Best DNP Programs

Boston metro

Best DNP Programs In Boston 2026

Six accredited institutions in the tightest metro of the three, and the one where the private-university share of the shortlist is highest.
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Key Takeaways

  1. 1

    6 accredited institutions, drawn from 3 municipalities. This guide counts the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH metropolitan area rather than the city limits, so the pool is wider than the city name suggests and every campus in it is inside one commute.

  2. 2

    2 public, 4 private, and the cheap end is public. The lowest published in-state rate belongs to a public institution, so residency is the lever here. That figure is one school's published year, not a typical cost, and it excludes fees and clinical expenses.

  3. 3

    Output is concentrated in one school. Boston College conferred 85 of the 113 DNP awards recorded across this metro. A number that lopsided says where the cohorts and the placement relationships are, which a ranking position does not.

  4. 4

    1 of 6 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.

The Most Concentrated Field On The Site

Four of the six accredited institutions are in Boston itself, which makes this the most geographically concentrated field this site covers: a reader can reach most of it on the same transit system. Only UMass Boston and UMass Lowell are public, so the private share is high and the price ladder is steep.

What sets Boston apart is on the other side of the decision. The metropolitan wage cut puts nurse practitioners here well above the national median, and the nursing-instructor figure is high too, which matters in a metro with this concentration of teaching hospitals, where a doctorate is a normal credential rather than an unusual one.

BLS suppresses the nurse anesthetist cell for this metro, so that row is named as suppressed in the pay section rather than dropped. A blank there means the figure was not published, not that nobody does the work here.

How This Ranking Is Scored

Three published figures, weighted. Scores are relative to the 6 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 Boston 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 6 University of Massachusetts-Lowell Lowell, MA · Public $16,246 10 65% 78.3
2 of 6 Boston College Chestnut Hill, MA · Private nonprofit $69,400 85 91% 61.2
3 of 6 University of Massachusetts-Boston Boston, MA · Public · offered online $15,278 2 49% 55.5
4 of 6 Northeastern University Boston, MA · Private nonprofit $64,990 5 91% 44.3
5 of 6 Simmons University Boston, MA · Private nonprofit $45,534 1 72% 36.5
6 of 6 MGH Institute of Health Professions Boston, MA · Private nonprofit $85,000 10 Not published 27.4

What This Guide Counts As The Boston Metro

This guide follows the Boston-Cambridge-Newton metropolitan statistical area. It is the smallest of the three metro guides by institution count and the most concentrated: four of the six are in Boston itself, and only UMass Boston and UMass Lowell are public.

Municipalities Included

  • Boston, MA
  • Chestnut Hill, MA
  • Lowell, MA

Deliberately Not Included

  • Worcester, MA Worcester is its own metropolitan statistical area, not a Boston suburb.
  • Durham, NH The University of New Hampshire sits in Strafford County, whose place in the current Boston delineation this guide has not verified. Left out rather than claimed.
  • Amherst, Chicopee and Longmeadow, MA Western Massachusetts, in the Springfield metro.

The Best 6 DNP Programs In Boston, Ranked

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

Ranked 1 of 6

University of Massachusetts-Lowell

Lowell, MA

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

Lowell publishes a separate degree pathway for master’s-prepared nurses who are not advanced practice registered nurses, a group most schools leave to work out their own plan. If your master’s was in education, administration or informatics, there is a named route here rather than a case-by-case negotiation. The scholarly project splits into three graded courses covering design, implementation, and dissemination with advocacy and policy, so the work is paced across the program instead of saved for the end. Before clinical rotations you work in simulation labs using high-fidelity manikins and trained actors as simulated patients. The catalog publishes a pathway per entry year, so the plan you are held to is the one in force when you start.

In-State Tuition
$16,246
Out-Of-State
$35,544
DNP Awards
10
UG Completion
65%

Scored on

  • Published in-state graduate tuition 98.6
  • Established program 66.5
  • Institution-wide undergraduate completion 38.1

Visit University of Massachusetts-Lowell →

Ranked 2 of 6

Boston College

Chestnut Hill, MA

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

Boston College runs three ways in, and one of them is unusual: registered nurses without a bachelor’s degree can enter directly if they have completed roughly 112 college credits, earning the master’s for practitioner preparation and continuing straight into the doctorate. The other two routes start from a bachelor’s or a master’s in nursing. All three want an undergraduate average of B or better and a completed statistics course, and the school states plainly that AP credit will not cover the statistics. Clinical work rotates across three to six sites rather than parking you at one, and those include Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, so the settings differ from each other in ways that show up in what you see. Tuition is near the top of the range on this site.

In-State Tuition
$69,400
Out-Of-State
$69,400
DNP Awards
85
UG Completion
91%

Scored on

  • Published in-state graduate tuition 22.4
  • Established program 100
  • Institution-wide undergraduate completion 100

Visit Boston College →

Ranked 3 of 6

University of Massachusetts-Boston

Boston, MA

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

Boston runs both entries, one from a bachelor’s in nursing and one from a master’s for advanced practice nurses already in the field, and points the degree at systems rather than at a new patient population: health systems leadership, policy development and interdisciplinary work. A post-master’s certificate in psychiatric mental health runs alongside for nurses who want that credential without committing to a doctorate. This is a small doctoral program. It confers only a couple of nursing doctorates a year, which cuts both ways: a cohort of a handful and faculty attention a larger program cannot match, against fewer people to compare notes with.

