take bachelor's entrants too: this site records a route only where the school states it, so an absent name means unread rather than closed.

If you already hold an advanced practice credential: Coppin State University

Coppin State University 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.

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 Baltimore?

3 institutions in the Baltimore metro hold CCNE accreditation for the Doctor of Nursing Practice. This guide counts the Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD metropolitan statistical area rather than the city limits, so the figure includes institutions in 1 municipalities.

What counts as the Baltimore metro on this page?

The Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD metropolitan statistical area. In practice that means these municipalities: Baltimore, MD. Places deliberately left out are listed on this page with the reason.

Is it cheaper to study for a DNP in Baltimore 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 Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD 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.

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