Best DNP Programs

Virginia

Best DNP Programs In Virginia 2026

11 institutions in Virginia hold CCNE accreditation for the Doctor of Nursing Practice. Published in-state graduate tuition among them starts at $7,740 a year, at Liberty University.
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Key Takeaways

  1. 1

    Virginia is a small field. Only 9 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 9 Virginia institutions that publish an annual in-state rate run from $7,740 to $22,950, the highest only about 3.0 times the lowest, so cost separates them less here than it does nationally.

  3. 3

    Mostly public, and that is a residency question. 6 of the 9 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

    Some are delivered at a distance. 5 of the 9 carry the federal distance-education flag, which covers coursework and never the supervised practice hours.

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 9 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 9 DNP Programs In Virginia, 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 9 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 Virginia, with what the federal record publishes for it and how its score was composed.

Ranked 1 of 9

Liberty University

Lynchburg, VA

91.8 of 100
  • CCNE-accredited
  • Private nonprofit
  • Professional practice doctorate

Liberty dropped graduate biostatistics as an admission requirement for its post-master’s DNP, and that removal is worth knowing because biostatistics is the prerequisite that most often sends applicants back to take a course before they can apply anywhere. If yours is missing or stale, this is a route that does not stop you at the door. Alongside it the university runs a post-BSN to DNP with a family nurse practitioner concentration. Liberty is an unusually large institution, over a hundred thousand students, and it confers around fifty-four nursing doctorates a year, so the program is substantial in absolute terms while being small relative to the university around it.

Tuition
$7,740
In-state
Tuition
$7,740
Out-of-state
DNP Awards
54
Completion
65%
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 45.6

Visit Liberty University →

Ranked 2 of 9

Old Dominion University

Norfolk, VA

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

Old Dominion publishes two numbers about teaching that most schools keep quiet. Ninety-eight percent of didactic courses are taught by full-time faculty rather than adjuncts, and clinical practicum supervision runs at one faculty member to six or eight students. Those figures decide what your week actually feels like, and they are more useful than any completion statistic. The doctorate comes in two specializations, advanced practice and nurse executive, and a nurse holding a master’s can enter either. Both run online with immersion experiences built in. 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, and the out-of-state rate is about 3 times the in-state one, so residency matters a great deal.

Tuition
$11,016
In-state
Tuition
$30,756
Out-of-state
DNP Awards
49
Completion
46%
Undergraduate
About the tuition figures
School-wide graduate average, 2023-24. Excludes DNP add-on charges.

Scored on

  • Published in-state graduate tuition 78.5
  • Established program 100
  • Institution-wide undergraduate completion 12.3

Visit Old Dominion University →

Ranked 3 of 9

George Mason University

Fairfax, VA

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

George Mason splits its delivery by what you are learning rather than applying one format to everything. Coursework runs on the Fairfax campus in a flexible hybrid or executive format, while clinical skill development happens the traditional way, in person and supervised. The clinical requirement is 1,000 precepted and mentored hours, and the doctoral work takes the shape of two practice inquiry project courses across two semesters rather than one long capstone. Tracks cover family primary care, psychiatric mental health and adult-gerontology, each built around a different patient population, and the coursework is named accordingly: clinical psychopharmacology and individual psychotherapy in the psychiatric track, pharmacotherapeutics and advanced pathophysiology in the gerontology one.

Tuition
$13,726
In-state
Tuition
$35,677
Out-of-state
DNP Awards
21
Completion
68%
Undergraduate
About the tuition figures
School-wide graduate average, 2023-24. Excludes DNP add-on charges.

Scored on

  • Published in-state graduate tuition 60.6
  • Established program 89.9
  • Institution-wide undergraduate completion 50.9

Visit George Mason University →

Ranked 4 of 9

Virginia Commonwealth University

Richmond, VA

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

VCU is a large public research university in Richmond whose DNP is flagged for distance education in the federal record, so the online description holds up rather than being partial. It funds some doctoral students through graduate teaching assistantships, and the terms are published rather than vague: at least nine credit hours of registration, good academic standing, and 20 hours of work a week. That is close to a half-time job, so an assistantship here is a real commitment rather than a stipend. 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
$13,404
In-state
Tuition
$27,550
Out-of-state
DNP Awards
19
Completion
63%
Undergraduate
About the tuition figures
School-wide graduate average, 2023-24. Excludes DNP add-on charges.

