Best DNP Programs

San Antonio metro

Best DNP Programs In San Antonio 2026

Two accredited institutions, neither flagged for distance study, in the smallest measured field of any major Texas metro.
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On this page

Key Takeaways

  1. 1

    Every one of the 2 is inside the city itself. This guide counts the San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX metropolitan area, which reaches further than the city, but no accredited institution in it sits outside San Antonio. So the metro definition costs you nothing here and the commute is the city's, not the region's.

  2. 2

    1 public, 1 private, and the cheap end is public. University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio publishes $3,239 in-state, against $19,800 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

    Output is concentrated in one school. University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio conferred 6 of the 11 DNP awards recorded across this metro, with University of the Incarnate Word next at 5. A number that lopsided says where the cohorts and the placement relationships are, which a ranking position does not.

  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 Two Programs Are Almost The Same Size, And Nothing Else About Them Matches

School-wide average graduate tuition in this metro, which excludes DNP add-on charges, runs from $3,239 a year in state at University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio to $19,800 at University of the Incarnate Word, about 6 times apart, in the 2023-24 federal figures.

The one public institution publishes $3,239 in state, and the one private institution publishes $19,800. Out of state, the public rate rises to $12,439.

University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio conferred the most DNPs in the metro in the reporting year, 6, and charges the lowest graduate rate here.

These are average tuition figures for full-time graduate students across each institution, not a DNP price. Some doctoral programs add a tuition differential on top, so ask each school for its DNP rate per credit before comparing.

The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio conferred 6 DNP awards in the reporting year and the University of the Incarnate Word conferred 5. Metros on this site are usually dominated by one producer, and this is one of the few where the two programs are effectively the same size.

Neither is flagged for distance education. That is the constraint to plan around here: in a metro this size, with both programs campus-based, a reader who cannot be in San Antonio is looking at Houston, Austin or a distance program elsewhere rather than at either of these.

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. Average annual tuition for full-time graduate students, 2023-24, from IPEDS. Not a DNP per-credit rate, not including program differentials, 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.

The Best 2 DNP Programs In San Antonio, 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.

Each card shows what the institution publishes.

Ranked 1 of 2

The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio

San Antonio, TX

100 of 100
  • CCNE-accredited
  • Public
  • Professional practice doctorate

UT Health San Antonio publishes the conversion most schools leave implicit: one semester credit hour of practicum equals four clock hours a week for that semester, and the ratio holds across every DNP track. Multiply it out before you enroll and you will know what a six-credit practicum term actually costs you in time, which is the calculation that decides whether a program fits around shift work. The school also publishes doctoral graduation rates and average time to degree by cohort instead of leaving you to ask. This is a health science center with no undergraduate arts college attached, so everyone around you is in a health profession. School-wide average graduate tuition here, which excludes DNP add-on charges, sits in the cheapest tenth of the 306 accredited institutions that publish a rate, in the 2023-24 federal figures, and the out-of-state rate is about 4 times the in-state one, so residency matters a great deal.

Tuition
$3,239
In-state
Tuition
$12,439
Out-of-state
DNP Awards
6
About the tuition figures
School-wide graduate average, 2023-24. Excludes DNP add-on charges.

Scored on

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

Visit The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio →

Ranked 2 of 2

University of the Incarnate Word

San Antonio, TX

0 of 100
  • CCNE-accredited
  • Private nonprofit
  • Professional practice doctorate

2 DNP tracks at this institution, Family nurse practitioner, Psychiatric-mental health NP. Ranked once, on the largest.

Incarnate Word offers two entries with very different flexibility. Bachelor’s entry is full-time only and leads to either family or psychiatric mental health practitioner work. Master’s entry runs full-time or part-time and is scoped to advanced practice registered nurses and to nurses holding a clinically focused master’s, so a management or education master’s is not the intended input here. Full-time only on the bachelor’s route is the constraint that settles it for most working nurses, and the school states it plainly rather than burying it. Neither track carries a distance flag in the federal filing, so plan on San Antonio.

Tuition
$19,800
In-state
Tuition
$19,800
Out-of-state
DNP Awards
5
Completion
51%
Undergraduate
About the tuition figures
School-wide graduate average, 2023-24. Excludes DNP add-on charges.

Scored on

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

Visit University of the Incarnate Word →

What This Guide Counts As The San Antonio Metro

This guide follows the San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX metropolitan statistical area. Both institutions report San Antonio itself as their city. Texas carries three metro guides on this site and this is the smallest of the three by a wide margin.

Municipalities Included

  • San Antonio, TX

Deliberately Not Included

  • New Braunfels and Seguin, TX Inside the metro and carrying no institution in the accredited dataset.
  • Austin, TX Its own metropolitan area eighty miles north along the same corridor, separately delineated.
  • Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth, TX Separate metropolitan areas with much larger fields, each covered by its own guide.

Choosing A DNP Program In San Antonio

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

The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and University of the Incarnate Word are the whole of the field in San Antonio

The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and University of the Incarnate Word 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 Texas board of nursing rather than to the school.

Who Licenses You In The San Antonio 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.

Texas
Restricted Practice
Texas Board of Nursing

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

Texas, designated areas
402
Texas, of those rural
264

These figures cover Texas in full rather than the San Antonio 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: Texas.

Studying From Outside The San Antonio Metro

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

Which San Antonio 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 Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio

The lowest published in-state rate among San Antonio's publics, at $3,239 a year. An annual rate, not a program total, and it assumes residency.

If you are moving to San Antonio: settle residency before you apply

The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio publishes a $9,200 annual gap between its in-state and out-of-state rates, the widest of the 1 San Antonio public publishing both. Start with the registrar, not admissions.

If you hold a bachelor's: The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio states that route

The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio's own pages name a bachelor's entry. Others in San Antonio 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: The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio

The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio 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 San Antonio?

2 institutions in the San Antonio metro hold CCNE accreditation for the Doctor of Nursing Practice. This guide counts the San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX metropolitan statistical area rather than the city limits, so the figure includes institutions in 1 municipalities.

What counts as the San Antonio metro on this page?

The San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX metropolitan statistical area. In practice that means these municipalities: San Antonio, TX. Places deliberately left out are listed on this page with the reason.

Is it cheaper to study for a DNP in San Antonio 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 San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX 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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Schools pay to appear in these listings. They are separate from our rankings, which no school can pay to change.