Ranked 1 of 11
Camden, NJ
86.4 of 100
- CCNE-accredited
- Public
- Doctorate (research)
Rutgers Camden puts a hard experience gate partway through rather than at the door: you need at least two years of registered nurse experience before you can progress into Primary Care Clinical I. So the clock on eligibility keeps running after you enroll, which is unusual and worth mapping against your own service. The clinical volume is unusual too. Students complete roughly 1,400 to 1,600 supervised clinical hours, well above the 1,000 the degree standard sets. Clinical theory courses are taught in person on campus, with some of the scholarly and didactic coursework offered hybrid, and the school describes the program as rigorous and full-time rather than something to fit around a roster.
Scored on
- Published in-state graduate tuition 89
- Established program 91.7
- Institution-wide undergraduate completion 65.3
Ranked 2 of 11
West Chester, PA
82.6 of 100
- CCNE-accredited
- Public
- Doctorate (professional)
- Offered online
West Chester runs a cohort model over six semesters, and the detail that shapes your calendar is that those semesters are fall and spring only. No summer terms means the sequence is fixed at three academic years, with no way to accelerate through a break. The curriculum splits into three named blocks, 10 credits of nursing science, 9 of leadership and 16 of practice, so 35 credits with practice carrying the largest share. It builds on a master’s rather than starting from a bachelor’s. In-state tuition sits in the lowest seventh on this site, which makes this one of the cheaper routes to the credential for a Pennsylvania resident.
Scored on
- Published in-state graduate tuition 100
- Established program 62.7
- Institution-wide undergraduate completion 70.8
Ranked 3 of 11
New Castle, DE
80.9 of 100
- CCNE-accredited
- Private nonprofit
- Doctorate (research)
- Offered online
Wilmington runs three cohorts a year, starting in spring, summer and fall, which is more entry points than almost any program on this site and means you rarely wait long to begin. The deadlines are 1 October, 1 March and 15 June respectively, but the wording that follows them is the part that matters: applications close on those dates or as soon as the cohort fills. So the deadline is a ceiling rather than a target, and applying early is the difference between a place and a wait. Three intakes also means that if life interrupts, the gap before you can rejoin is months rather than a year.
Scored on
- Published in-state graduate tuition 91.8
- Established program 100
- Institution-wide undergraduate completion 0
Ranked 4 of 11
Philadelphia, PA
74.9 of 100
- CCNE-accredited
- Public
- Doctorate (professional)
Temple houses its nursing doctorate inside a college of public health rather than a standalone school of nursing, so the people around you are epidemiologists, biostatisticians and physical therapists as well as nurses. That shapes the degree toward population-level work. Classes meet one day a week at the Health Sciences Center, which is the most useful scheduling fact on this card, because it lets you plan a year of shifts around one fixed day. Many courses mix online and in-person delivery. Both entries, from a bachelor’s and from a master’s, run full-time or part-time, and you can take the degree with or without a concentration. The scholarly project starts in your first year rather than waiting until the end.
Scored on
- Published in-state graduate tuition 75.9
- Established program 73
- Institution-wide undergraduate completion 76.4
Ranked 5 of 11
Newark, DE
74 of 100
- CCNE-accredited
- Public
- Doctorate (professional)
Delaware publishes its clinical hours split by type, which almost nobody does. The adult-gerontology acute care concentration is 68 credit hours and 1,016 clinical hours, and it tells you that 816 of those are direct care against 200 indirect. That distinction is worth more than it looks, because a program quoting one large number may be counting hours you would not describe as patient contact. The hours sit inside the core and concentration courses rather than being bolted on afterwards. The psychiatric mental health concentration runs hybrid, and its on-campus intensives run simulation with trained student actors rather than standardized patients alone.
Scored on
- Published in-state graduate tuition 88.4
- Established program 48.8
- Institution-wide undergraduate completion 84.7
Ranked 6 of 11
Philadelphia, PA
62.7 of 100
- CCNE-accredited
- Private nonprofit
- Doctorate (professional)
Jefferson’s nurse anesthesia doctorate publishes the number that matters most in that field: more than 650 anesthetics administered across over 2,000 clinical hours, inside an integrated 36-month, nine-semester program of 85 credits, accredited through 2029. Case volume is what separates anesthesia programs from each other, and most of them do not state it. The condition attached is unusual and expensive to miss. Every student must hold active Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware nursing licenses before clinical work starts, and keep all three current for the whole program, because the rotations cross state lines. Three licenses, three renewal cycles, three sets of fees. From fall 2026 the college is adding program options in Center Valley through a partnership with a 33-hospital health network.
