Best DNP Programs

St. Louis metro

Best DNP Programs In St. Louis 2026

Four accredited institutions across a state line where the practice rules change, and the cheapest and largest program is the one on the Illinois side.
A tall stainless steel arch rising out of parkland against a blue sky, with people walking a path beneath it
On this page

Key Takeaways

  1. 1

    4 accredited institutions, drawn from 2 municipalities. This guide counts the St. Louis, MO-IL metropolitan area rather than the city limits, so the pool is wider than the city name suggests and every campus in it is inside one commute.

  2. 2

    2 public, 2 private, and the cheap end is public. The lowest published in-state rate belongs to a public institution, so residency is the lever here. That figure is one school's published year, not a typical cost, and it excludes fees and clinical expenses.

  3. 3

    Output is concentrated in one school. Southern Illinois University Edwardsville conferred 77 of the 175 DNP awards recorded across this metro. A number that lopsided says where the cohorts and the placement relationships are, which a ranking position does not.

  4. 4

    2 of 4 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 Cheapest And Largest Program Is Across The State Line

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville publishes $8,918 a year and conferred 77 doctorates in the reporting year, which is both the lowest published price in this metro and more than twice the output of any other institution in it. It is also the only one of the four that is not in Missouri.

That matters beyond the commute. AANP classifies Missouri as a restricted practice state, its most constrained category, and Illinois as reduced practice. So a nurse who studies at Edwardsville and licenses in Illinois works under different rules from one who licenses in Missouri, and the two are half an hour apart. The school you attend and the state you practice in are separate decisions here, and this is one of the few metros where you can genuinely make them separately.

The Missouri field runs from $15,120 at the University of Missouri, St. Louis to $54,760 at Saint Louis University, with Maryville University of St. Louis between them at $24,766 and 59 conferrals. So the state line is not only the cheapest option, it is where the price ladder starts.

How This Ranking Is Scored

Three published figures, weighted. Scores are relative to the 4 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 St. Louis 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 4 Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Edwardsville, IL · Public · offered online $8,918 77 57% 85
2 of 4 University of Missouri-St Louis Saint Louis, MO · Public $15,120 32 57% 78.2
3 of 4 Maryville University of Saint Louis Saint Louis, MO · Private nonprofit · offered online $24,766 59 66% 73.6
4 of 4 Saint Louis University Saint Louis, MO · Private nonprofit $54,760 7 80% 15

What This Guide Counts As The St. Louis Metro

This guide follows the St. Louis metropolitan statistical area, which crosses the Mississippi into Illinois. Three institutions are in Missouri and Southern Illinois University Edwardsville is about half an hour east of downtown, which is a commute rather than a relocation. That crossing changes more than the drive, because the two states classify nurse practitioner practice differently.

Municipalities Included

  • Saint Louis, MO
  • Edwardsville, IL

Deliberately Not Included

  • Kansas City, MO The other side of the state, and its own metropolitan area.
  • Columbia, Springfield and Kirksville, MO Separate Missouri metros, each with an accredited institution.
  • Chicago and Peoria, IL Northern and central Illinois, several hours away and separately delineated.

The Best 4 DNP Programs In St. Louis, Ranked

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

Ranked 1 of 4

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville

Edwardsville, IL

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

Southern Illinois Edwardsville quantifies the experience requirement instead of leaving it vague: a year of full-time work, or its part-time equivalent, which the school puts at 1,872 hours, completed before you start the first specialization clinical course. It also wants your registered nurse license current in the state where you intend to do the practicum, not wherever you happen to be licensed now. The post-master’s application asks for a personal statement naming a doctoral project idea that is patient or practice focused, so you are expected to arrive with a problem in mind rather than find one later. Priority deadlines run 1 February for summer, 1 June for fall and 1 November for spring, and every doctoral student attends an immersion in the first days of the fall semester.

In-State Tuition
$8,918
Out-Of-State
$8,918
DNP Awards
77
UG Completion
57%

Scored on

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

Visit Southern Illinois University Edwardsville →

Ranked 2 of 4

University of Missouri-St Louis

Saint Louis, MO

78.2 of 100
  • CCNE-accredited
  • Public
  • Doctorate (research)

Missouri St. Louis does not run its doctorate alone. The program is delivered online cooperatively with the Kansas City and Columbia campuses, so the course pool is wider than one college could staff and its shape is set by all three communities. Coursework is distance learning with a three-day on-campus intensive. Two conditions decide eligibility before anything else. The university cannot admit online students from every state, so check yours against its authorization list first. And your grade point average is calculated on the last 60 hours of the bachelor’s, floor 3.0, which helps if you finished stronger than you started. The acute care pediatric tracks want a year of inpatient pediatric nursing behind you.

In-State Tuition
$15,120
Out-Of-State
$37,620
DNP Awards
32
UG Completion
57%

Scored on

  • Published in-state graduate tuition 86.5
  • Established program 100
  • Institution-wide undergraduate completion 0

Visit University of Missouri-St Louis →

Ranked 3 of 4

Maryville University of Saint Louis

Saint Louis, MO

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

4 DNP tracks at this institution, Critical care, Family nurse practitioner, Geriatric, Nursing practice (general). Ranked once, on the largest.

