Best DNP Programs In Indiana 2026

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

Purdue Global publishes the number most schools keep to themselves: it expects 15 to 18 hours of course work a week. That is the figure to hold up against your roster, and it is more useful than any completion estimate, because an estimate assumes you can find those hours in the first place. The doctorate runs nine courses and averages about a year and a half, taught entirely online. Nine courses is a short structure, which is what a post-master’s route looks like once the clinical core is behind you. This is a public online university of about 45,000 students conferring roughly forty nursing doctorates a year, so the program is real but small against the institution, and your cohort is scattered across the country rather than gathered anywhere.

In-State Tuition

$10,080

Out-Of-State

$13,356

DNP Awards

42

UG Completion

50%

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

Indiana Wesleyan teaches its doctorate online through the division of nursing inside a school of integrated health, and it is explicit that the environment is Christ-centered, which is information about the cohort rather than a marketing line. The Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education accredits the bachelor’s, the master’s, the doctorate and the post-graduate advanced practice certificate, so the whole ladder is covered. Tuition is charged at one rate regardless of residency, and that rate sits in the lowest quarter on this site, which is unusual for a private university and is the strongest practical argument on this card.

In-State Tuition

$8,848

Out-Of-State

$8,848

DNP Awards

20

UG Completion

35%

• CCNE-accredited
• Public
• Doctorate (professional)

Indiana publishes both routes with their clinical hours attached, and the difference between them is starker than the credit counts suggest. From a BSN the degree is 66 credit hours and 1,005 clinical hours, and the university puts the fastest completion at three years. From a master’s the post-MSN route is a minimum of 38 credit hours, but it still carries 1,000 total clinical practicum hours. So holding a master’s roughly halves your coursework and barely touches the clinical requirement, because those hours count across your whole post-baccalaureate education rather than starting again. That is the single most useful thing to understand before you compare a post-master’s route anywhere.

In-State Tuition

$9,518

Out-Of-State

$33,647

DNP Awards

8

UG Completion

54%

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

5 DNP tracks at this institution, Clinical Nurse Specialist, Family nurse practitioner, Geriatric, Nursing administration, Nursing practice (general). Ranked once, on the largest.

Southern Indiana publishes three separate credit totals and the gap between them is most of the decision. The post-master’s advanced nursing practice route is 35 credits in the specialty. The BSN-to-DNP family nurse practitioner route is 72. Organizational and systems leadership, also from a BSN, is 70 with 1,000 practice hours attached. What makes the post-master’s route worth a close look is the transfer policy: the college accepts up to 42 credit hours from your MSN, which is more generous than most and is why that first number is as low as it is. Coursework is online with synchronous intensives twice a year, so there are fixed dates in the diary rather than an open-ended commitment.

In-State Tuition

$9,036

Out-Of-State

$21,877

DNP Awards

2

UG Completion

48%

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

Indianapolis publishes a credit total and an hour total for every track, which makes comparing them unusually easy. The two bachelor’s-entry practitioner tracks, family and adult-gerontology primary care, are each 62 credit hours with 1,050 to 1,250 clinical and practicum hours. The executive track is 31 to 36 credit hours against 1,000 practicum hours, and the post-master’s track uses the same credit range against 500 to 1,000 hours. Pace is where they part company. Family and post-master’s take you full-time or part-time, while adult-gerontology primary care and the executive track are part-time only, so if your plan was to push through quickly, those two will not let you. Admission wants a 3.0 cumulative grade point average and two years of full-time work before practicum hours start.

In-State Tuition

$35,448

Out-Of-State

$35,448

DNP Awards

22

UG Completion

56%

• CCNE-accredited
• Private nonprofit
• Doctorate (other)
• Offered online

Goshen runs its doctorate jointly with Eastern Mennonite University, and the arrangement is unusual: you take courses from faculty at both institutions but enroll at one, and the diploma and the billing follow whichever you pick. One program, two possible names on the certificate. The shape is 33 credit hours across 10 courses, either nine semesters or an accelerated six-semester route finishing in 22 months. Coursework is asynchronous with one required in-person residency. The clinical requirement is 1,000 post-baccalaureate supervised hours, and hours you logged during your master’s count toward it, which is what makes the accelerated option realistic rather than punishing. The doctoral work is an evidence-based practice project rather than a research dissertation.

In-State Tuition

$38,890

Out-Of-State

$38,890

DNP Awards

4

UG Completion

65%

• CCNE-accredited
• Private nonprofit
• Doctorate (professional)

Valparaiso teaches the coursework asynchronously online and keeps the clinical training in person, which is the standard honest arrangement rather than a claim of a fully remote doctorate. Two paths run, one from a bachelor’s and one from a master’s. The university files its doctorate under a family nurse practitioner specialty, so the clinical destination is primary care across the lifespan rather than a systems or leadership role. This is a small private university and the doctoral output reflects it, so expect a cohort measured in single figures and faculty with room to accommodate individual pacing.

In-State Tuition

$46,940

Out-Of-State

$46,940

DNP Awards

7

UG Completion

70%

• CCNE-accredited
• Private nonprofit
• Doctorate (research)

Marian sizes its two main tracks very differently, and that gap is most of the decision. The family nurse practitioner program is 71 credit hours across eight semesters full time. Nurse anesthesia is 87 credit hours and about 36 months. Sixteen credits and a different calendar separate them, so choosing a specialty here changes the length of your commitment as much as its content. Both are full-time shapes rather than something to run alongside a roster. It is a private university in Indianapolis, so it publishes one rate whatever state you live in, and it confers a small number of doctorates a year, which points to small cohorts in both tracks.

In-State Tuition

$40,664

Out-Of-State

$40,664

DNP Awards

2

UG Completion

67%

• CCNE-accredited
• Private nonprofit
• Doctorate (professional)

Saint Francis says on its own program page that the doctorate is not currently accepting new students, and points prospective applicants at its master’s practitioner program instead. That is the first thing to confirm with the school before spending time on an application here. When it runs, the program is hybrid, takes full-time or part-time students, and its length varies rather than being fixed. The accreditation history is worth knowing as well: the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education granted the doctorate a five-year term in 2019 while giving the bachelor’s the full ten, so the two sit on different cycles.

In-State Tuition

$35,210

Out-Of-State

$35,210

DNP Awards

1

UG Completion

55%