In-State Tuition
$15,278
Out-Of-State
$37,495
DNP Awards
2
UG Completion
49%

Scored on

  • Published in-state graduate tuition 100
  • Established program 15.8
  • Institution-wide undergraduate completion 0

Visit University of Massachusetts-Boston →

Ranked 4 of 6

Northeastern University

Boston, MA

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

Northeastern’s post-master’s doctorate is 30 semester hours and primarily online. What the catalog shows clearly is how the doctoral work is structured: three sequential scholarly project courses covering design and ethical considerations, then implementation and outcomes, then dissemination. Splitting the project across three graded courses means it gets paced through the program rather than left to pile up at the end. Three of the thirty hours are electives you choose in consultation with a faculty advisor, which is a small amount of real flexibility inside an otherwise fixed sequence. The program sits within a health sciences college rather than a standalone nursing school, so the people around you come from across the health professions.

In-State Tuition
$64,990
Out-Of-State
$64,990
DNP Awards
5
UG Completion
91%

Scored on

  • Published in-state graduate tuition 28.7
  • Established program 42.8
  • Institution-wide undergraduate completion 100

Visit Northeastern University →

Ranked 5 of 6

Simmons University

Boston, MA

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

2 DNP tracks at this institution, Family nurse practitioner, Nursing practice (general). Ranked once, on the largest.

Simmons publishes its clinical hours per component rather than as one total, which makes the executive leadership route unusually easy to plan against. The doctoral portion carries 252 clinical hours, 29 credit hours and at least 181 hours on the DNP project itself. Come in from a BSN and the master’s leadership stage adds 567 clinical hours and 35 credits ahead of all that. The format is blended, online coursework with in-person elements, rather than either extreme. If you did your master’s at Simmons the route is materially easier to start: a streamlined application, the application fee waived, and up to five credits waived from the standard thirty once you are accepted.

In-State Tuition
$45,534
Out-Of-State
$45,534
DNP Awards
1
UG Completion
72%

Scored on

  • Published in-state graduate tuition 56.6
  • Established program 0
  • Institution-wide undergraduate completion 54.8

Visit Simmons University →

Ranked 6 of 6

MGH Institute of Health Professions

Boston, MA

27.4 of 100
  • CCNE-accredited
  • Private nonprofit
  • Doctorate (other)

3 DNP tracks at this institution, Geriatric, Nursing administration, Nursing practice (general). Ranked once, on the largest.

This is a graduate health professions school rather than a university with a nursing college inside it, and the doctorate is built for people already running something. The curriculum is modeled on executive MBA programs, which here means online coursework broken up by in-person intensives rather than a fully remote degree. You pick the pace at admission: four semesters or five, with two part-time options beside them, and the choice is framed around what your job will tolerate. Everyone on this campus is in a health profession, so the people in your cohort are clinicians rather than general graduate students. Against an enrollment of about 1,700 it confers nursing doctorates at one of the higher rates in the country, which is what a specialist campus looks like in the federal data.

In-State Tuition
$85,000
Out-Of-State
$85,000
DNP Awards
10

Scored on

  • Published in-state graduate tuition 0
  • Established program 66.5

Visit MGH Institute of Health Professions →

Choosing A DNP Program In Boston

What studying in the Boston 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 Boston metro publishing both rates, the out-of-state rate runs a median of 2.5 times the in-state one. At University of Massachusetts-Boston the gap is $22,217 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 Massachusetts 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.

University of Massachusetts-Boston carries the distance flag

1 of the 6 measured institutions in the Boston metro 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.

A metro is a commute, and Massachusetts is the field

This page covers the institutions inside the Boston 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 Massachusetts 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 Boston 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.

Massachusetts
Full Practice
0

Every institution on this page sits in Massachusetts, 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 Massachusetts . 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 Boston Metro

BLS OEWS, May 2025, metropolitan area cut for Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH, read 2026-09-09. 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, Boston metroEmployedNational median
Nurse practitioners29-1171$147,4805,990$132,300
Registered nurses29-1141$106,18064,240$97,550
Nursing Instructors and Teachers, Postsecondary25-1072$83,5501,560$80,250

One occupation is missing from the table above: nurse anesthetists. BLS suppresses metropolitan cells independently per occupation, usually where the employed count is too small to publish without identifying an employer, so a blank means the figure was not released for this metro rather than that nobody does the work here. Nationally the median is $236,590.

Nurse practitioners in the Boston metro have a median of $147,480, across about 5,990 of them, $15,180 above 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.

Massachusetts, designated areas
64
Massachusetts, of those rural
10

These figures cover Massachusetts in full rather than the Boston 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: Massachusetts.

Studying From Outside The Boston Metro

1 of the 6 accredited doctorates in the Boston 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 Boston metro this cycle, and whether it will place you for supervised clinical hours near where you live.

Which Boston 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 Massachusetts-Boston

The lowest published in-state rate among Boston's publics, at $15,278 a year. An annual rate, not a program total, and it assumes residency.

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

University of Massachusetts-Boston publishes a $22,217 annual gap between its in-state and out-of-state rates, the widest of the 2 Boston publics publishing both. Start with the registrar, not admissions.

If you hold a bachelor's: University of Massachusetts-Boston states that route

University of Massachusetts-Boston's own pages name a bachelor's entry. Others in Boston 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: Boston College

Boston College 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: University of Massachusetts-Boston

University of Massachusetts-Boston 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 Boston?

6 institutions in the Boston metro hold CCNE accreditation for the Doctor of Nursing Practice. This guide counts the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH metropolitan statistical area rather than the city limits, so the figure includes institutions in 3 municipalities.

What counts as the Boston metro on this page?

The Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH metropolitan statistical area. In practice that means these municipalities: Boston, MA; Chestnut Hill, MA; Lowell, MA. Places deliberately left out are listed on this page with the reason.

Is it cheaper to study for a DNP in Boston 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 Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH 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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