Best DNP Programs

Jacksonville metro

Best DNP Programs In Jacksonville 2026

2 accredited institutions in the Jacksonville metro, with school-wide average graduate tuition from $8,570 to $18,577 a year in state.
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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 2.2 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. University of North Florida publishes $8,570 in-state, against $18,577 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

    University of North Florida is most of this metro. It conferred 63 of the 88 DNP awards recorded here, which is 72% of them, against 25 at Jacksonville University. Treat the others as genuinely small programs rather than as alternatives of a similar size.

  4. 4

    1 of 2 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.

Public And Private Rates Sit Closer Than Usual Here

School-wide average graduate tuition in this metro, which excludes DNP add-on charges, runs from $8,570 a year in state at University of North Florida to $18,577 at Jacksonville University, about 2 times apart, in the 2023-24 federal figures.

The one public institution publishes $8,570 in state, and the one private institution publishes $18,577. Out of state, the public rate rises to $19,585.

University of North Florida conferred the most DNPs in the metro in the reporting year, 63, and charges the lowest 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.

What the premium does buy is choice of track and of format. Jacksonville University files two distinct DNP tracks to UNF’s one. UNF, though, is the one flagged for distance education, so the format argument runs back the other way. Read the two together rather than either alone.

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 Jacksonville, 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 Florida

Jacksonville, FL

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

North Florida frames its DNP for nurses ready to move from clinical expertise into influence, with emphasis on evidence-based practice, organizational and systems leadership, health policy and quality improvement rather than on adding a clinical population. It is delivered fully online with faculty engagement built into each course, and the post-MSN track admits twice a year, autumn and spring. One change is worth planning around: from autumn 2026 the post-MSN route requires full-time enrollment at nine credit hours a term, closing the part-time option many working nurses rely on. Anyone weighing this program should confirm which cohort they would join, because the version described today and the version starting in 2026 ask for different things. Its nurse anesthesia track is accredited by the COA rather than CCNE, a separate accreditation claim from the rest of the degree.

Tuition
$8,570
In-state
Tuition
$19,585
Out-of-state
DNP Awards
63
Completion
69%
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 100

Visit University of North Florida →

Ranked 2 of 2

Jacksonville University

Jacksonville, FL

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

2 DNP tracks at this institution, Family nurse practitioner, Nursing practice (general). Ranked once, on the largest.

Jacksonville draws a sharp line between its two routes. Bachelor’s entry to family practice wants a 3.3 undergraduate nursing grade point average, which sits above the usual 3.0 floor, plus a year of professional nursing experience before clinical work begins. The post-master’s doctorate is the flexible one: fully online, with fall and spring starts, and the school states plainly that no campus visits are required. That last point is worth more than it sounds, because plenty of programs call themselves online and then schedule intensives you have to fly to. Your background check may be released to clinical agencies so they can approve your placement, which is routine but worth knowing before you consent to it.

Tuition
$18,577
In-state
Tuition
$18,577
Out-of-state
DNP Awards
25
Completion
51%
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 0

Visit Jacksonville University →

What This Guide Counts As The Jacksonville Metro

This guide follows the Jacksonville, FL metropolitan statistical area. Both institutions report Jacksonville itself as their city. Two other American cities are called Jacksonville and one of them holds an accredited institution, so this list is matched on the city and the state together rather than on the name alone.

Municipalities Included

  • Jacksonville, FL

Deliberately Not Included

  • Jacksonville, AL and Jacksonville, NC Two other cities of the same name, one with an accredited institution. Jacksonville State University is in Alabama and is not in this guide, and BLS delineates a separate Jacksonville, NC metropolitan area. The city name is not the key here; the city and state together are.
  • St. Augustine and Orange Park, FL Inside the metro and carrying no institution in the accredited dataset.
  • Gainesville, FL Its own metropolitan area about seventy miles southwest, and the University of Florida sits in it.

Choosing A DNP Program In Jacksonville

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

Jacksonville University and University of North Florida are the whole of the field in Jacksonville

Jacksonville University and University of North Florida 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 Florida board of nursing rather than to the school.

Who Licenses You In The Jacksonville 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.

Florida
Restricted Practice
Florida Board of Nursing

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

Florida, designated areas
234
Florida, of those rural
104

These figures cover Florida in full rather than the Jacksonville 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: Florida.

Studying From Outside The Jacksonville Metro

1 of the 2 accredited doctorates in the Jacksonville 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 Jacksonville metro this cycle, and whether it will place you for supervised clinical hours near where you live.

Which Jacksonville 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 Florida

The lowest published in-state rate among Jacksonville's publics, at $8,570 a year. An annual rate, not a program total, and it assumes residency.

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

University of North Florida publishes a $11,015 annual gap between its in-state and out-of-state rates, the widest of the 1 Jacksonville public publishing both. Start with the registrar, not admissions.

If you already hold an advanced practice credential: Jacksonville University

Jacksonville 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: University of North Florida

University of North Florida 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 Jacksonville?

2 institutions in the Jacksonville metro hold CCNE accreditation for the Doctor of Nursing Practice. This guide counts the Jacksonville, FL metropolitan statistical area rather than the city limits, so the figure includes institutions in 1 municipalities.

What counts as the Jacksonville metro on this page?

The Jacksonville, FL metropolitan statistical area. In practice that means these municipalities: Jacksonville, FL. Places deliberately left out are listed on this page with the reason.

Is it cheaper to study for a DNP in Jacksonville 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 Jacksonville, FL 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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Schools pay to appear in these listings. They are separate from our rankings, which no school can pay to change.