Maryville publishes the doctoral core as a fixed block and everything else as a variable on top of it, which makes the routes easy to compare. The DNP core and capstone are 11 courses and 33 credit hours whichever concentration you take. From a BSN the whole degree is 74 to 77 credit hours depending on that concentration. The psychiatric mental health option, for instance, adds 21 credits of assessment, diagnosis and management on its own. Courses run fully online with start dates in spring, summer and fall rather than one annual intake, and the college puts its accelerated BSN-to-DNP at as few as 40 months against the three to four years a full-time route usually takes.

In-State Tuition
$24,766
Out-Of-State
$24,766
DNP Awards
59
UG Completion
66%

Scored on

  • Published in-state graduate tuition 65.4
  • Established program 100
  • Institution-wide undergraduate completion 39.1

Visit Maryville University of Saint Louis →

Ranked 4 of 4

Saint Louis University

Saint Louis, MO

15 of 100
  • CCNE-accredited
  • Private nonprofit
  • Doctorate (research)

Saint Louis makes both campus visits count, which is unusual. The first is a two-day residency where the school assesses your diagnostic reasoning, clinical assessment skills and therapeutic communication rather than simply orienting you. The second comes at the end, to present the doctoral project. Bachelor’s entry runs 62 to 68 credits depending on your population focus, across four years, ending at 1,000 clinical hours. The post-master’s route is 30 credits online, with five or six credits of comparable graduate coursework transferable at the school’s discretion. Preceptors are handled through a three-tier process rather than left to you, and you are paired with a faculty mentor in your field. Check the state approval list, because approvals here are granted program by program.

In-State Tuition
$54,760
Out-Of-State
$54,760
DNP Awards
7
UG Completion
80%

Scored on

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

Visit Saint Louis University →

Choosing A DNP Program In St. Louis

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

What University of Missouri-St Louis charges depends on where you live

It is the one public institution in the St. Louis metro publishing both rates, at $15,120 in state against $37,620 out of state, a difference of $22,500 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. This metro crosses a state line, so a campus you can reach on a weekday may still be charging you an out-of-state rate.

The Missouri 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.

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and Maryville University of Saint Louis carry the distance flag

2 of the 4 measured institutions in the St. Louis 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 Missouri is the field

This page covers the institutions inside the St. Louis 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 Missouri 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, And Which Side Of The Line You Are On

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.

Missouri
Restricted Practice
Missouri State Board of Nursing
Illinois
Reduced Practice
Illinois Board of Nursing

This metro crosses a state line and the line matters. AANP classifies Missouri as restricted practice and Illinois as reduced practice. Those are different working conditions, not different labels: the least restricted category lets a nurse practitioner evaluate, diagnose, order tests and prescribe under the board’s own authority, while the more constrained ones require a collaborative agreement or career-long supervision by another provider before you can see patients at all.

So the school you pick and the state you practice in are two decisions, and in this metro they can be made independently. You can study on one side of the line and be licensed on the other, which is worth planning deliberately rather than discovering: licensure by endorsement runs to months, and several programs want an active license in the state where your practicum will happen rather than wherever you hold one now.

The board detail, the full AANP definition and the license verification route are on the state guides: DNP programs in Missouri and DNP programs in Illinois . 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 St. Louis Metro

BLS OEWS, May 2025, metropolitan area cut for St. Louis, MO-IL, read 2026-09-09. 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, St. Louis metroEmployedNational median
Nurse practitioners29-1171$131,5803,430$132,300
Nurse anesthetists29-1151$232,300650$236,590
Registered nurses29-1141$83,18035,200$97,550
Nursing Instructors and Teachers, Postsecondary25-1072$79,630520$80,250

Nurse practitioners in the St. Louis metro have a median of $131,580, across about 3,430 of them, which is within $720 of the national $132,300. The two state figures behind this metro differ from each other as well: Missouri at $129,930 and Illinois at $130,680, which is a real gap for a metro people commute across.

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.

Missouri, designated areas
339
Missouri, of those rural
295
Illinois, designated areas
302
Illinois, of those rural
193

These figures cover Missouri and Illinois in full rather than the St. Louis 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. Because this metro spans a state line, a site on either side can qualify, and which state it sits in changes nothing about the federal programs. 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 guides break the designations down further: Missouri and Illinois.

Studying From Outside The St. Louis Metro

2 of the 4 accredited doctorates in the St. Louis 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 St. Louis metro this cycle, and whether it will place you for supervised clinical hours near where you live.

Which St. Louis 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: Southern Illinois University Edwardsville

The lowest published in-state rate among St. Louis's publics, at $8,918 a year. An annual rate, not a program total, and it assumes residency.

If you are moving to St. Louis: settle residency before you apply

University of Missouri-St Louis publishes a $22,500 annual gap between its in-state and out-of-state rates, the widest of the 1 St. Louis public publishing both. Start with the registrar, not admissions.

If you hold a bachelor's: Southern Illinois University Edwardsville states that route

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville's own pages name a bachelor's entry. Others in St. Louis 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: Southern Illinois University Edwardsville

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville 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

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Maryville University of Saint Louis 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 St. Louis?

4 institutions in the St. Louis metro hold CCNE accreditation for the Doctor of Nursing Practice. This guide counts the St. Louis, MO-IL metropolitan statistical area rather than the city limits, so the figure includes institutions in 2 municipalities.

What counts as the St. Louis metro on this page?

The St. Louis, MO-IL metropolitan statistical area. In practice that means these municipalities: Saint Louis, MO; Edwardsville, IL. Places deliberately left out are listed on this page with the reason.

Is it cheaper to study for a DNP in St. Louis 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 St. Louis, MO-IL 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