Best DNP Programs

Tampa metro

Best DNP Programs In Tampa 2026

Two accredited institutions, and the public one conferred 87 of the 88 doctorates recorded across the metro.
Rowing crews on flat water in daylight, with a white curved-roof building and glass towers along the far bank
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 1.5 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, 1 private, and the cheap end is public. University of South Florida publishes $8,350 in-state, against $12,762 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

    University of South Florida is most of this metro. It conferred 87 of the 88 DNP awards recorded here, which is 99% of them, against 1 at University of Tampa. 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.

Public And Private Rates Sit Closer Than Usual Here

School-wide average graduate tuition in this metro, which excludes DNP add-on charges, runs from $8,350 a year in state at University of South Florida to $12,762 at University of Tampa, about one and a half times apart, in the 2023-24 federal figures.

The one public institution publishes $8,350 in state, and the one private institution publishes $12,762. Out of state, the public rate rises to $19,048.

University of South Florida conferred the most DNPs in the metro in the reporting year, 87, 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 South Florida conferred 87 DNP awards in the reporting year. The University of Tampa conferred 1. That is the most concentrated two-institution field on this site, and it means the ranked list below is in practice a description of one program with a second listed beside it.

The University of Tampa is the one flagged for distance education, which is the single argument for looking past the obvious answer. If you cannot be on a Tampa campus, the smaller and dearer program is the one built for that, and its conferral count says it is a small operation rather than a large online one.

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 Tampa, 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

University of South Florida

Tampa, FL

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

USF attaches a geographic condition to the degree that decides it for a lot of applicants: a minimum of 31 credits including at least eight practicum credits and four project credits, all of which must be completed in Florida. If you do not live there, that decides it before anything else does. The plan is lock-step, so the sequence is fixed rather than assembled around your schedule, which is predictable if you want a known end date, inflexible if your work pattern shifts. Practicum hours directly support the DNP project and can include direct patient care or immersion experiences approved by the program director. Both entry routes are open, and the adult-gerontology acute care concentration evaluates prior clinical experience case by case rather than against a fixed threshold.

Tuition
$8,350
In-state
Tuition
$19,048
Out-of-state
DNP Awards
87
Completion
77%
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 100
  • Institution-wide undergraduate completion 100

Visit University of South Florida →

Ranked 2 of 2

The University of Tampa

Tampa, FL

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

Tampa’s doctorate is one of the smallest on this site, conferring about one degree a year against an enrollment above eleven thousand, so this is a program running at the edge of viability rather than an established pipeline. That cuts both ways: individual attention is close to guaranteed, and a cohort barely exists. The program is filed federally as a distance program. One practical detail the university publishes is that doctoral students are not assessed the student service fee charged on summer sessions, a small saving but a real one if you study year-round.

Tuition
$12,762
In-state
Tuition
$12,762
Out-of-state
DNP Awards
1
Completion
64%
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
  • Institution-wide undergraduate completion 0

Visit The University of Tampa →

What This Guide Counts As The Tampa Metro

This guide follows the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL metropolitan statistical area. Both institutions report Tampa itself as their city, so the two other municipalities in the metro title carry nothing to list. Lakeland sits in its own metropolitan area to the east and its institution appears there rather than here.

Municipalities Included

  • Tampa, FL

Deliberately Not Included

  • Lakeland, FL The Lakeland-Winter Haven metropolitan area, separately delineated. Florida Southern College is there and is therefore not in this list, although it is a forty-minute drive east.
  • St. Petersburg and Clearwater, FL Named in the metro title and carrying no institution in the accredited dataset. Nothing is being left out; there is nothing there to leave out.
  • Sarasota and Bradenton, FL The North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota metropolitan area immediately south, separately delineated.

Choosing A DNP Program In Tampa

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

The University of Tampa and University of South Florida are the whole of the field in Tampa

The University of Tampa and University of South Florida 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 Florida board of nursing rather than to the school.

Who Licenses You In The Tampa 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.

Florida
Restricted Practice
Florida Board of Nursing

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

Florida, designated areas
234
Florida, of those rural
104

These figures cover Florida in full rather than the Tampa 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: Florida.

Studying From Outside The Tampa Metro

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

Which Tampa 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 South Florida

The lowest published in-state rate among Tampa's publics, at $8,350 a year. An annual rate, not a program total, and it assumes residency.

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

University of South Florida publishes a $10,698 annual gap between its in-state and out-of-state rates, the widest of the 1 Tampa public publishing both. Start with the registrar, not admissions.

If you cannot relocate: The University of Tampa

The University of Tampa 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.

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 Tampa?

2 institutions in the Tampa metro hold CCNE accreditation for the Doctor of Nursing Practice. This guide counts the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL metropolitan statistical area rather than the city limits, so the figure includes institutions in 1 municipalities.

What counts as the Tampa metro on this page?

The Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL metropolitan statistical area. In practice that means these municipalities: Tampa, FL. Places deliberately left out are listed on this page with the reason.

Is it cheaper to study for a DNP in Tampa 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 Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL 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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DNP Degree Programs

Schools pay to appear in these listings. They are separate from our rankings, which no school can pay to change.