Scored on

  • Published in-state graduate tuition 62.8
  • Established program 84.1
  • Institution-wide undergraduate completion 42.1

Visit Virginia Commonwealth University →

Ranked 5 of 9

James Madison University

Harrisonburg, VA

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

James Madison publishes three credit totals and one hour total. The post-master’s route is 40 to 46 credits, bachelor’s entry is 77, and healthcare systems leadership is 69, and every one of them carries the same 1,000 course-related practice hours. The hours do not move with your prior degree here, only the coursework does. The funding is the part worth chasing: a graduate assistantship covers full tuition and fees and pays a stipend, in exchange for 18 hours a week working with faculty. Eighteen hours is close to a half-time job, so it suits someone stepping back from clinical work rather than fitting a doctorate around full shifts. 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
$11,856
In-state
Tuition
$29,304
Out-of-state
DNP Awards
11
Completion
80%
Undergraduate
About the tuition figures
School-wide graduate average, 2023-24. Excludes DNP add-on charges.

Scored on

  • Published in-state graduate tuition 72.9
  • Established program 53.1
  • Institution-wide undergraduate completion 71.9

Visit James Madison University →

Ranked 6 of 9

Radford University

Radford, VA

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

2 DNP tracks at this institution, Nursing practice (general), Nursing practice (general). Ranked once, on the largest.

Radford puts a documented experience floor on its practitioner tracks: at least 2,000 hours, or one year of full-time clinical practice as a registered nurse, evidenced before clinical courses start. Documentation is the operative word there. This is not a preference in an admissions brochure, it is a condition you have to prove, and discovering that after you enroll is a worse position than settling it first. The doctorate is filed federally as a distance program. 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. Radford confers a small number of nursing doctorates a year, so the cohort is compact.

Tuition
$9,457
In-state
Tuition
$18,503
Out-of-state
DNP Awards
4
Completion
49%
Undergraduate
About the tuition figures
School-wide graduate average, 2023-24. Excludes DNP add-on charges.

Scored on

  • Published in-state graduate tuition 88.7
  • Established program 0
  • Institution-wide undergraduate completion 17.5

Visit Radford University →

Ranked 7 of 9

University of Virginia

Charlottesville, VA

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

Virginia publishes a 33-month full-time route from a BSN and five to six years if you go part time, which is a wider spread than most schools will admit to. The neonatal concentration attaches 14 credits and 750 hours of direct care practicum on top of the core, specialty courses and electives, and how long the whole thing takes still turns on whether you entered with a bachelor’s or a master’s. One route is restricted rather than merely selective: the combined adult-gerontology acute care clinical nurse specialist and nurse practitioner track is open to military students only and runs 36 months. If you are not eligible for that one, the real choice is narrower than the concentration list suggests.

Tuition
$19,118
In-state
Tuition
$32,022
Out-of-state
DNP Awards
8
Completion
96%
Undergraduate
About the tuition figures
School-wide graduate average, 2023-24. Excludes DNP add-on charges.

Scored on

  • Published in-state graduate tuition 25.2
  • Established program 35.7
  • Institution-wide undergraduate completion 100

Visit University of Virginia →

Ranked 8 of 9

Mary Baldwin University

Staunton, VA

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

Mary Baldwin’s post-MSN DNP attaches 400 project hours to the clinical hours you already earned during your master’s, and together they have to reach the 1,000 the degree requires. So the size of what is left is set by what your MSN carried rather than by a fixed number here. The catalog also does something almost no school does: it estimates study time at two to three hours for every credit hour, which turns an abstract course load into a countable number of evenings. Virginia residents taking at least 12 credit hours can claim the state’s tuition assistance grant, worth $5,000 in the year the university publishes, and that is money which does not depend on the university itself.

Tuition
$13,000
In-state
Tuition
$13,000
Out-of-state
DNP Awards
4
Completion
39%
Undergraduate
About the tuition figures
School-wide graduate average, 2023-24. Excludes DNP add-on charges.

Scored on

  • Published in-state graduate tuition 65.4
  • Established program 0
  • Institution-wide undergraduate completion 0

Visit Mary Baldwin University →

Ranked 9 of 9

Marymount University

Arlington, VA

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

Marymount separates its two kinds of hours and publishes both: 750 direct patient care hours and 500 project hours. Counting them apart is more honest than one combined figure, because patient-facing work and the doctoral project make very different demands on a week. Bachelor’s entry leads to either family practice or psychiatric mental health certification, and the whole thing runs online. The program is explicit about its Catholic tradition and a servant leadership framing, which is information about the cohort you would join rather than a line of marketing. The Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education accredits the bachelor’s, the master’s, the post-master’s certificates and the doctorate.

Tuition
$22,950
In-state
Tuition
$22,950
Out-of-state
DNP Awards
10
Completion
54%
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 47.8
  • Institution-wide undergraduate completion 26.3

Visit Marymount University →

Also Accredited In Virginia

These programs hold current CCNE accreditation. They file their DNP conferrals under a specialty classification rather than under Nursing Practice, so the federal tuition and conferral figures used above are not available for them and they are not scored.

