Best DNP Programs

South Carolina

Best DNP Programs In South Carolina 2026

6 institutions in South Carolina hold CCNE accreditation for the Doctor of Nursing Practice. Published in-state graduate tuition among them starts at $10,612 a year, at Francis Marion University.
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Key Takeaways

  1. 1

    South Carolina is a small field. Only 5 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 sit in a narrow band. The 5 South Carolina institutions that publish an annual in-state rate run from $10,612 to $16,141, the highest only about 1.5 times the lowest, so cost separates them less here than it does nationally.

  3. 3

    Mostly public, and that is a residency question. 4 of the 5 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

    All of them are distance-delivered. The federal survey flags every South Carolina institution on this page as offered at a distance, which covers coursework only, the supervised practice hours are served in person.

A Metro Guide Inside This State

Narrower than this page and organized around a commute rather than a border. Each one counts a census metropolitan area, so it can cross a state line where this page cannot.

How This Ranking Is Scored

Three published figures, weighted. Scores are relative to the 5 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 5 DNP Programs In South Carolina, 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 5 institutions on this page and not to the country, the same program carries a different number on the national list. How this is built.

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

Ranked 1 of 5

Clemson University

Clemson, SC

81.4 of 100
  • CCNE-accredited
  • Public
  • Professional practice doctorate
  • Offered online

Clemson delivers all of its DNP coursework online and sets a floor rather than a target on length: a minimum of six semesters, which is two years if you run straight through. A minimum is a useful thing to be told, because it is the number a school cannot talk you below, whereas an advertised completion time usually assumes everything goes right. Its federal filing does carry a distance-education flag, so the online description holds up rather than being a partial one. School-wide average graduate tuition here, which excludes DNP add-on charges, sits in the middle third of the 306 accredited institutions that publish a rate, in the 2023-24 federal figures.

Tuition
$11,220
In-state
Tuition
$23,372
Out-of-state
DNP Awards
13
Completion
87%
Undergraduate
About the tuition figures
School-wide graduate average, 2023-24. Excludes DNP add-on charges.

Scored on

  • Published in-state graduate tuition 89
  • Established program 62.5
  • Institution-wide undergraduate completion 100

Visit Clemson University →

Ranked 2 of 5

Francis Marion University

Florence, SC

50 of 100
  • CCNE-accredited
  • Public
  • Professional practice doctorate
  • Offered online

Francis Marion aims its doctorate at rural practice, which is the honest description of where its graduates work in South Carolina. Three tracks run: a master’s entry for nurses who already hold an advanced practice license, and two bachelor’s entries leading to family or psychiatric mental health practice. The constraint to plan around is the calendar, because both entries admit for fall only. Miss it and you wait a year, so the application timeline matters more here than at a school with rolling or multi-term intakes. Master’s entry wants a cumulative 3.0 in the master’s. School-wide average graduate tuition here, which excludes DNP add-on charges, sits in the lowest third of the 306 accredited institutions that publish a rate, in the 2023-24 federal figures. Post-master’s certificates in psychiatric mental health and nurse education run alongside for nurses who want a credential without the degree.

Tuition
$10,612
In-state
Tuition
$21,224
Out-of-state
DNP Awards
4
Completion
43%
Undergraduate
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 0
  • Institution-wide undergraduate completion 0

Visit Francis Marion University →

Ranked 3 of 5

University of South Carolina-Columbia

Columbia, SC

47.3 of 100
  • CCNE-accredited
  • Public
  • Professional practice doctorate
  • Offered online

5 DNP tracks at this institution, Critical care, Family nurse practitioner, Nursing administration, Nursing practice (general), Psychiatric-mental health NP. Ranked once, on the largest.

South Carolina publishes a semester count for every route, and the spread is wide enough to matter. The post-master’s clinical expert major is 33 credits over six semesters. Healthcare leadership runs 36 to 39 credits over seven. Nursing education is the widest of them, 33 to 60 hours over six to nine semesters, because what you need depends on what you arrive holding. From a BSN the commitment is different in kind: those options run nine, eleven or twelve semesters depending on the route, which is three to four years before you account for anything slipping. Full-time and part-time plans of study are published for the BSN entry point.

Tuition
$13,374
In-state
Tuition
$29,760
Out-of-state
DNP Awards
7
Completion
79%
Undergraduate
About the tuition figures
School-wide graduate average, 2023-24. Excludes DNP add-on charges.

Scored on

  • Published in-state graduate tuition 50
  • Established program 28.5
  • Institution-wide undergraduate completion 81.8

Visit University of South Carolina-Columbia →

Ranked 4 of 5

Medical University of South Carolina

Charleston, SC

41.2 of 100
  • CCNE-accredited
  • Public
  • Professional practice doctorate
  • Offered online

It is a health-professions campus of about three thousand in Charleston, and federal records flag the DNP for distance study, so the program reaches well beyond the Lowcountry. It also confers doctorates at a high rate for its size, thirteenth of the 311 institutions in this dataset measured as awards against total enrollment, which says the nursing doctorate is central to that campus rather than one program among many. School-wide average graduate tuition here, which excludes DNP add-on charges, sits in the middle third of the 306 accredited institutions that publish a rate, in the 2023-24 federal figures.

