Best DNP Programs

Rankings

DNP Program Rankings

6 ranked lists built from one dataset of 301 institutions with a CCNE-accredited Doctor of Nursing Practice. They disagree with each other on purpose: each is scored under a different rubric, and the bar on every card below is the rubric that list was ordered by. Start with whichever question you actually have.
By the Best DNP programs editorial team

Reviewed

On this page

Key Takeaways

  1. 1

    6 lists, one dataset. All of them are drawn from the same 301 institutions holding CCNE accreditation for the DNP. None of them is a different set of schools discovered somewhere else.

  2. 2

    They disagree because the weights differ. Two of these rank the same population and put it in a different order. The bar on each card is the rubric that list was scored under, which is the only thing separating them.

  3. 3

    Narrowing beats reordering. The online and leadership lists filter the population first, to 141 and 15 institutions. If your constraint is real, start with the list that applies it rather than the one that reorders everything.

  4. 4

    48 jurisdictions have a page. In-state tuition is a local question, so every state with an accredited program has its own list scored on local weights. Those are below the rankings.

Every Ranking On This Site

The list above is one of 6 built from this dataset. Two of them rank the same programs and disagree about the order; the rest narrow the population first. The bar on each card is the rubric that list was scored under, which is what separates two lists covering the same schools. How the weights are chosen.

Not every program publishes every figure. Where one is missing, that program is scored on the factors it does publish and the remaining weights are renormalized to fill the gap, rather than a value being assumed or an average dropped in. It is why the SCORED ON bars differ from card to card, and why a program scoring well on two factors is not directly comparable to one scoring well on three. A program publishing too little to compare at all is listed without a score rather than penalized with a low one.

  • Balanced rubric

    Best DNP Programs

    Every accredited program in one order, with conferral volume leading and tuition second. The list to read first if nothing has been narrowed down yet.

    301 Institutions ranked

    Established program 50%/Published in-state graduate tuition 30%/Institution-wide undergraduate completion 20%

    Top of the list

    1. 1 University of Florida
    2. 2 Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center-New Orleans
    3. 3 University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences

    Data

  • Weighted for an established program

    Online DNP Programs

    The programs the federal survey flags as delivered at a distance. Weighted hardest toward whether a program is a going concern, because a thin distance cohort has no campus to absorb the gaps.

    141 Institutions ranked

    Established program 60%/Published in-state graduate tuition 30%/Institution-wide undergraduate completion 10%

    Top of the list

    1. 1 University of Florida
    2. 2 Florida State University
    3. 3 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

    Data

  • Weighted for cost

    Most Affordable DNP Programs

    The same population as the national list, re-weighted so published in-state tuition carries most of the score. It reorders that list rather than filtering it.

    301 Institutions ranked

    Published in-state graduate tuition 70%/Established program 20%/Institution-wide undergraduate completion 10%

    Top of the list

    1. 1 University of Florida
    2. 2 Florida State University
    3. 3 Florida Atlantic University

    Data

  • One track, its own pool

    DNP In Nursing Leadership

    The nursing-administration track, scored against the other programs in that track rather than against the clinical majority. A short list, and the page says so.

    15 Institutions ranked

    Established program 50%/Published in-state graduate tuition 30%/Institution-wide undergraduate completion 20%

    Top of the list

    1. 1 Samford University
    2. 2 Johns Hopkins University
    3. 3 Baylor University

    Data

  • Scored locally

    DNP Programs By State

    One list per jurisdiction, each scored against its own state rather than the country. In-state tuition leads here, because that is the figure that changes when you stay put.

    52 State and territory lists

    Published in-state graduate tuition 50%/Established program 35%/Institution-wide undergraduate completion 15%

    Most accredited institutions

    1. 1 Pennsylvania, 20 institutions
    2. 2 Texas, 20 institutions
    3. 3 California, 16 institutions

    Data

  • Not a ranking

    Every Accredited Program, A To Z

    The full directory, including the accredited institutions the federal survey publishes no figures for. If a school is missing from a list above, this is where to check whether it is accredited at all.

    390 Institutions listed

    Alphabetical. No rubric and no score, coverage rather than order.

    Data

DNP Programs By State

52 jurisdiction pages, of which 48 have at least one institution with a CCNE-accredited DNP. Counts below are institutions, not federal program records, so they match the rows on the page each one links to. The state hub.

Before You Pick A Program

A ranking answers which program, and it is the wrong question to start with if the degree itself is still undecided.

Sources

  1. 1 CCNE accredited program directory The accreditation roster every list on this page is filtered against.
  2. 2 IPEDS Published tuition, conferrals and completion, which are the three factors every rubric here weights.

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