  • Regent University CCNE-accredited DNP

    Regent runs two very different doctorates and the distinction is the first thing to check. One prepares you for APRN licensure and national certification, delivered online with a residency. The other is a nursing administration and leadership degree that is explicitly non-licensure, so it will not make you a practitioner. Three start dates a year rather than one: sessions begin in late August, mid-January and early May, with check-in two weeks before each. Every graduate nursing applicant has to show a resume demonstrating a year of full-time clinical RN experience before entering, and the APRN route wants a BSN with a 3.0 in prior nursing coursework. Interviews are by invitation only.

  • Shenandoah University CCNE-accredited DNP

    Shenandoah's post-graduate doctorate is 33 credit hours and 540 clinical hours across seven semesters, delivered fully online and asynchronously. It is open to any nationally certified advanced practice nurse holding a master's, so nurse practitioners, midwives, clinical nurse specialists and nurse anesthetists all fit. Two entry conditions are specific: graduate statistics passed at B or better within the last three years, and 2,080 direct patient care hours as an RN or APRN, which is a year of full-time work. The condition that decides everything comes first though. Shenandoah publishes a list of states and territories it may not be able to admit from at all, and it runs to fourteen.

Choosing A DNP Program In Virginia

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

Settle your residency before you compare anything else

Across the 6 public institutions in Virginia publishing both rates, the out-of-state rate runs a median of 2.5 times the in-state one. At George Mason University the gap is $21,951 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 Virginia 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.

The distance flag here records delivery, not your week

5 of the 9 measured institutions in Virginia 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.

The schools without figures are not the weaker ones

Regent University and Shenandoah University file conferrals under a specialty classification rather than under Nursing Practice, so the federal columns this page ranks on do not exist for them. They carry 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 those names come from the schools' own pages.

Who Licenses You In Virginia

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

AANP places Virginia 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 Virginia 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 Virginia

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, VirginiaEmployedRankNational median
Nurse practitioners29-1171$127,8107,11041 of 51$132,300
Nurse anesthetists29-1151$252,11070020 of 44$236,590
Registered nurses29-1141$93,60077,49026 of 51$97,550
Nursing Instructors and Teachers, Postsecondary25-1072$82,5501,67014 of 51$80,250

Nurse practitioners in Virginia have a median of $127,810, which ranks 41 of the 51 jurisdictions the survey publishes a median for, across about 7,110 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
171
Of those, rural
121
Median score
16
Highest score
21

Most designated shortage in Virginia is rural, 121 of 171 designations, but the remaining 50 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.

Priority varies between them: a median score of 16 against a highest of 21. Worth asking what a specific site scores rather than assuming the state figure applies to it.

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 Virginia

5 of the 11 accredited doctorates in Virginia 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 Virginia 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 9 institutions with federal figures here, 6 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 Virginia. The degree-wide questions are answered on the guides.

How many DNP programs are there in Virginia?

11, and the cheapest published rate belongs to a private institution: Liberty University at $7,740 against Marymount University at $22,950. That inverts the assumption most applicants arrive with, because a private school charges one rate wherever you live while a public one prices residency.

How much does a DNP cost in Virginia?

From $7,740 to $22,950 in published in-state rates, so roughly double across the state. Wide enough to matter and narrow enough that it should not be the only cut you make.

Is a DNP cheaper in Virginia if you live there?

Yes, by $21,951 a year at the widest of the 6 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 Virginia?

No. Virginia 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 Virginia?

A median of $127,810, $4,490 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 Virginia?

It can, and here it mostly means rural practice: 121 of the 171 designated primary-care shortage areas are rural. Eligibility follows an approved site rather than a state, so the question belongs to the employer.

Can you study for a DNP online in Virginia?

5 of the 9 measured institutions carry the flag. It covers taught content and nothing else, so the number to ask each school for is on-campus days and the months they fall in.

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 11 in Virginia 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 Virginia, 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

    George Mason University

    Fairfax, VA · Public · carries federal figures

  2. 2

    James Madison University

    Harrisonburg, VA · Public · carries federal figures

  3. 3

    Liberty University

    Lynchburg, VA · Private nonprofit · carries federal figures

  4. 4

    Mary Baldwin University

    Staunton, VA · Private nonprofit · carries federal figures

  5. 5

    Marymount University

    Arlington, VA · Private nonprofit · carries federal figures

  6. 6

    Old Dominion University

    Norfolk, VA · Public · carries federal figures

  7. 7

    Radford University

    Radford, VA · Public · carries federal figures

  8. 8

    Regent University

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

  9. 9

    Shenandoah University

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

  10. 10

    University of Virginia

    Charlottesville, VA · Public · carries federal figures · filed federally as University of Virginia-Main Campus

  11. 11

    Virginia Commonwealth University

    Richmond, VA · Public · carries federal figures

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