Every ranked institution in Michigan, with what the federal record
publishes for it and how its score was composed.
Ranked 1 of 12
East Lansing, MI
84.8 of 100
- CCNE-accredited
- Public
- Doctorate (professional)
Michigan State restricts its post-master’s doctorate to advanced practice registered nurses who already hold current national certification in their specialty. A master’s on its own is not enough here and an uncertified nurse is not eligible, so settle that before anything else. What you actually take is decided by a transcript review measuring the gap between your prior education and the doctoral outcomes, which means two applicants can be handed different plans. Everyone completes a project, a practicum and whatever courses that review identifies. There is also an option to add a second advanced practice specialty on request, which turns the doctorate into a route to a new patient population rather than only a credential upgrade.
Scored on
- Published in-state graduate tuition 76.4
- Established program 100
- Institution-wide undergraduate completion 77.4
- CCNE-accredited
- Public
- Doctorate (professional)
- Offered online
Michigan Flint publishes the master’s and the doctoral portions separately, which makes the real cost of the doctorate in credits visible in a way most schools avoid. For the family nurse practitioner concentration the master’s core is 52 credits and the combined MSN and DNP is 70, so the doctoral layer is 18 credits on top. Adult-gerontology primary care runs 55 and 73, the same 18-credit difference. If you already hold a master’s, the MSN-to-DNP route is 30 to 34 credit hours, nearly twice that 18, and the gap is the price of the college bridging whatever your master’s did not cover. Admission carries a small non-refundable deposit to hold your seat.
Scored on
- Published in-state graduate tuition 96.9
- Established program 100
- Institution-wide undergraduate completion 0
Ranked 3 of 12
Rochester Hills, MI
79.7 of 100
- CCNE-accredited
- Public
- Doctorate (professional)
- Offered online
Oakland runs a fully online post-master’s doctorate on a two or three year plan of study, and it is precise about what your past counts for. Up to 640 practicum hours from your master’s can transfer, and unsupervised post-graduate clinical practice does not count at all. That second half is the part people get wrong, because years of independent practice feel like they ought to count and here they do not. If you hold one of the four advanced practice specialties, nurse practitioner, nurse anesthetist, nurse midwife or clinical nurse specialist, you document those hours through a supplemental application rather than a transcript. In-state tuition sits near the middle of the range on this site.
Scored on
- Published in-state graduate tuition 79.2
- Established program 100
- Institution-wide undergraduate completion 34
Ranked 4 of 12
Detroit, MI
79.3 of 100
- CCNE-accredited
- Public
- Doctorate (professional)
5 DNP tracks at this
institution, Family nurse practitioner, Maternal/Child Health and Neonatal Nurse/Nursing, Nursing practice (general), Pediatric, Psychiatric-mental health NP. Ranked once, on the largest.
Wayne State runs seven clinical specialties inside its doctorate, more than most schools staff, and it builds a plan of study around your circumstances rather than running one fixed sequence for everyone. The funding detail is worth chasing if psychiatric mental health is your direction. The college reports that state IMPACT grant money awarded to Wayne State for psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioners covered one doctoral student’s tuition in full. Grant money tied to a shortage specialty is the kind of thing that changes what a degree costs, and it is worth raising with admissions directly. The college also runs a research doctorate and graduate certificates alongside, so you can move between practice and research routes in one place.
Scored on
- Published in-state graduate tuition 93.4
- Established program 78.6
- Institution-wide undergraduate completion 34
Ranked 5 of 12
Allendale, MI
77.9 of 100
- CCNE-accredited
- Public
- Doctorate (professional)
Grand Valley runs a hybrid doctorate with online coursework and specialty practicums, and it quantifies the campus commitment: one or two on-campus sessions a semester in its interprofessional simulation space. It also employs a full-time placement coordinator whose job is finding your clinical sites, and that is the difference between a program that runs to schedule and one that stalls. Graduate assistantships are available, so ask about them early rather than after you have committed to paying. The fall cohort has a preferred deadline of 1 May and a final deadline of 15 July, and applying by the earlier one is the safer plan when places are cohort-limited.
Scored on
- Published in-state graduate tuition 87.4
- Established program 75.9
- Institution-wide undergraduate completion 50.9
Ranked 6 of 12
Ann Arbor, MI
75.8 of 100
- CCNE-accredited
- Public
- Doctorate (professional)
5 DNP tracks at this
institution, Geriatric, Maternal/Child Health and Neonatal Nurse/Nursing, Pediatric, Public Health/Community Nurse/Nursing, Registered nursing (general). Ranked once, on the largest.
Michigan places you rather than leaving you to find a preceptor. Faculty match students to clinical sites from a curated network, which is the opposite of the arrangement that stalls people at other schools. Two routes run. Bachelor’s entry offers a three or four year plan, web-blended with required on-campus learning, and you may apply to only one specialty option, so choosing wrong costs you a cycle. The post-master’s route is a two-year plan. Your registered nurse license has to be active in the state where you will do the clinical work before your first term, not merely somewhere. No GRE is required for any graduate program here. Three references are asked for, and the school prefers they hold a master’s in nursing or higher.
