Best DNP Programs

Memphis metro

Best DNP Programs In Memphis 2026

Two accredited institutions separated by $2,420 of published tuition, the narrowest price band of any metro on this site.
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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 1.2 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 Tennessee Health Science Center publishes $9,796 in-state, against $12,216 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 Tennessee Health Science Center is most of this metro. It conferred 84 of the 92 DNP awards recorded here, which is 91% of them, against 8 at Baptist Health Sciences University. 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.

The Price Question Barely Exists Here, Which Makes It The Wrong Question

The University of Tennessee Health Science Center publishes $9,796 in-state and Baptist Health Sciences University publishes $12,216. A gap of $2,420 is the closest two institutions sit anywhere on this site, and across a multi-year doctorate it is small enough that it should not decide anything on its own.

What does separate them is scale and kind. UTHSC conferred 84 doctorates in the reporting year against Baptist’s 8, and UTHSC is a public academic health center while Baptist is a small private institution built around health sciences and nothing else. One is a large program inside a research campus, the other a small program inside a specialist college.

Neither is flagged for distance education in the federal survey, which is worth noting because roughly half the accredited field carries that flag. In this metro, both programs expect you in Memphis.

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 Memphis 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 The University of Tennessee Health Science Center Memphis, TN · Public $9,796 84 Not published 100
2 of 2 Baptist Health Sciences University Memphis, TN · Private nonprofit $12,216 8 40% 0

What This Guide Counts As The Memphis Metro

This guide follows the Memphis, TN-MS-AR metropolitan statistical area, which crosses into Mississippi and Arkansas. Both institutions report Memphis itself as their city, so the two state lines in the metro name do not change this list. They do change which board licenses you, and that is worth reading before you apply.

Municipalities Included

  • Memphis, TN

Deliberately Not Included

  • The Mississippi and Arkansas sides of the metro Both sit inside the metropolitan area and neither carries an institution in the accredited dataset. The state lines matter for licensure rather than for this list.
  • Jackson, TN Its own metropolitan area about eighty miles northeast.

The Best 2 DNP Programs In Memphis, Ranked

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

Ranked 1 of 2

The University of Tennessee Health Science Center

Memphis, TN

100 of 100
  • CCNE-accredited
  • Public
  • Doctorate (research)

Memphis runs one of the most concentrated nursing doctorates in the country. Set doctoral output against the size of the institution and this campus ranks fourth of the 307 accredited institutions on this site, because eighty-four DNP graduates a year come out of a place enrolling barely three thousand people, nearly all of them in health professions. There is no undergraduate arts college here for nursing to sit beside. For a working nurse that usually shows up as faculty who teach at doctoral level as their day job rather than as an overload, and as a cohort big enough that courses run when the catalog says they will. Requirements are published per track rather than for the degree, so the track page is where the credit and practicum totals live.

In-State Tuition
$9,796
Out-Of-State
$22,454
DNP Awards
84

Scored on

  • Published in-state graduate tuition 100
  • Established program 100

Visit The University of Tennessee Health Science Center →

Ranked 2 of 2

Baptist Health Sciences University

Memphis, TN

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

Baptist Health Sciences runs one cohort a year and it starts in January, for the BSN and the MSN entry points alike. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis but the priority deadline is 1 October, so the real calendar is tighter than rolling admission suggests. Miss the intake and you wait a year. The adult-gerontology acute care concentration is 66 credit hours, and the university puts completion at three years if you want it done that way. The post-MSN pathway is scoped to a specific purpose rather than being a general doctorate: it exists to add a second APRN credential, which is a narrower and more useful thing if you already practice and want a different patient population.

In-State Tuition
$12,216
Out-Of-State
$12,216
DNP Awards
8
UG Completion
40%

Scored on

  • Published in-state graduate tuition 0
  • Established program 0

Visit Baptist Health Sciences University →

Choosing A DNP Program In Memphis

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

Baptist Health Sciences University and The University of Tennessee Health Science Center are the whole of the field in Memphis

Baptist Health Sciences University and The University of Tennessee Health Science Center 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 Tennessee board of nursing rather than to the school.

Who Licenses You In The Memphis 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.

Tennessee
Restricted Practice
Tennessee Board of Nursing

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

Tennessee, designated areas
152
Tennessee, of those rural
109

These figures cover Tennessee in full rather than the Memphis 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: Tennessee.

Studying From Outside The Memphis Metro

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

Which Memphis 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: The University of Tennessee Health Science Center

The lowest published in-state rate among Memphis's publics, at $9,796 a year. An annual rate, not a program total, and it assumes residency.

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

The University of Tennessee Health Science Center publishes a $12,658 annual gap between its in-state and out-of-state rates, the widest of the 1 Memphis public publishing both. Start with the registrar, not admissions.

If you hold a bachelor's: Baptist Health Sciences University states that route

Baptist Health Sciences University's own pages name a bachelor's entry. Others in Memphis 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: Baptist Health Sciences University

Baptist Health Sciences 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.

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 Memphis?

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

What counts as the Memphis metro on this page?

The Memphis, TN-MS-AR metropolitan statistical area. In practice that means these municipalities: Memphis, TN. Places deliberately left out are listed on this page with the reason.

Is it cheaper to study for a DNP in Memphis 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 Memphis, TN-MS-AR 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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