Best DNP Programs

Hartford metro

Best DNP Programs In Hartford 2026

Two accredited institutions thirty miles apart, one a state flagship and one a university of under 2,000 students, and neither is in the city the metro is named for.
A winter cityscape seen from above, a gold-domed building among low roofs in the foreground and a cluster of dark office towers behind under a pale sky

"Hartford, Connecticut skyline 2026" by Quintin Soloviev, licensed CC BY 4.0. Source: commons.wikimedia.org

On this page

Key Takeaways

  1. 1

    Price will not narrow this list. The published in-state rates here sit inside a band of roughly 1.1 times, which is tight for a metro. That pushes the decision onto track, cohort size and who arranges the clinical placement.

  2. 2

    The cheapest option here is private. 1 of the 2 are public, but the lowest published rate is not one of them. A private institution charges the same wherever you live, which inverts the residency arithmetic most metro pages rest on.

  3. 3

    University of Connecticut is most of this metro. It conferred 14 of the 20 DNP awards recorded here, which is 70% of them, against 6 at University of Saint Joseph. Treat the others as genuinely small programs rather than as alternatives of a similar size.

  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.

A 28,000-Student Flagship And A 1,952-Student University, In One Metro

School-wide average graduate tuition in this metro, which excludes DNP add-on charges, runs from $16,971 a year in state at University of Saint Joseph to $18,834 at University of Connecticut, within a quarter of each other, in the 2023-24 federal figures.

The one public institution publishes $18,834 in state, and the one private institution publishes $16,971. Out of state, the public rate rises to $40,746.

University of Connecticut conferred the most DNPs in the metro in the reporting year, 14, 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.

The University of Connecticut enrolls 28,306 students and the University of Saint Joseph enrolls 1,952. That is a ratio of more than fourteen to one between two institutions in the same metropolitan area, and it is the widest institutional size gap in any two-school metro on this site after Madison.

The doctoral figures narrow it considerably. UConn conferred 14 DNP awards in the reporting year and Saint Joseph conferred 6, which is closer to two to one. As in Madison, the nursing programs are far more alike in size than the universities around them, and a reader should not assume the bigger campus means the bigger 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. 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 Hartford, 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 Connecticut

Storrs, CT

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

Connecticut calls its doctorate online and then names the two dates you cannot miss: intensive sessions on the Storrs campus in August and in January. Budget for those trips before anything else. Two entry points run, one from a bachelor’s and one from a master’s for nurses already licensed and certified in an advanced practice role. The post-master’s route carries a requirement the other does not: verification of 2,080 direct patient care hours as a registered nurse, on a form, completed before you apply. That is a full year of full-time practice, evidenced rather than asserted. Admission wants a nursing bachelor’s from a regionally accredited institution, a 3.0 undergraduate average and three references.

Tuition
$18,834
In-state
Tuition
$40,746
Out-of-state
DNP Awards
14
Completion
83%
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 100

Visit University of Connecticut →

Ranked 2 of 2

University of Saint Joseph

West Hartford, CT

50 of 100
  • CCNE-accredited
  • Private nonprofit
  • Professional practice doctorate

Saint Joseph attaches a deadline to your own history that almost no school does. If you finished a master’s in nursing here and enroll within three years of completing it, the doctorate is six courses and 18 credits across three semesters. Leave it longer and you are on the standard route, 45 credits over two to four years against a plan of study the program approves. Three years is the whole difference between a year of study and three, so if you are weighing whether to keep going, the clock is already running. Admission wants a 3.2 in the master’s, a certification form documenting your previous supervised clinical hours signed by that program’s director, and an essay about a health issue in your own community.

Tuition
$16,971
In-state
Tuition
$16,971
Out-of-state
DNP Awards
6
Completion
64%
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 0
  • Institution-wide undergraduate completion 0

Visit University of Saint Joseph →

What This Guide Counts As The Hartford Metro

This guide follows the Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, CT metropolitan statistical area. Neither institution is in Hartford: the University of Connecticut reports Storrs, about thirty miles east, and the University of Saint Joseph reports West Hartford. A reader searching for a program in Hartford itself will find both of these and neither is there.

Municipalities Included

  • West Hartford, CT
  • Storrs, CT

Deliberately Not Included

  • New Haven, CT Its own metropolitan area about forty miles south, separately delineated.
  • Fairfield and Bridgeport, CT The Bridgeport-Stamford-Danbury metropolitan area in the southwest corner of the state, covered by its own guide.
  • Hartford itself The city the metro is named for carries no institution in the accredited dataset. Both institutions here are elsewhere in the metro, at West Hartford and at Storrs.

Choosing A DNP Program In Hartford

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

University of Connecticut and University of Saint Joseph are the whole of the field in Hartford

University of Connecticut and University of Saint Joseph 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 Connecticut board of nursing rather than to the school.

Who Licenses You In The Hartford 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.

Connecticut
Full Practice
Connecticut Board of Nurse Licensure

Every institution on this page sits in Connecticut, 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 Connecticut . 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.

Connecticut, designated areas
41
Connecticut, of those rural
4

These figures cover Connecticut in full rather than the Hartford 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: Connecticut.

Studying From Outside The Hartford Metro

the Hartford metro holds 2 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 Hartford metro this cycle, and whether it will place you for supervised clinical hours near where you live.

Which Hartford 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 Connecticut

The lowest published in-state rate among Hartford's publics, at $18,834 a year. An annual rate, not a program total, and it assumes residency.

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

University of Connecticut publishes a $21,912 annual gap between its in-state and out-of-state rates, the widest of the 1 Hartford public publishing both. Start with the registrar, not admissions.

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

University of Connecticut's own pages name a bachelor's entry. Others in Hartford 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: University of Connecticut

University of Connecticut 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 residency is out of reach: the private rate does not depend on it

A private institution charges one figure wherever you live, so without residency the comparison is against the out-of-state public rate. In Hartford the cheapest published rate in the state belongs to one of its 1 private institution.

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 Hartford?

2 institutions in the Hartford metro hold CCNE accreditation for the Doctor of Nursing Practice. This guide counts the Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, CT metropolitan statistical area rather than the city limits, so the figure includes institutions in 2 municipalities.

What counts as the Hartford metro on this page?

The Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, CT metropolitan statistical area. In practice that means these municipalities: West Hartford, CT; Storrs, CT. Places deliberately left out are listed on this page with the reason.

Is it cheaper to study for a DNP in Hartford 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 Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, CT 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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