Best DNP Programs

Missouri

Best DNP Programs In Missouri 2026

9 institutions in Missouri hold CCNE accreditation for the Doctor of Nursing Practice. Published in-state graduate tuition among them starts at $8,120 a year, at Missouri State University-Springfield.
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Key Takeaways

  1. 1

    Missouri is a small field. Only 6 schools here carry enough published figures to be scored, so a position says how one compares to its in-state neighbors and nothing about how it compares nationally.

  2. 2

    In-state rates vary enormously here. Published annual in-state graduate tuition among the 6 Missouri institutions that report one runs from $8,120 to $54,760, a 7-fold spread inside one state and one reporting year.

  3. 3

    Mostly public, and that is a residency question. 4 of the 7 institutions with federal figures are public, and a public in-state rate is a residents-only price, the private rates beside them apply to everyone.

  4. 4

    Some are delivered at a distance. 3 of the 7 carry the federal distance-education flag, which covers coursework and never the supervised practice hours.

How This Ranking Is Scored

Three published figures, weighted. Scores are relative to the 6 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, Ranked

Ordered on published in-state tuition, annual DNP conferrals and institution-wide undergraduate completion, weighted for a state page so cost leads. Scores are relative to the 6 institutions on this page and not to the country, the same program carries a different number on the national list. How this is built.

# Program In-state tuition DNP awards UG completion Score of 100
1 of 6 University of Missouri-Columbia Columbia, MO · Public $13,658 41 75% 91.1
2 of 6 Missouri State University-Springfield Springfield, MO · Public $8,120 19 58% 81.9
3 of 6 University of Missouri-Kansas City Kansas City, MO · Public · offered online $11,750 36 55% 81.1
4 of 6 University of Missouri-St Louis Saint Louis, MO · Public $15,120 32 57% 78.7
5 of 6 Maryville University of Saint Louis Saint Louis, MO · Private nonprofit · offered online $24,766 59 66% 73.8
6 of 6 Saint Louis University Saint Louis, MO · Private nonprofit $54,760 7 80% 28

The Best 6 DNP Programs In Missouri, Ranked

Every ranked institution in Missouri, with what the federal record publishes for it and how its score was composed.

Ranked 1 of 6

University of Missouri-Columbia

Columbia, MO

91.1 of 100
  • CCNE-accredited
  • Public
  • Doctorate (professional)

Missouri publishes a hard ceiling on transfer credit for its post-graduate certificates: a faculty advisor may recommend up to three credit hours from an accredited master’s or DNP advanced practice program, and no more. Three hours is one course. If you are shopping post-graduate certificates on the assumption that prior graduate work will shorten the path, this is a school where it barely will, and knowing that early saves an application. It is a large public university in Columbia conferring around forty nursing doctorates a year, so the program itself is substantial even though the transfer policy is tight. Its federal filing carries no distance-education flag, so plan on being in Columbia rather than at a distance.

In-State Tuition
$13,658
Out-Of-State
$34,877
DNP Awards
41
UG Completion
75%

Scored on

  • Published in-state graduate tuition 88.1
  • Established program 100
  • Institution-wide undergraduate completion 80

Visit University of Missouri-Columbia →

Ranked 2 of 6

Missouri State University-Springfield

Springfield, MO

81.9 of 100
  • CCNE-accredited
  • Public
  • Doctorate (professional)

Missouri State runs two paths and delivers them differently. Bachelor’s entry is a hybrid of seated and online doctoral classes, so real campus time is built in. The post-master’s route leans further online and hybrid specifically to keep campus visits down. That difference is the thing to weigh here, because it decides how far from Springfield you can afford to live. Both end in the same degree. The school sorts applicants by where they are starting rather than by what they want to specialize in, which is a simpler entry point than most and makes the decision easy once you know which credential you already hold.

In-State Tuition
$8,120
Out-Of-State
$17,388
DNP Awards
19
UG Completion
58%

Scored on

  • Published in-state graduate tuition 100
  • Established program 86
  • Institution-wide undergraduate completion 12

Visit Missouri State University-Springfield →

Ranked 3 of 6

University of Missouri-Kansas City

Kansas City, MO

81.1 of 100
  • CCNE-accredited
  • Public
  • Doctorate (professional)
  • Offered online

Kansas City has run this degree since 2008, when it graduated the region’s first doctoral class, and the track list reflects that head start: adult-gerontology, family, primary care pediatrics, women’s health, psychiatric mental health, and a nurse anesthesia route available only from a bachelor’s. Women’s health as a standalone practitioner track is rare. The post-master’s side has three doors rather than one, and the second is the useful one, because nurses holding a master’s in leadership, informatics or clinical research management can enter, with national certification preferred rather than required. If your master’s took you away from direct practice, that is a route back. Plans of study are individualized, and you supply course syllabi so prior work can be assessed for transfer.

