Best DNP Programs

Indianapolis metro

Best DNP Programs In Indianapolis 2026

Three accredited institutions where the cheapest option is the smallest and the most expensive field is where most of the graduates come from.
A night aerial of a circular plaza with a lit stone monument at its center, ringed by office towers and streets picked out in light
On this page

Key Takeaways

  1. 1

    Every one of the 3 is inside the city itself. This guide counts the Indianapolis-Carmel-Greenwood, IN metropolitan area, which reaches further than the city, but no accredited institution in it sits outside Indianapolis. So the metro definition costs you nothing here and the commute is the city's, not the region's.

  2. 2

    1 public, 2 private, and the cheap end is public. Indiana University publishes $9,518 in-state, against $35,448 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. University of Indianapolis conferred 22 of the 32 DNP awards recorded across this metro, with Indiana University next at 8. A number that lopsided says where the cohorts and the placement relationships are, which a ranking position does not.

  4. 4

    1 of 3 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.

Price And Scale Run In Opposite Directions Here

Indiana University publishes $9,518 a year in-state, the cheapest doctorate in this metro by a wide margin, and conferred 8 of the 32 DNP awards recorded here. The University of Indianapolis publishes $35,448, close to four times as much, and conferred 22 of them.

That inverts the pattern most of these pages describe. Usually the public institution is both the cheapest and the largest, and the trade a reader is weighing is price against fit. Here the trade is price against cohort: the cheap option is a quarter of the price and about a third of the output, so a reader who wants the larger program and the more established placement relationships is paying a private rate for them.

It is also the only institution here with a named specialty. The University of Indianapolis files its doctorate as a family nurse practitioner program, while the other two file the general practice doctorate. For a reader who wants that track specifically, the field is one school, and price is not the question.

How This Ranking Is Scored

Three published figures, weighted. Scores are relative to the 3 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 Indianapolis 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 3 Indiana University-Indianapolis Indianapolis, IN · Public $9,518 8 54% 68.9
2 of 3 University of Indianapolis Indianapolis, IN · Private nonprofit · offered online $35,448 22 56% 45.7
3 of 3 Marian University Indianapolis, IN · Private nonprofit $40,664 2 67% 15

What This Guide Counts As The Indianapolis Metro

This guide follows the Indianapolis-Carmel-Greenwood metropolitan statistical area. All three institutions report Indianapolis itself. Valparaiso is deliberately excluded because it sits inside the Chicago metro, which this site also covers, and counting one institution in two guides would inflate both.

Municipalities Included

  • Indianapolis, IN

Deliberately Not Included

  • West Lafayette, Marion and Goshen, IN Separate Indiana communities outside this delineation, each with an accredited institution.
  • Valparaiso, IN In the Chicago metropolitan area, where this site already counts it.
  • Carmel and Greenwood, IN Named in the metro title, but no institution in the accredited dataset reports either as its city.

The Best 3 DNP Programs In Indianapolis, Ranked

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

Ranked 1 of 3

Indiana University-Indianapolis

Indianapolis, IN

68.9 of 100
  • 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%

Scored on

  • Published in-state graduate tuition 100
  • Established program 53.9
  • Institution-wide undergraduate completion 0

Visit Indiana University-Indianapolis →

Ranked 2 of 3

University of Indianapolis

Indianapolis, IN

45.7 of 100
  • 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%

Scored on

  • Published in-state graduate tuition 16.7
  • Established program 100
  • Institution-wide undergraduate completion 15.4

Visit University of Indianapolis →

Ranked 3 of 3

Marian University

Indianapolis, IN

15 of 100
  • 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%

Scored on

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

Visit Marian University →

Choosing A DNP Program In Indianapolis

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

What Indiana University-Indianapolis charges depends on where you live

It is the one public institution in the Indianapolis metro publishing both rates, at $9,518 in state against $33,647 out of state, a difference of $24,129 a year. Residency is set by the state under its own rules rather than by where you sit to watch a lecture, so an out-of-state applicant should treat that gap as the first question rather than a footnote.

A field of 3 is small enough to contact all of it

Indiana University-Indianapolis, Marian University and University of Indianapolis are the accredited doctorates in the Indianapolis metro, which is few enough that writing to every one of them is a morning's work rather than a project. It is also the fastest way to learn what no program page prints: who secures your clinical placement, what the school charges if a doctoral project runs past its term, and which tracks are open to new applicants this cycle. Against a field this size, a reply beats a rubric.

The Indiana 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 Indianapolis carries the distance flag

1 of the 3 measured institutions in the Indianapolis 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 Indiana is the field

This page covers the institutions inside the Indianapolis 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 Indiana 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 Indianapolis 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.

Indiana
Reduced Practice
Indiana State Board of Nursing

Every institution on this page sits in Indiana, so one board licenses all of them and AANP classifies the jurisdiction as reduced 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 Indiana . 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 Indianapolis Metro

BLS OEWS, May 2025, metropolitan area cut for Indianapolis-Carmel-Greenwood, IN, read 2026-09-10. 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, Indianapolis metroEmployedNational median
Nurse Practitioners29-1171$130,4602,530$132,300
Nurse Anesthetists29-1151$225,59080$236,590
Registered Nurses29-1141$84,23025,800$97,550
Nursing Instructors and Teachers, Postsecondary25-1072$80,310480$80,250

Nurse practitioners in the Indianapolis metro have a median of $130,460, across about 2,530 of them, which is within $1,840 of 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.

Indiana, designated areas
143
Indiana, of those rural
78

These figures cover Indiana in full rather than the Indianapolis 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: Indiana.

Studying From Outside The Indianapolis Metro

1 of the 3 accredited doctorates in the Indianapolis 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 Indianapolis metro this cycle, and whether it will place you for supervised clinical hours near where you live.

Which Indianapolis 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: Indiana University-Indianapolis

The lowest published in-state rate among Indianapolis's publics, at $9,518 a year. An annual rate, not a program total, and it assumes residency.

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

Indiana University-Indianapolis publishes a $24,129 annual gap between its in-state and out-of-state rates, the widest of the 1 Indianapolis public publishing both. Start with the registrar, not admissions.

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

University of Indianapolis's own pages name a bachelor's entry. Others in Indianapolis 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 Indianapolis

University of Indianapolis 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 Indianapolis

University of Indianapolis 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 Indianapolis?

3 institutions in the Indianapolis metro hold CCNE accreditation for the Doctor of Nursing Practice. This guide counts the Indianapolis-Carmel-Greenwood, IN metropolitan statistical area rather than the city limits, so the figure includes institutions in 1 municipalities.

What counts as the Indianapolis metro on this page?

The Indianapolis-Carmel-Greenwood, IN metropolitan statistical area. In practice that means these municipalities: Indianapolis, IN. Places deliberately left out are listed on this page with the reason.

Is it cheaper to study for a DNP in Indianapolis 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 Indianapolis-Carmel-Greenwood, IN 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.

Compare accredited DNP programs

Browse all programs