Tuition
$16,141
In-state
Tuition
$24,135
Out-of-state
DNP Awards
57
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 100

Visit Medical University of South Carolina →

Ranked 5 of 5

Anderson University

Anderson, SC

30.3 of 100
  • CCNE-accredited
  • Private nonprofit
  • Professional practice doctorate
  • Offered online

Anderson publishes format, duration and start date for each route side by side, and they differ more than the shared name suggests. Executive leadership from an MSN is fully online and 18 months, and it accepts a master’s in nursing in any field of study rather than demanding a matching specialty. The family nurse practitioner route from a BSN is hybrid rather than online, and three years. Psychiatric mental health runs alongside it. Every route starts in August, so there is one intake a year whichever you pick, and it is the credential you enter with rather than the specialty you want that decides how long you are committing to.

Tuition
$14,763
In-state
Tuition
$14,763
Out-of-state
DNP Awards
7
Completion
66%
Undergraduate
About the tuition figures
School-wide graduate average, 2023-24. Excludes DNP add-on charges.

Scored on

  • Published in-state graduate tuition 24.9
  • Established program 28.5
  • Institution-wide undergraduate completion 52.3

Visit Anderson University →

Also Accredited In South Carolina

This program holds current CCNE accreditation. It files its DNP conferrals under a specialty classification rather than under Nursing Practice, so the federal tuition and conferral figures used above are not available for it and it is not scored.

  • University of South Carolina Upstate CCNE-accredited DNP

    USC Upstate runs a young online doctorate, two years long and 37 to 40 credit hours, whose first cohort graduated recently. Entry is post-master's and the requirement is stated twice on the page, so take it literally: a BSN and an MSN from accredited institutions, or an MSN completed by the start of class, plus an unencumbered RN or APRN license in the state where your clinical experiences will happen. Current BLS certification is also required. The school points students toward tuition reimbursement of up to $30,000 an academic year and as much as $90,000 in total, which is worth asking about specifically because it is a larger sum than most published discounts.

Choosing A DNP Program In South Carolina

What studying in South Carolina 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 South Carolina publishing both rates, the out-of-state rate runs a median of 2.1 times the in-state one. At University of South Carolina-Columbia the gap is $16,386 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 South Carolina 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.

Every measured program here is distance-flagged, which says less than it sounds

All 5 measured institutions in South Carolina carry the federal distance-education flag. 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.

University of South Carolina Upstate is accredited, not lesser

University of South Carolina Upstate files conferrals under a specialty classification rather than under Nursing Practice, so the federal columns this page ranks on do not exist for it. It carries the same CCNE accreditation as everything in the ranking 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 the name come from the school's own pages.

Who Licenses You In South Carolina

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

AANP places South Carolina 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 South Carolina 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 South Carolina

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, South CarolinaEmployedRankNational median
Nurse practitioners29-1171$123,2905,67048 of 51$132,300
Nurse anesthetists29-1151$265,4801,01016 of 44$236,590
Registered nurses29-1141$82,36049,75039 of 51$97,550
Nursing Instructors and Teachers, Postsecondary25-1072$79,5401,15027 of 51$80,250

Nurse practitioners in South Carolina have a median of $123,290, which ranks 48 of the 51 jurisdictions the survey publishes a median for, across about 5,670 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
110
Of those, rural
64
Median score
15
Highest score
24

Most designated shortage in South Carolina is rural, 64 of 110 designations, but the remaining 46 sit in urban and suburban areas, so eligibility is not only a country question here. A designation is a statement about how many primary-care providers serve a defined area relative to its population. It describes supply, not hiring.

The designations here differ widely in priority. The median scores 15 against a highest of 24, so which approved site you join moves your funding position further than anything about the state as a whole does.

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 South Carolina

Most of the measured field here is distance-flagged, 5 of 6 accredited doctorates in South Carolina, so the question is less whether you can study at a distance and more whether an out-of-state program offers anything the local ones do not. 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 South Carolina 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 5 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.

5 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 South Carolina. The degree-wide questions are answered on the guides.

How many DNP programs are there in South Carolina?

6 hold CCNE accreditation for the doctorate, and 1 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 South Carolina?

Published in-state rates sit between $10,612 and $16,141, which is a tight band. Price will not narrow your list in South Carolina; the track, the placement arrangement and the schedule will.

Is a DNP cheaper in South Carolina if you live there?

Yes, by $16,386 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 South Carolina?

No. South Carolina 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 South Carolina?

A median of $123,290, $9,010 below the national $132,300. Worth setting against what the degree costs here before treating the gap as a verdict on the state.

Does federal loan repayment apply in South Carolina?

It can. 110 designated primary-care shortage areas, 64 of them rural, so both kinds of site exist. Eligibility attaches to an approved site rather than to the jurisdiction, which makes it an employer question.

Can you study for a DNP online in South Carolina?

Every measured institution here carries the federal distance-education flag, which says less than it sounds: the flag covers taught content only. The supervised hours happen in person with a preceptor wherever you enroll, and campus days are the school's to set.

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 6 in South Carolina 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 South Carolina, 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

    Anderson University (SC)

    Anderson, SC · Private nonprofit · carries federal figures · filed federally as Anderson University

  2. 2

    Clemson University

    Clemson, SC · Public · carries federal figures

  3. 3

    Francis Marion University

    Florence, SC · Public · carries federal figures

  4. 4

    Medical University of South Carolina

    Charleston, SC · Public · carries federal figures

  5. 5

    University of South Carolina

    Columbia, SC · Public · carries federal figures · filed federally as University of South Carolina-Columbia

  6. 6

    University of South Carolina Upstate

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

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