In-State Tuition
$11,750
Out-Of-State
$30,650
DNP Awards
36
UG Completion
55%

Scored on

  • Published in-state graduate tuition 92.2
  • Established program 100
  • Institution-wide undergraduate completion 0

Visit University of Missouri-Kansas City →

Ranked 4 of 6

University of Missouri-St Louis

Saint Louis, MO

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

Missouri St. Louis does not run its doctorate alone. The program is delivered online cooperatively with the Kansas City and Columbia campuses, so the course pool is wider than one college could staff and its shape is set by all three communities. Coursework is distance learning with a three-day on-campus intensive. Two conditions decide eligibility before anything else. The university cannot admit online students from every state, so check yours against its authorization list first. And your grade point average is calculated on the last 60 hours of the bachelor’s, floor 3.0, which helps if you finished stronger than you started. The acute care pediatric tracks want a year of inpatient pediatric nursing behind you.

In-State Tuition
$15,120
Out-Of-State
$37,620
DNP Awards
32
UG Completion
57%

Scored on

  • Published in-state graduate tuition 85
  • Established program 100
  • Institution-wide undergraduate completion 8

Visit University of Missouri-St Louis →

Ranked 5 of 6

Maryville University of Saint Louis

Saint Louis, MO

73.8 of 100
  • CCNE-accredited
  • Private nonprofit
  • Doctorate (professional)
  • Offered online

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

Maryville publishes the doctoral core as a fixed block and everything else as a variable on top of it, which makes the routes easy to compare. The DNP core and capstone are 11 courses and 33 credit hours whichever concentration you take. From a BSN the whole degree is 74 to 77 credit hours depending on that concentration. The psychiatric mental health option, for instance, adds 21 credits of assessment, diagnosis and management on its own. Courses run fully online with start dates in spring, summer and fall rather than one annual intake, and the college puts its accelerated BSN-to-DNP at as few as 40 months against the three to four years a full-time route usually takes.

In-State Tuition
$24,766
Out-Of-State
$24,766
DNP Awards
59
UG Completion
66%

Scored on

  • Published in-state graduate tuition 64.3
  • Established program 100
  • Institution-wide undergraduate completion 44

Visit Maryville University of Saint Louis →

Ranked 6 of 6

Saint Louis University

Saint Louis, MO

28 of 100
  • CCNE-accredited
  • Private nonprofit
  • Doctorate (research)

Saint Louis makes both campus visits count, which is unusual. The first is a two-day residency where the school assesses your diagnostic reasoning, clinical assessment skills and therapeutic communication rather than simply orienting you. The second comes at the end, to present the doctoral project. Bachelor’s entry runs 62 to 68 credits depending on your population focus, across four years, ending at 1,000 clinical hours. The post-master’s route is 30 credits online, with five or six credits of comparable graduate coursework transferable at the school’s discretion. Preceptors are handled through a three-tier process rather than left to you, and you are paired with a faculty mentor in your field. Check the state approval list, because approvals here are granted program by program.

In-State Tuition
$54,760
Out-Of-State
$54,760
DNP Awards
7
UG Completion
80%

Scored on

  • Published in-state graduate tuition 0
  • Established program 37
  • Institution-wide undergraduate completion 100

Visit Saint Louis University →

Also Accredited In Missouri

These programs hold current CCNE accreditation. They file their DNP conferrals under a specialty classification rather than under Nursing Practice, so the federal tuition and conferral figures used above are not available for them and they are not scored.

  • Barnes-Jewish College CCNE-accredited DNP

    Goldfarb School of Nursing at Barnes-Jewish College runs six doctoral concentrations, which is a wide spread for a specialist college: nurse anesthesia, health systems executive nurse leadership, adult-gerontology primary care, adult-gerontology acute care, family nurse practitioner and a postgraduate route. The post-master's version takes two years, is delivered entirely online, and lets you build both the clinical hours and the evidence-based project around your existing job and location rather than around a campus. The clinical requirement is 1,000 hours and hours from your master's can count toward it. Transfer credit is capped at nine, and only for courses passed at an A or B.

  • Graceland University CCNE-accredited DNP

    Graceland takes students from either a bachelor's or a master's, and publishes the size of the longer route plainly: 62 to 65 credit hours from a BSN through to advanced practice licensure and the doctorate together. The curriculum includes 16 hours of field experience built specifically around epidemiological leadership, which is a narrower focus than the general practice hours most programs describe. Graceland also builds the degree from stackable certificates, so the specialized pieces can be taken as credentials in their own right rather than only as parts of a whole. Admission wants a 3.0 and a current unencumbered US registered nurse license, and the master's route accepts a related-field master's rather than only a nursing one.

