Best DNP Programs

Greenville metro

Best DNP Programs In Greenville 2026

Two accredited institutions, both flagged for distance study, in a metro named for a city that holds neither of them.
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Key Takeaways

  1. 1

    Price will not narrow this list. The published in-state rates here sit inside a band of roughly 2.4 times, which is tight for a metro. That pushes the decision onto track, cohort size and who arranges the clinical placement.

  2. 2

    1 public, 1 private, and the cheap end is public. Clemson University publishes $14,038 in-state, against $34,020 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. Clemson University conferred 13 of the 20 DNP awards recorded across this metro, with Anderson University (SC) next at 7. 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.

Both Programs Are Taught At A Distance, Which Makes The Thirty Miles Between Them Moot

Clemson University and Anderson University are about fifteen miles apart, and both are flagged for distance education in the federal survey. In most metros here the geography inside the metro matters, because a campus-based program means a commute. Here it largely does not, and a reader outside the Upstate can consider both on the same terms as a reader inside it.

What separates them is control and price. Clemson is public and publishes $14,038 in-state; Anderson is private nonprofit and publishes $34,020. Clemson also publishes $39,350 for non-residents, which is above Anderson’s single rate, so for a student from outside South Carolina the cheaper of the two flips.

Clemson conferred 13 DNP awards in the reporting year and Anderson conferred 7, so the two are closer in output than in size: Clemson enrolls 29,077 students against Anderson’s 4,710. As elsewhere on this site, the size of the university is a poor guide to the size of its doctoral cohort.

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. 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 Greenville 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 2 Clemson University Clemson, SC · Public · offered online $14,038 13 87% 100
2 of 2 Anderson University Anderson, SC · Private nonprofit · offered online $34,020 7 66% 0

What This Guide Counts As The Greenville Metro

This guide follows the Greenville-Anderson-Greer, SC metropolitan statistical area, which stretches across the northwestern corner of the state. Clemson and Anderson are both inside it and Greenville, which the metro is named for, holds no institution in the accredited dataset. South Carolina carries three metro guides on this site and they share no institutions.

Municipalities Included

  • Anderson, SC
  • Clemson, SC

Deliberately Not Included

  • Greenville itself The city the metro is named for carries no institution in the accredited dataset. Both institutions here are elsewhere in the metro, at Anderson and at Clemson.
  • Columbia, SC Its own metropolitan area about a hundred miles east, where the University of South Carolina sits.
  • Charleston, SC The Charleston-North Charleston metropolitan area on the coast, separately delineated.

The Best 2 DNP Programs In Greenville, Ranked

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

Ranked 1 of 2

Clemson University

Clemson, SC

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

Clemson delivers all of its DNP coursework online and sets a floor rather than a target on length: a minimum of six semesters, which is two years if you run straight through. A minimum is a useful thing to be told, because it is the number a school cannot talk you below, whereas an advertised completion time usually assumes everything goes right. Its federal filing does carry a distance-education flag, so the online description holds up rather than being a partial one. As a large public university in South Carolina it prices residency steeply, with the non-resident rate close to three times the in-state one.

In-State Tuition
$14,038
Out-Of-State
$39,350
DNP Awards
13
UG Completion
87%

Scored on

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

Visit Clemson University →

Ranked 2 of 2

Anderson University

Anderson, SC

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

Anderson publishes format, duration and start date for each route side by side, and they differ more than the shared name suggests. Executive leadership from an MSN is fully online and 18 months, and it accepts a master’s in nursing in any field of study rather than demanding a matching specialty. The family nurse practitioner route from a BSN is hybrid rather than online, and three years. Psychiatric mental health runs alongside it. Every route starts in August, so there is one intake a year whichever you pick, and it is the credential you enter with rather than the specialty you want that decides how long you are committing to.

In-State Tuition
$34,020
Out-Of-State
$34,020
DNP Awards
7
UG Completion
66%

Scored on

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

Visit Anderson University →

Choosing A DNP Program In Greenville

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

Anderson University and Clemson University are the whole of the field in Greenville

Anderson University and Clemson University 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 South Carolina board of nursing rather than to the school.

Who Licenses You In The Greenville 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.

South Carolina
Restricted Practice
South Carolina Board of Nursing

Every institution on this page sits in South 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 South 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.

South Carolina, designated areas
110
South Carolina, of those rural
64

These figures cover South Carolina in full rather than the Greenville 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: South Carolina.

Studying From Outside The Greenville Metro

Most of the measured field here is distance-flagged, 2 of 2 accredited doctorates in the Greenville 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 Greenville metro this cycle, and whether it will place you for supervised clinical hours near where you live.

Which Greenville 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: Clemson University

The lowest published in-state rate among Greenville's publics, at $14,038 a year. An annual rate, not a program total, and it assumes residency.

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

Clemson University publishes a $25,312 annual gap between its in-state and out-of-state rates, the widest of the 1 Greenville public publishing both. Start with the registrar, not admissions.

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

Clemson University's own pages name a bachelor's entry. Others in Greenville 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: Clemson University

Clemson 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

Anderson University, Clemson University 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 Greenville?

2 institutions in the Greenville metro hold CCNE accreditation for the Doctor of Nursing Practice. This guide counts the Greenville-Anderson-Greer, SC metropolitan statistical area rather than the city limits, so the figure includes institutions in 2 municipalities.

What counts as the Greenville metro on this page?

The Greenville-Anderson-Greer, SC metropolitan statistical area. In practice that means these municipalities: Anderson, SC; Clemson, SC. Places deliberately left out are listed on this page with the reason.

Is it cheaper to study for a DNP in Greenville 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 Greenville-Anderson-Greer, SC 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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