Every ranked institution in Ohio, with what the federal record
publishes for it and how its score was composed.
Ranked 1 of 14
Cincinnati, OH
95.7 of 100
- CCNE-accredited
- Public
- Doctorate (professional)
- Offered online
5 DNP tracks at this
institution, Adult health, Family nurse practitioner, Nursing practice (general), Pediatric, Psychiatric-mental health NP. Ranked once, on the largest.
Cincinnati builds its DNP curriculum around evidence-based practice, quality improvement, policy, informatics and leadership, and its family track is explicitly aimed at both national certification exams, the ANCC’s FNP-BC and the AANP’s. The pediatric acute care programs prepare nurses for fast-paced clinical settings and family-centerd care. Two structural details are worth knowing before you plan around it. From spring 2027, advanced health assessment students must complete a three-day on-campus immersion and demonstrate competency before beginning practicum, which for a distance-flagged program means three days in Ohio. And each practicum requires at least two DNP project team meetings, so supervision is scheduled rather than left to you to arrange.
Scored on
- Published in-state graduate tuition 96.2
- Established program 100
- Institution-wide undergraduate completion 84.2
Ranked 2 of 14
Athens, OH
88.1 of 100
- CCNE-accredited
- Public
- Doctorate (professional)
Ohio University teaches its graduate nursing programs online, the doctorate included, while keeping the associate and bachelor’s routes on campus in Athens. That split tells you who each part of the school is for: undergraduates in residence, and working nurses at a distance. Its doctoral output sits in the upper half of accredited institutions nationally, so the program is established rather than nominal, though it is modest against the size of the university. In-state tuition sits near the middle of the range on this site, with the out-of-state rate under twice it, which is a narrower gap than most public universities apply.
Scored on
- Published in-state graduate tuition 91.8
- Established program 90.1
- Institution-wide undergraduate completion 71.1
- CCNE-accredited
- Public
- Doctorate (professional)
- Offered online
Kent State is explicit about who goes to the front of the queue for its nurse executive concentration. Priority admission goes to candidates already holding ANCC or AONL nurse executive certification, or who have worked in nursing management or administration. That is a useful signal in both directions. If you have that background you are competing on favorable terms, and if you do not, this is a concentration you enter from behind rather than level with everyone else. Post-master’s students complete a minimum of 500 practicum hours, so half of the 1,000 the degree standard sets is expected to have traveled with you from your master’s.
Scored on
- Published in-state graduate tuition 94.4
- Established program 32.1
- Institution-wide undergraduate completion 69.7
Ranked 4 of 14
Cleveland, OH
68.7 of 100
- CCNE-accredited
- Public
- Doctorate (professional)
Cleveland State runs two entry points into the doctorate and three destinations: family practice and psychiatric mental health for people wanting certification, and a health systems leadership route open to nurses who already hold a master’s, which the university puts at two years and teaches entirely online. Two practical conditions come before any of that. Your state has to appear on the university’s authorization list for online enrollment, and the school points you at that list rather than assuming. And every online student, whatever their residency, pays a per-credit eLearning fee on top of tuition plus a one-off program fee in the first semester. Small charges, but they are not in the headline number.
Scored on
- Published in-state graduate tuition 94.1
- Established program 39.2
- Institution-wide undergraduate completion 52.6
- CCNE-accredited
- Public
- Doctorate (professional)
Akron runs a nurse anesthesia track accredited separately by the Council on Accreditation of Nurse Anesthesia Educational Programs, alongside the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education accreditation covering the bachelor’s, master’s, doctorate and post-graduate advanced practice certificate. Two accreditors on one program is what a specialized anesthesia track requires, and it is worth confirming at any school offering one. Clinical rotations run through Northeast Ohio health systems, so placements are local and the network is established. The doctoral program itself is small, conferring a handful of degrees a year, which means close faculty contact and a cohort you will know by name. In-state tuition sits in the lower third on this site.
Scored on
- Published in-state graduate tuition 97.9
- Established program 13.3
- Institution-wide undergraduate completion 53.9
Ranked 6 of 14
Toledo, OH
58.6 of 100
- CCNE-accredited
- Public
- Doctorate (professional)
- Offered online
2 DNP tracks at this
institution, Nursing administration, Psychiatric-mental health NP. Ranked once, on the largest.
Toledo splits its DNP by how much of it you can do from home. The nurse executive and nurse leadership pathways are delivered entirely online. The nurse practitioner tracks are not: they combine online coursework with required in-person clinical experiences and on-campus skills immersion days the college strongly recommends rather than mandates, so the honest planning assumption is that you will be traveling. Nurse anesthesia is a different scale again at 97 credits. One admission rule catches people out: coursework more than seven years old at the point you apply will not count, so a master’s you finished a decade ago may not carry across the way you expect.
Scored on
- Published in-state graduate tuition 99
- Established program 0
- Institution-wide undergraduate completion 60.5
Ranked 7 of 14
Columbus, OH
58.4 of 100
- CCNE-accredited
- Private nonprofit
- Doctorate (professional)
- Offered online
Mount Carmel inverts the usual order: your specialty track is decided by the evidence-based practice project you end up doing, rather than chosen at application. You commit to the program first and the specialization follows from the work, which suits someone who knows the problem they want to solve better than the label they want on it. The program runs as a cohort over 18 months and five semesters, online, and the project can be carried out in your own workplace. Admission is stricter than most: a 3.25 cumulative graduate grade point average, and two references of which at least one must be doctorally prepared and one must come from a nurse holding a master’s or a doctorate.