Listed Without A Score

This program publishes fewer than 2 of the figures the rubric uses, so it carries no position. Ranking on a single factor would put a number next to a program the model cannot actually compare.

Listed, not scored

A T Still University of Health Sciences

Kirksville, MO

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

A T Still points its doctorate at systems rather than patients, and offers three concentrations to aim it: organizational leadership, nurse educator, and population health. If you want a new clinical population this is the wrong program, and the university is clear about that rather than leaving you to infer it. Teaching is web-based and built around directed readings and discussion with faculty and working healthcare leaders, ending in a scholarly project applied to a real organization. The program holds accreditation from the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education. It sits inside a college of graduate health studies, so the doctorate is one of several health professions taught at a distance here.

DNP Awards
3

Visit A T Still University of Health Sciences →

Choosing A DNP Program In Missouri

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

Settle your residency before you compare anything else

Across the 4 public institutions in Missouri publishing both rates, the out-of-state rate runs a median of 2.6 times the in-state one. At University of Missouri-St Louis the gap is $22,500 a year on its own. Residency is decided by the state under its own rules and a distance program does not confer it, so for an out-of-state applicant this one question is worth more than the difference between most of the programs on this page.

The Missouri 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.

A T Still University of Health Sciences, Maryville University of Saint Louis and University of Missouri-Kansas City carry the distance flag

3 of the 7 measured institutions in Missouri 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.

The schools without figures are not the weaker ones

Barnes-Jewish College and Graceland University file conferrals under a specialty classification rather than under Nursing Practice, so the federal columns this page ranks on do not exist for them. They carry the same CCNE accreditation as everything in the table above. A missing figure here is a filing convention rather than a verdict, and reading it as one would put a real option out of your reach for no reason. The notes beside those names come from the schools' own pages.

Who Licenses You In Missouri

Practice environment, as AANP classifies it
Restricted Practice
Licensing body
Missouri State Board of Nursing
Verify a license
Nursys, the national license verification system operated by the boards themselves

AANP places Missouri in its restricted practice category, which it defines this way: state law restricts the ability to engage in at least one element of practice, requiring supervision, delegation or team management by another health provider for the nurse practitioner to give patient care.

A degree confers no prescriptive authority. It comes from a state advanced practice license and the national certification behind it, so a DNP-prepared and a master’s-prepared nurse practitioner holding the same license prescribe the same things.

So the thing to settle here is the supervision requirement rather than the diploma. Ask the board what supervision, delegation or team management the statute requires, and ask an employer who provides it, because in a restricted state that arrangement is a condition of working at all rather than a formality.

Practice environment from AANP's Missouri fact sheet, read 2026-09-08; AANP last revised the classification 05/2026. It is AANP's reading of state statute rather than a federal designation, and statutes move each legislative session, so confirm it with the board before you rely on it. Board details read from the NCSBN member directory on 2026-09-08. Licensure requirements change by legislative session, so treat anything you read here as a pointer to the board rather than a substitute for it.

What The Work Pays In Missouri

BLS OEWS, May 2025. 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, MissouriEmployedRankNational median
Nurse practitioners29-1171$129,9307,71035 of 51$132,300
Nurse anesthetists29-1151$242,6301,55027 of 44$236,590
Registered nurses29-1141$81,78076,31040 of 51$97,550
Nursing Instructors and Teachers, Postsecondary25-1072$76,3401,04041 of 51$80,250

Nurse practitioners in Missouri have a median of $129,930, which ranks 35 of the 51 jurisdictions the survey publishes a median for, across about 7,710 people in the state. That sits in the lower third of the jurisdictions the survey publishes, which is worth setting against local costs before reading it as a verdict.

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. Every row is one federal series, ranked against every jurisdiction that series covers. Nothing here is a job-board average. DNP salary sets out the national picture.

Shortage Areas, And The Debt Relief Attached To Them

HRSA designated primary-care Health Professional Shortage Areas, read 2026-09-08.

Designated areas
339
Of those, rural
295
Median score
17
Highest score
24

Designated shortage in Missouri is a rural matter almost entirely: 295 of the 339 designations are rural, about 87% of them. Debt relief and the shape of the work both point away from the population centers. A designation is a statement about how many primary-care providers serve a defined area relative to its population. It describes supply, not hiring.

Priority varies between them: a median score of 17 against a highest of 24. Worth asking what a specific site scores rather than assuming the state figure applies to it.

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.

Whether a particular employer counts as an approved site is settled by the program, not by the designation, so check the site before you take the job rather than after. HRSA's shortage-area data portal maps the designations. Paying for a DNP covers the routes that do not depend on where you practice.

