Best DNP Programs

San Diego metro

Best DNP Programs In San Diego 2026

Two accredited institutions, both private, and the cheaper of the two publishes $45,300. California’s public university systems file no accredited DNP in this metro.
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Key Takeaways

  1. 1

    Price will not narrow this list. The published in-state rates here sit inside a band of roughly 1.3 times, which is tight for a metro. That pushes the decision onto track, cohort size and who arranges the clinical placement.

  2. 2

    Every institution here is private. No public option means residency buys you nothing in this metro. A private institution charges one rate wherever you live, so an out-of-state applicant is on the same terms as a local one.

  3. 3

    University of San Diego is most of this metro. It conferred 33 of the 38 DNP awards recorded here, which is 87% of them, against 5 at Point Loma Nazarene University. Treat the others as genuinely small programs rather than as alternatives of a similar size.

  4. 4

    1 of 2 reach you at a distance. That many carry the federal distance-education flag, which covers taught content and never the supervised practice hours. Ask for the number of on-campus days and the months they fall in.

A Large Metro With No Public Doctorate, And What That Costs

San Diego is among the largest cities in the United States and neither of its two accredited DNP programs is public. The University of San Diego publishes $58,420 and Point Loma Nazarene University publishes $45,300, so the entry price here starts above $45,000 whatever a reader chooses.

This matters more in California than it would elsewhere, because the state’s public systems are the usual route to an affordable graduate nursing degree and neither the University of California nor California State University files an accredited DNP in this metro. A San Diego resident looking for a public in-state rate is looking outside the metro, not inside it.

Between the two, the University of San Diego conferred 33 DNP awards in the reporting year against Point Loma’s 5, and Point Loma is the one flagged for distance education. So the larger program is the dearer and campus-based one, and the smaller is cheaper and more flexible. Neither is a low-cost option.

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. 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 In The San Diego Metro, 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.

# Program In-state tuition DNP awards UG completion Score of 100
1 of 2 Point Loma Nazarene University San Diego, CA · Private nonprofit · offered online $45,300 5 77% 50
2 of 2 University of San Diego San Diego, CA · Private nonprofit $58,420 33 84% 50

What This Guide Counts As The San Diego Metro

This guide follows the San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA metropolitan statistical area. Both institutions report San Diego itself as their city, so the two other municipalities in the metro title carry nothing to list.

Municipalities Included

  • San Diego, CA

Deliberately Not Included

  • Chula Vista and Carlsbad, CA Named in the metro title and carrying no institution in the accredited dataset.
  • Los Angeles and Orange County, CA The Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim metropolitan area to the north, separately delineated and covered by its own guide.

The Best 2 DNP Programs In San Diego, Ranked

Every scored institution above, with what it publishes and what it does not.

Ranked 1 of 2

Point Loma Nazarene University

San Diego, CA

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

Point Loma splits the 1,000 clinical hours in a way few schools spell out: at least 500 must be direct patient care and 500 attach to the DNP project itself. If you assumed the project counted as paperwork rather than as practice hours, that changes the shape of the whole second half of the degree. The clinical nurse specialist route is fully asynchronous and runs 55 to 65 units depending on the prerequisites you arrive holding. Healthcare leadership from an MSN is 24 months, six semesters. Family nurse practitioner is the long one at 76 units and as many as ten semesters, and it is also the route with in-person requirements: two on-campus intensive weekends on top of clinicals, with synchronous sessions optional rather than required.

In-State Tuition
$45,300
Out-Of-State
$45,300
DNP Awards
5
UG Completion
77%

Scored on

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

Visit Point Loma Nazarene University →

Ranked 2 of 2

University of San Diego

San Diego, CA

50 of 100
  • CCNE-accredited
  • Private nonprofit
  • Doctorate (professional)

San Diego runs an unusually wide set of bachelor’s-entry tracks, two of them dual routes that qualify you in a second population: pediatric with family, and adult-gerontology with family. Earning two certifications inside one sequence is rare, and worth weighing against the extra time it takes. One condition settles it for anyone outside California: your California license endorsement has to be in progress at the point of admission, so the licensing question cannot wait until after you arrive. The grade point average floor is 3.0, calculated on your most recent bachelor’s or graduate coursework rather than on everything you have ever taken, and a year of clinical experience is preferred rather than required.

In-State Tuition
$58,420
Out-Of-State
$58,420
DNP Awards
33
UG Completion
84%

Scored on

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

Visit University of San Diego →

Choosing A DNP Program In San Diego

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

Point Loma Nazarene University and University of San Diego are the whole of the field in San Diego

Point Loma Nazarene University and University of San Diego 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 California board of nursing rather than to the school.

Who Licenses You In The San Diego 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.

California
Restricted Practice
California Board of Registered Nursing

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

California, designated areas
576
California, of those rural
232

These figures cover California in full rather than the San Diego 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: California.

Studying From Outside The San Diego Metro

1 of the 2 accredited doctorates in the San Diego metro 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 the San Diego metro this cycle, and whether it will place you for supervised clinical hours near where you live.

Which San Diego 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 you hold a bachelor's: Point Loma Nazarene University states that route

Point Loma Nazarene University's own pages name a bachelor's entry. Others in San Diego 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: Point Loma Nazarene University

Point Loma Nazarene University 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.

If you cannot relocate: Point Loma Nazarene University

Point Loma Nazarene University carries the federal distance-education flag. The flag covers taught content only. Supervised hours still happen near you, and campus days are the school's to set, so ask for the count and the months.

If residency is out of reach: the private rate does not depend on it

A private institution charges one figure wherever you live, so without residency the comparison is against the out-of-state public rate. In San Diego the cheapest published rate in the state belongs to one of its 2 private institutions.

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 Diego?

2 institutions in the San Diego metro hold CCNE accreditation for the Doctor of Nursing Practice. This guide counts the San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA metropolitan statistical area rather than the city limits, so the figure includes institutions in 1 municipalities.

What counts as the San Diego metro on this page?

The San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA metropolitan statistical area. In practice that means these municipalities: San Diego, CA. Places deliberately left out are listed on this page with the reason.

Is it cheaper to study for a DNP in San Diego 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 Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA 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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