Scored on
- Published in-state graduate tuition 68
- Established program 45.4
- Institution-wide undergraduate completion 56.6
Ranked 8 of 14
Columbus, OH
58.3 of 100
- CCNE-accredited
- Private nonprofit
- Doctorate (research)
- Offered online
Franklin publishes what it will take off your plate, which is rarer than it should be and worth checking before you apply anywhere else. An eligible master’s holder can transfer up to 500 practicum hours and up to 12 credit hours of coursework, and practicum hours sit inside the courses rather than being arranged separately, which is how the leadership track lands at about two years. The practitioner tracks run longer: roughly three years for family, psychiatric mental health and adult-gerontology primary care if you already hold a master’s, and three to four years coming from a bachelor’s. All of it is online. Franklin confers a small number of nursing doctorates a year, so this is a route built around transfer credit and pace rather than a large cohort.
Scored on
- Published in-state graduate tuition 100
- Established program 23.7
- Institution-wide undergraduate completion 0
Ranked 9 of 14
Cincinnati, OH
52.4 of 100
- CCNE-accredited
- Private nonprofit
- Doctorate (professional)
- Offered online
Mount St. Joseph keeps its doctorate short and online: 36 credit hours, taught in an online format, accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education. Thirty-six credits is a post-master’s shape, which tells you who it is for before the admissions page does, namely nurses who have already done the clinical core somewhere else. This is a small university of about 2,300 students in Cincinnati, and its doctoral output against its size sits in the top third nationally, so the program is a real part of what the place does rather than something bolted on. Since everything runs online, the Cincinnati address matters less than it looks.
Scored on
- Published in-state graduate tuition 51.5
- Established program 50.9
- Institution-wide undergraduate completion 59.2
Ranked 10 of 14
North Canton, OH
51.1 of 100
- CCNE-accredited
- Private nonprofit
- Doctorate (professional)
- Offered online
Walsh builds its graduate programs around people who are working, and it says how: evening and weekend classes, with many programs available online, the doctorate among them. Evening and weekend is a more specific promise than flexible, because it tells you which parts of your week the university expects to claim. The doctorate is filed federally as a distance program. Against a student body of a few thousand, Walsh’s doctoral output sits in the upper half of accredited institutions for its size, which is more than a private university this small usually manages.
Scored on
- Published in-state graduate tuition 61.1
- Established program 32.1
- Institution-wide undergraduate completion 61.8
Ranked 11 of 14
Ashland, OH
50.1 of 100
- CCNE-accredited
- Private nonprofit
- Doctorate (professional)
- Offered online
Ashland publishes credits, years and per-semester load together for every route, which is rare enough to be the reason to look at it. From a master’s the DNP is 37 to 41 credit hours across six to eight semesters, so a little over two years full time. From a bachelor’s it is 79 credit hours over twelve semesters, four years. The nurse educator track is longer still at 82 credits on that same four-year shape. Six to eight credits a semester is the constant across all of them, and that is the number to hold against your working week rather than the totals. Some courses carry required on-campus sessions, so this is not a route you finish entirely from home.
Scored on
- Published in-state graduate tuition 63.9
- Established program 23.7
- Institution-wide undergraduate completion 65.8
Ranked 12 of 14
Cleveland, OH
50 of 100
- CCNE-accredited
- Private nonprofit
- Doctorate (professional)
Case Western teaches in an intensive format that changes what part-time means: a three-credit course meets for five or six days rather than weekly across a semester. If you can free up a week, you can take a course. If your roster gives you scattered evenings instead, this is a poor fit. Which sequence you choose also decides where you have to be. The education and executive leadership sequences run remote and synchronous in a cohort, while the practice leadership sequence is primarily in person, so picking a sequence for its content means picking a travel commitment with it. Read those two things together. The post-master’s curriculum assumes you already practice as an advanced practice nurse, an administrator or an educator.
Scored on
- Published in-state graduate tuition 0
- Established program 100
- Institution-wide undergraduate completion 100
Ranked 13 of 14
Pepper Pike, OH
43.7 of 100
- CCNE-accredited
- Private nonprofit
- Doctorate (professional)
- Offered online
Ursuline sets your DNP residency hours per student rather than per program. The college states that the clinical hours required will be determined from your previous education and experience together with the requirements of the specialty you pick, so two people admitted the same year can owe materially different amounts. That is worth settling in writing before you enroll, because it is the variable that decides how long the degree actually takes you. It is a small private college of under a thousand students near Cleveland, its federal filing flags the program for distance study, and it confers a small number of doctorates a year, so expect a compact cohort rather than a large one.
Scored on
- Published in-state graduate tuition 48.8
- Established program 23.7
- Institution-wide undergraduate completion 73.7
Ranked 14 of 14
Sylvania, OH
38.9 of 100
- CCNE-accredited
- Private nonprofit
- Doctorate (professional)
Lourdes builds its 37-credit DNP out of four named parts rather than one course list: online asynchronous coursework, experiential learning, the DNP project, and a competency validation stage. That last one is the unusual piece. Most programs treat the project as the terminal hurdle, whereas here there is a separate demonstration that you can do the thing before you finish. It is a small private university of under a thousand students in northwest Ohio conferring a handful of doctorates a year, so the cohort is small and the asynchronous format is what makes the reach wider than the campus. Its federal filing carries no distance-education flag for the degree.
Scored on
- Published in-state graduate tuition 69.5
- Established program 0
- Institution-wide undergraduate completion 27.6