Studying From Outside Missouri

3 of the 9 accredited doctorates in Missouri 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 Missouri this cycle, and whether it will place you for supervised clinical hours near where you live.

What The Figures On This Page Are

Tuition is the institution's published annual graduate rate. It is not a DNP per-credit price, it is not a total program cost, and it is not what anyone pays after aid. A DNP taken part-time over four years does not cost four times the annual figure, because most programs bill by the credit.

DNP awards are conferrals in the reporting year at that institution. The figure says a program is running and how much of it is running; it does not say the program is better than a smaller one, and the rubric stops rewarding volume above 25 conferrals for that reason.

Undergraduate completion is exactly that, the federal 150%-of-normal-time rate for first-time, full-time bachelor's students at the institution. It is the weakest input in the model and carries the smallest weight. No federal series reports DNP completion, so nothing on this site claims one.

Of the 7 institutions with federal figures here, 4 are at public institutions. In-state tuition at a public school is available only to residents; the out-of-state rate is frequently two to four times higher and is the figure an out-of-state applicant should be reading.

3 institutions here are flagged by the federal survey as offered at a distance. That flag records how the coursework is delivered. It does not mean the clinical hours are remote, and it does not mean a student never travels to campus.

Frequently Asked Questions

Answers specific to Missouri. The degree-wide questions are answered on the guides.

How many DNP programs are there in Missouri?

9 hold CCNE accreditation for the doctorate, and 2 of them file conferrals under a specialty classification, so they are listed by name rather than scored. A field this size is small enough to shortlist properly and large enough that the shortlist matters.

How much does a DNP cost in Missouri?

Published in-state rates run $8,120 to $54,760, a spread of about 6.7 times inside one state. At that width the ranking matters less than knowing which end you are looking at, and the cheap end is usually public and usually conditional on residency.

Is a DNP cheaper in Missouri if you live there?

Yes, by $22,500 a year at the widest of the 4 public institutions publishing both rates. Enrolling in a distance program does not confer residency; the state sets it under its own rules.

Can a nurse practitioner practice independently in Missouri?

No. Missouri is restricted practice in AANP's classification, its most constrained category: statute requires career-long supervision, delegation or team management by another provider. The doctorate changes nothing about that, because authority comes from the license and the statute behind it.

What do nurse practitioners earn in Missouri?

A median of $129,930, within $2,370 of the national $132,300. Missouri pays the going rate rather than a premium or a discount, which makes the other variables the deciding ones.

Does federal loan repayment apply in Missouri?

It can, and here it mostly means rural practice: 295 of the 339 designated primary-care shortage areas are rural. Eligibility follows an approved site rather than a state, so the question belongs to the employer.

Can you study for a DNP online in Missouri?

3 of the 7 measured institutions carry the flag. It covers taught content and nothing else, so the number to ask each school for is on-campus days and the months they fall in.

Sources

Two datasets produce every figure on this page, and the institutions those figures describe are listed under them. Nothing here is compiled from a school's own marketing material.

  1. 1 CCNE Accredited Program Directory It decides which institutions appear on this page at all: the 9 in Missouri below are the ones it lists as holding current accreditation for the Doctor of Nursing Practice.
  2. 2 IPEDS Published tuition, annual conferrals, institutional completion and the distance-education flag.

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.

The Institutions Behind These Figures

Every institution the two datasets name in Missouri, alphabetically. A link is the web address that institution reports to the federal directory, the school’s own site, not a page about the doctorate.

  1. 1

    A.T. Still University

    Kirksville, MO · Private nonprofit · carries federal figures · filed federally as A T Still University of Health Sciences

  2. 2

    Barnes-Jewish College

    On the CCNE roster; no federal record under a nursing doctoral classification, so no directory address and no figures

  3. 3

    Graceland University

    On the CCNE roster; no federal record under a nursing doctoral classification, so no directory address and no figures

  4. 4

    Maryville University of St. Louis

    Saint Louis, MO · Private nonprofit · carries federal figures · filed federally as Maryville University of Saint Louis

  5. 5

    Missouri State University

    Springfield, MO · Public · carries federal figures · filed federally as Missouri State University-Springfield

  6. 6

    Saint Louis University

    Saint Louis, MO · Private nonprofit · carries federal figures

  7. 7

    University of Missouri, Columbia

    Columbia, MO · Public · carries federal figures · filed federally as University of Missouri-Columbia

  8. 8

    University of Missouri, Kansas City

    Kansas City, MO · Public · carries federal figures · filed federally as University of Missouri-Kansas City

  9. 9

    University of Missouri, St. Louis

    Saint Louis, MO · Public · carries federal figures · filed federally as University of Missouri-St Louis

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