Scored on
- Published in-state graduate tuition 72.6
- Established program 69.9
- Institution-wide undergraduate completion 100
Ranked 7 of 12
Marquette, MI
52.3 of 100
- CCNE-accredited
- Public
- Doctorate (professional)
- Offered online
Northern Michigan publishes both tracks and both application cycles, which is more forward planning than most schools give you. The post-baccalaureate curriculum is 72 credit hours and the post-master’s is 33, so the master’s you already hold is worth 39 credits here. The two cohorts run on different clocks: the post-master’s intake closes in mid-October, while the post-baccalaureate cohort starts the following August against an April deadline. Entering from a bachelor’s therefore means a longer wait before you even begin, not just a longer program once you do. The university also warns that admissions may close earlier than the published date if the seats fill, so treat that deadline as a ceiling rather than a target.
Scored on
- Published in-state graduate tuition 97.8
- Established program 0
- Institution-wide undergraduate completion 22.6
Ranked 8 of 12
University Center, MI
52.3 of 100
- CCNE-accredited
- Public
- Doctorate (professional)
Saginaw Valley runs its master’s-to-doctorate route entirely online, and it points at two jobs rather than at clinical practice: nurse educator and nurse administrator, plus a dual track that gives you both. If you want to add a patient population, this is not the program. If you want to run a unit or teach, the dual track is the interesting one, because doing both inside one sequence is rare. Coursework is primarily online with occasional evening classes, so online here carries a small live commitment worth checking against your roster. This is a small doctoral program inside a mid-sized public university, so expect a handful of people rather than a cohort.
Scored on
- Published in-state graduate tuition 100
- Established program 0
- Institution-wide undergraduate completion 15.1
Ranked 9 of 12
Ypsilanti, MI
44.4 of 100
- CCNE-accredited
- Public
- Doctorate (professional)
Eastern Michigan separates its two kinds of clinical hours instead of quoting one total, and the distinction matters. Both concentrations carry a minimum of 750 direct patient care hours plus 500 doctoral practicum hours, so patient-facing work and project work are counted apart rather than blurred together. The adult-gerontology primary care concentration is 75 credit hours and the family route is 78, and both prepare you for national certification. Delivery is hybrid. Adult-gerontology graduates work in physician practices, community health centers, outpatient clinics, urgent care and long-term care, while the family route covers infancy through older adulthood, which is the wider scope and the longer program by three credits.
Scored on
- Published in-state graduate tuition 85.4
- Established program 0
- Institution-wide undergraduate completion 11.3
Ranked 10 of 12
Spring Arbor, MI
33.3 of 100
- CCNE-accredited
- Private nonprofit
- Doctorate (professional)
- Offered online
Spring Arbor built its online DNP around a calendar rather than a semester. Courses run seven weeks with a one-week break between them, and the degree is designed to finish in 20 months, which is short enough to change the arithmetic if you are weighing a doctorate against staying where you are. Alongside the degree it runs three online post-master’s certificates, and they are scoped to who you already are: family nurse practitioner in two versions, one for nurse practitioners converting and one for nurses who are not yet NPs, an adult-gerontology primary care route for non-NPs, and a nurse educator certificate.
Scored on
- Published in-state graduate tuition 0
- Established program 75.9
- Institution-wide undergraduate completion 45.3
Ranked 11 of 12
Detroit, MI
29.1 of 100
- CCNE-accredited
- Private nonprofit
- Doctorate (professional)
- Offered online
Detroit Mercy runs two very different programs under one roof. The post-master’s doctorate builds on a master’s in nursing and takes 36 credits, part-time or full-time. The nurse anesthesia route is another thing entirely, and its first year is unusual: 9 to 13 credits a term for the first 12 months with no clinical component at all. A full year of classroom work before you touch a patient is a real structural choice, and it means the front of that program is not something you fit around shifts. Against its size, Detroit Mercy confers nursing doctorates at a rate in the top quarter of accredited institutions.
Scored on
- Published in-state graduate tuition 1.9
- Established program 58.6
- Institution-wide undergraduate completion 50.9
Ranked 12 of 12
Livonia, MI
27.1 of 100
- CCNE-accredited
- Private nonprofit
- Doctorate (professional)
- Offered online
Madonna runs two routes that barely resemble each other. The post-BSN doctorate is 74 credit hours with an MSN exit built into it, meaning you can leave with a master’s if the doctorate stops making sense partway through, which is a genuine safety net rather than a marketing line. For nurses who already hold an MSN the program is 33 semester hours taken entirely online. It charges one published rate whichever state you live in, so residency does not move the price the way it would at a public university, and its federal filing does carry a distance-education flag. Expect a small cohort: this is a private university of about 2,100 students.
Scored on
- Published in-state graduate tuition 24
- Established program 27
- Institution-wide undergraduate completion 37.7
