Best DNP Programs

Springfield metro

Best DNP Programs In Springfield 2026

The Massachusetts flagship’s doctorate is here rather than in Boston, alongside two small private programs, in a metro most readers looking for it would not think to check.
A small city skyline of stone and glass towers seen across low rooftops under an open sky

Photo: Quintin Soloviev, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

On this page

Key Takeaways

  1. 1

    Price will not narrow this list. The published in-state rates here sit inside a band of roughly 2.4 times, which is tight for a metro. That pushes the decision onto track, cohort size and who arranges the clinical placement.

  2. 2

    1 public, 2 private, and the cheap end is public. University of Massachusetts Amherst publishes $17,006 in-state, against $37,972 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 Massachusetts Amherst conferred 34 of the 66 DNP awards recorded across this metro, with Elms College next at 19. A number that lopsided says where the cohorts and the placement relationships are, which a ranking position does not.

  4. 4

    2 of 3 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.

The State Flagship’s DNP Is In This Metro, Not In Boston

The University of Massachusetts Amherst conferred 34 of the 66 doctorates recorded in this metro and publishes $17,006 a year in-state. It is the state’s flagship campus, and a reader who assumes the flagship nursing doctorate sits in Boston will not find it in the Boston guide, because it is here — about ninety minutes west.

That matters for cost more than for prestige. Boston’s cheapest published rate is $15,278 and its field runs to $66,000; this metro’s public option is $17,006 in-state against $39,683 out-of-state. For a Massachusetts resident who can study in the Pioneer Valley, the flagship is one of the cheaper accredited doctorates in the state, and it is not in the metro where most of the searching happens.

The other two are small private colleges: Elms College conferred 19 doctorates at $41,300 a year and Bay Path University 13 at $37,972. Both are a fraction of the flagship’s size, and both charge roughly what a Boston private charges, so the argument for either is fit and cohort rather than price.

How This Ranking Is Scored

Three published figures, weighted. Scores are relative to the 3 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 Springfield 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 3 University of Massachusetts-Amherst Amherst, MA · Public · offered online $17,006 34 83% 100
2 of 3 College of Our Lady of the Elms Chicopee, MA · Private nonprofit $41,300 19 68% 29.4
3 of 3 Bay Path University Longmeadow, MA · Private nonprofit · offered online $37,972 13 44% 6.8

What This Guide Counts As The Springfield Metro

This guide follows the Springfield, Massachusetts metropolitan statistical area, which covers the Pioneer Valley in the west of the state. None of the three institutions reports Springfield itself as its city: the University of Massachusetts Amherst is in Amherst, Elms College in Chicopee and Bay Path University in Longmeadow, all within about half an hour of the center. That is why the municipality list matters more here than usual.

Municipalities Included

  • Amherst, MA
  • Chicopee, MA
  • Longmeadow, MA

Deliberately Not Included

  • Boston, MA Ninety minutes east and its own metro, with six accredited institutions and its own guide.
  • Worcester, MA Between the two and separately delineated, with an accredited institution of its own.
  • Hartford, CT Half an hour south across the state line, and its own metropolitan area.

The Best 3 DNP Programs In Springfield, Ranked

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

Ranked 1 of 3

University of Massachusetts-Amherst

Amherst, MA

100 of 100
  • CCNE-accredited
  • Public
  • Doctorate (professional)
  • Offered online

Amherst answers up front the question most online programs leave you to find out late: it cannot accept DNP students who live in Alabama, Minnesota, New York, Oregon or Washington. If you are in one of those five states, that settles it before you compare anything else. For everyone else the coursework runs entirely online, the clinical side is done through internships where you already are, and the degree ends in a project that puts research evidence to work in a practice setting you choose. The post-baccalaureate route concentrates on psychiatric mental health, so this is a doctorate pointed at one population rather than a general one. You can also take a master’s in nursing on the way through instead of finishing with nothing in between.

In-State Tuition
$17,006
Out-Of-State
$39,683
DNP Awards
34
UG Completion
83%

Scored on

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

Visit University of Massachusetts-Amherst →

Ranked 2 of 3

College of Our Lady of the Elms

Chicopee, MA

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

Elms publishes its two nurse practitioner timelines plainly: about three years full time if you enter with a bachelor’s, and about two and a half if you already hold a master’s. That six-month gap is smaller than at most schools, where a master’s typically saves a year or more, so if you are MSN-prepared and comparing programs on time saved, this is one where the advantage is thinner than usual. It is a small private college in Chicopee of roughly 1,270 students, and it confers around nineteen doctorates a year, which is a high output for its size and suggests the nursing doctorate is a substantial part of what the college does.