Scored on
- Published in-state graduate tuition 34.9
- Established program 100
- Institution-wide undergraduate completion 68.1
Ranked 7 of 11
Philadelphia, PA
50.9 of 100
- CCNE-accredited
- Private nonprofit
- Doctorate (professional)
La Salle runs two DNP routes that ask for very different lives. The post-master’+A+’s track is aimed at nurses moving into organizational policy, quality improvement and executive roles, and can be fitted around work. The nurse anesthesia route is a 41-month integrated hybrid program of didactic and clinical work ending in a scholarly project, taught through the Frank J. Tornetta school, and 41 months of it is close to continuous. Both sit in Philadelphia, where eleven accredited institutions compete for clinical placements, so ask early how each one arranges yours. Post-MSN students choose their pace explicitly, six credits a semester full time or three part time, and the required clinical hours vary with what you arrive holding. The post-BSN anesthesia route is built differently again: 24 months of coursework, then a 29-month clinical residency on site at the Tornetta program.
Scored on
- Published in-state graduate tuition 52.2
- Established program 48.8
- Institution-wide undergraduate completion 51.4
Ranked 8 of 11
Villanova, PA
50 of 100
- CCNE-accredited
- Private nonprofit
- Doctorate (professional)
- Offered online
Villanova is blunt about what its nurse anesthesia track takes: more than 2,000 hours of clinical experience and no fewer than 700 cases, and the college states plainly that the average weekly commitment may run to 60 hours or more. That is a full-time job with a doctorate attached, and it is the frankest statement of the trade any school on this site publishes. Rotations move you deliberately from simple to complex cases across several sites rather than keeping you in one. The post-master’s track is a different proposition: it starts in early summer with an on-campus residency, so your first commitment is a fixed date rather than a rota you can negotiate.
Scored on
- Published in-state graduate tuition 0
- Established program 100
- Institution-wide undergraduate completion 100
Ranked 9 of 11
Philadelphia, PA
45.7 of 100
- CCNE-accredited
- Private nonprofit
- Doctorate (professional)
2 DNP tracks at this
institution, Family nurse practitioner, Nursing practice (general). Ranked once, on the largest.
Holy Family runs its post-master’s doctorate online for advanced practice registered nurses, and takes you part-time or full-time, so the pace is yours rather than a cohort’s. The admission conditions are specific and worth reading before you pay an application fee. Your BSN or MSN has to come from a program accredited by CCNE, ACEN or CNEA, the undergraduate grade point average floor is 3.0, and the application asks for a statement of goals naming the scholarly project you intend to pursue. That last one is unusual at application stage, because most schools let you settle the project after you enroll. Holy Family also files a family nurse practitioner track beside the general doctorate. It is a private university of about 3,200 students, and the doctoral cohort is small to match.
Scored on
- Published in-state graduate tuition 55.4
- Established program 27
- Institution-wide undergraduate completion 56.9
Ranked 10 of 11
Philadelphia, PA
39.8 of 100
- CCNE-accredited
- Private nonprofit
- Doctorate (professional)
- Offered online
Drexel sets an entry floor other schools leave implicit: no fewer than 400 precepted practice hours completed during your graduate studies, documented on a verification form your previous program has to sign. If your master’s practicum fell short of that, you are not eligible yet, and it is worth checking that before anything else. The cumulative graduate grade point average floor is 3.2, above the usual 3.0. Two tracks run. The advanced clinical expert route requires you to already hold advanced practice national certification. The leadership route accepts advanced certification or the 400 documented hours in its place. The application asks you to identify a practice problem that intrigues you and say how the doctorate would help you fix it.
Scored on
- Published in-state graduate tuition 11.5
- Established program 62.7
- Institution-wide undergraduate completion 80.6
Ranked 11 of 11
Chester, PA
20.3 of 100
- CCNE-accredited
- Private nonprofit
- Doctorate (research)
Widener settles your clinical hours by audit rather than by rule. Every post-MSN applicant gets a gap analysis, in which the hours you completed toward your master’s are applied against the 1,000 the doctorate requires, and if that leaves you short you make up the difference inside the DNP project courses. Health systems leadership works the same way, with the shortfall covered by two specialization courses carrying roughly 150 to 167 hours between them. So two people admitted in the same year can owe very different amounts of clinical time, and you will not know which you are until the analysis is done. The GRE is not required.
Scored on
- Published in-state graduate tuition 20.6
- Established program 0
- Institution-wide undergraduate completion 66.7
