Best DNP Programs

Durham-Chapel Hill metro

Best DNP Programs In Durham-Chapel Hill 2026

2 accredited institutions in the Durham-Chapel Hill metro, with school-wide average graduate tuition from $10,552 to $62,620 a year in state.
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Key Takeaways

  1. 1

    2 accredited institutions, drawn from 2 municipalities. This guide counts the Durham-Chapel Hill, NC 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

    1 public, 1 private, and the cheap end is public. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill publishes $10,552 in-state, against $62,620 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. Duke University conferred 59 of the 94 DNP awards recorded across this metro, with University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill next at 35. A number that lopsided says where the cohorts and the placement relationships are, which a ranking position does not.

  4. 4

    Every measured program is distance-flagged. Which says less than it sounds: the flag covers taught content only. The supervised hours happen in person with a preceptor wherever you enroll, and campus days are the school's to set.

The Public-Private Gap Is The Price Story Here

School-wide average graduate tuition in this metro, which excludes DNP add-on charges, runs from $10,552 a year in state at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to $62,620 at Duke University, about 6 times apart, in the 2023-24 federal figures.

The one public institution publishes $10,552 in state, and the one private institution publishes $62,620. Out of state, the public rate rises to $28,844.

Duke University conferred the most DNPs in the metro in the reporting year, 59, and charges the highest graduate rate here.

These are average tuition figures for full-time graduate students across each institution, not a DNP price. Some doctoral programs add a tuition differential on top, so ask each school for its DNP rate per credit before comparing.

How This Ranking Is Scored

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

  1. 50%

    Published in-state graduate tuition

    Institution-level. 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 2 DNP Programs In Durham-Chapel Hill, 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.

Each card shows what the institution publishes.

Ranked 1 of 2

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Chapel Hill, NC

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

Carolina asks you to choose a pathway before a specialty, and publishes three: health care leadership and administration, BSN-to-DNP nurse practitioner areas, and MSN-to-DNP. The coursework spans advanced practice, leadership and practice-based inquiry, ending in an evidence-based DNP project, with 1,000 practice hours inside the credit total. What sets it apart is that the specialty entry expectations are written down rather than implied: pediatric primary care wants roughly six months of full-time RN work in a neonatal, pediatric or child-serving community setting, and the psychiatric-mental health track wants six months in acute or community psychiatric and substance-use care. If you are switching populations rather than deepening the one you know, those are the sentences that decide whether to apply now or work another year first.

Tuition
$10,552
In-state
Tuition
$28,844
Out-of-state
DNP Awards
35
Completion
91%
Undergraduate
About the tuition figures
School-wide graduate average, 2023-24. Excludes DNP add-on charges.

Scored on

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

Visit University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill →

Ranked 2 of 2

Duke University

Durham, NC

23.1 of 100
  • CCNE-accredited
  • Private nonprofit
  • Professional practice doctorate
  • Offered online

7 DNP tracks at this institution, Adult health, Family nurse practitioner, Maternal/Child Health and Neonatal Nurse/Nursing, Nursing practice (general), Pediatric, Psychiatric-mental health NP, Women's Health Nurse/Nursing. Ranked once, on the largest.

Duke files more separate DNP records with the federal survey than any other institution in this dataset, eight of them, which is a fair signal of how many distinct routes sit under one program name. Its MSN-to-DNP is distance-based, with coursework completed from wherever you are. Admission is broader than most: it takes a master’s in nursing from a CCNE- or ACEN-accredited program, but it will also take a master’s in a related health field, so a graduate degree from outside nursing does not rule you out here the way it does at a lot of schools. Among the specialties is a nurse innovator and entrepreneur track whose three specialty courses all run online.

Tuition
$62,620
In-state
Tuition
$62,620
Out-of-state
DNP Awards
59
Completion
97%
Undergraduate
About the tuition figures
School-wide graduate average, 2023-24. Excludes DNP add-on charges.

Scored on

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

Visit Duke University →

What This Guide Counts As The Durham-Chapel Hill Metro

This guide follows the Durham-Chapel Hill, NC metropolitan statistical area. Raleigh sits in a separate metropolitan area next door, so although the three cities are commonly called the Triangle, only two of them are covered here. Both institutions in this list are inside this metro rather than borrowed from the one beside it.

Municipalities Included

  • Durham, NC
  • Chapel Hill, NC

Deliberately Not Included

  • Raleigh and Cary, NC The Raleigh-Cary metropolitan area, separately delineated. The three cities are spoken of together as the Triangle and the federal survey splits them, so a Raleigh institution would not appear here.
  • Greensboro and Winston-Salem, NC Two further separate metropolitan areas an hour west, one of which has its own guide.
  • Charlotte, NC Its own metropolitan area, and the largest city in the state.

Choosing A DNP Program In Durham-Chapel Hill

What studying in the Durham-Chapel Hill metro changes. The questions that apply wherever you study are on the national ranking page.

Duke University and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are the whole of the field in Durham-Chapel Hill

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

Who Licenses You In The Durham-Chapel Hill 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.

North Carolina
Restricted Practice
North Carolina Board of Nursing

Every institution on this page sits in North Carolina, so one board licenses all of them and AANP classifies the jurisdiction as restricted 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 North Carolina . AANP is reading state statute rather than issuing a federal designation, and statutes move each legislative session, so confirm with the board before you rely on it.

Shortage Areas, And The Debt Relief Attached To Them

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

North Carolina, designated areas
210
North Carolina, of those rural
130

These figures cover North Carolina in full rather than the Durham-Chapel Hill 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: North Carolina.

Studying From Outside The Durham-Chapel Hill Metro

Most of the measured field here is distance-flagged, 2 of 2 accredited doctorates in the Durham-Chapel Hill metro, so the question is less whether you can study at a distance and more whether an out-of-state program offers anything the local ones do not. 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 Durham-Chapel Hill metro this cycle, and whether it will place you for supervised clinical hours near where you live.

Which Durham-Chapel Hill 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 North Carolina at Chapel Hill

The lowest published in-state rate among Durham-Chapel Hill's publics, at $10,552 a year. An annual rate, not a program total, and it assumes residency.

If you are moving to Durham-Chapel Hill: settle residency before you apply

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill publishes a $18,292 annual gap between its in-state and out-of-state rates, the widest of the 1 Durham-Chapel Hill public publishing both. Start with the registrar, not admissions.

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

Duke University's own pages name a bachelor's entry. Others in Durham-Chapel Hill 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: Duke University

Duke 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.

If you cannot relocate: 2 institutions here carry the distance flag

Duke University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill carry it. 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 Durham-Chapel Hill?

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

What counts as the Durham-Chapel Hill metro on this page?

The Durham-Chapel Hill, NC metropolitan statistical area. In practice that means these municipalities: Durham, NC; Chapel Hill, NC. Places deliberately left out are listed on this page with the reason.

Is it cheaper to study for a DNP in Durham-Chapel Hill 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 Durham-Chapel Hill, NC 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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