In-State Tuition
$41,300
Out-Of-State
$41,300
DNP Awards
19
UG Completion
68%

Scored on

  • Published in-state graduate tuition 0
  • Established program 57.6
  • Institution-wide undergraduate completion 61.5

Visit College of Our Lady of the Elms →

Ranked 3 of 3

Bay Path University

Longmeadow, MA

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

Bay Path publishes both routes as course counts, which is a more honest unit than years. Bachelor’s entry is 70 credits across 19 courses. Master’s entry is 36 credits across 12 courses. Both carry 1,000 supervised clinical hours, and that is the part worth noticing: holding a master’s halves the coursework here without reducing the clinical requirement, which is not how every school handles it. Everything runs online, the family practitioner track included, so the clinical hours are the only part that happens in a building. Bay Path is small, and against its size it confers nursing doctorates at a rate in the top quarter nationally, so the program is a serious piece of what the university does.

In-State Tuition
$37,972
Out-Of-State
$37,972
DNP Awards
13
UG Completion
44%

Scored on

  • Published in-state graduate tuition 13.7
  • Established program 0
  • Institution-wide undergraduate completion 0

Visit Bay Path University →

Choosing A DNP Program In Springfield

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

What University of Massachusetts-Amherst charges depends on where you live

It is the one public institution in the Springfield metro publishing both rates, at $17,006 in state against $39,683 out of state, a difference of $22,677 a year. Residency is set by the state under its own rules rather than by where you sit to watch a lecture, so an out-of-state applicant should treat that gap as the first question rather than a footnote.

A field of 3 is small enough to contact all of it

Bay Path University, College of Our Lady of the Elms and University of Massachusetts-Amherst are the accredited doctorates in the Springfield metro, which is few enough that writing to every one of them is a morning's work rather than a project. It is also the fastest way to learn what no program page prints: who secures your clinical placement, what the school charges if a doctoral project runs past its term, and which tracks are open to new applicants this cycle. Against a field this size, a reply beats a rubric.

The Massachusetts 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.

Bay Path University and University of Massachusetts-Amherst carry the distance flag

2 of the 3 measured institutions in the Springfield metro carry it. 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.

A metro is a commute, and Massachusetts is the field

This page covers the institutions inside the Springfield area because a campus you can reach on a weekday is a different proposition from one you cannot. It is a narrower field than the one you are actually choosing from: DNP programs in Massachusetts carries every accredited institution in the state, and for a program you would attend at a distance the metro boundary means nothing at all.

Who Licenses You In The Springfield 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.

Massachusetts
Full Practice
0

Every institution on this page sits in Massachusetts, so one board licenses all of them and AANP classifies the jurisdiction as full 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 Massachusetts . 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.

What The Work Pays In The Springfield Metro

BLS OEWS, May 2025, metropolitan area cut for Springfield, MA, read 2026-09-10. 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, Springfield metroEmployedNational median
Nurse Practitioners29-1171$138,460530$132,300
Nurse Anesthetists29-1151$357,740—$236,590
Registered Nurses29-1141$98,4105,830$97,550
Nursing Instructors and Teachers, Postsecondary25-1072$74,930140$80,250

Nurse practitioners in the Springfield metro have a median of $138,460, across about 530 of them, $6,160 above the national $132,300.

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. The metropolitan cut is a different survey area from the state one, so these figures will not reconcile with the state page and are not meant to. How BLS defines these areas .

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.

Massachusetts, designated areas
64
Massachusetts, of those rural
10

These figures cover Massachusetts in full rather than the Springfield 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: Massachusetts.

Studying From Outside The Springfield Metro

Most of the measured field here is distance-flagged, 2 of 3 accredited doctorates in the Springfield metro, 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 the Springfield metro this cycle, and whether it will place you for supervised clinical hours near where you live.

Which Springfield 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: University of Massachusetts-Amherst

The lowest published in-state rate among Springfield's publics, at $17,006 a year. An annual rate, not a program total, and it assumes residency.

If you are moving to Springfield: settle residency before you apply

University of Massachusetts-Amherst publishes a $22,677 annual gap between its in-state and out-of-state rates, the widest of the 1 Springfield public publishing both. Start with the registrar, not admissions.

If you hold a bachelor's: Bay Path University states that route

Bay Path University's own pages name a bachelor's entry. Others in Springfield 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: Bay Path University

Bay Path 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: 2 institutions here carry the distance flag

Bay Path University, University of Massachusetts-Amherst carry it. 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.

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 Springfield?

3 institutions in the Springfield metro hold CCNE accreditation for the Doctor of Nursing Practice. This guide counts the Springfield, MA metropolitan statistical area rather than the city limits, so the figure includes institutions in 3 municipalities.

What counts as the Springfield metro on this page?

The Springfield, MA metropolitan statistical area. In practice that means these municipalities: Amherst, MA; Chicopee, MA; Longmeadow, MA. Places deliberately left out are listed on this page with the reason.

Is it cheaper to study for a DNP in Springfield 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 Springfield, MA 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.

Compare accredited DNP programs

Browse all programs