Four years is long enough that the difference between two of these
schools compounds. Each card carries the published figures behind
the score, so you can see which of the three factors is carrying it.
Ranked 1 of 122
Omaha, NE
93 of 100
- CCNE-accredited
- Public
- Doctorate (professional)
Nebraska publishes its admission floor instead of leaving you to infer it: a 3.0 GPA for full admission across all three entry routes, with applicants between 2.5 and 2.9 eligible for provisional consideration. That is worth knowing before an application fee. Entry is by BSN-to-DNP for nurses with an accredited bachelor’s, MSN-to-DNP for those with an accredited master’s, or a post-graduate track for holders of a master’s or doctorate, and the accrediting bodies accepted for the prior degree are named rather than assumed. Graduates move into advanced clinical roles as nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists and nurse midwives, or into nursing leadership. The school treats those as parallel destinations rather than one being the fallback.
Scored on
- Published in-state graduate tuition 87.5
- Established program 100
Ranked 2 of 122
Irvine, CA
91.6 of 100
- CCNE-accredited
- Public
- Doctorate (research)
Irvine’s post-master’s DNP is a two-year, primarily online commitment written for working professionals, and the family nurse practitioner track is the heavy one at 98 units and 1,020 hours of clinical practice, though California counts in quarter units, so the load is less alarming than it looks. The useful provision is that the clinical hours attached to the scholarly project can be completed at your own place of employment or another agency suited to the project, which removes the hardest logistical problem in the degree for anyone already working somewhere appropriate. Cohorts are small and the school says it turns away qualified applicants. Nurses employed on a career appointment within the University of California system can apply for a $10,000 scholarship.
Scored on
- Published in-state graduate tuition 86.2
- Established program 100
- Institution-wide undergraduate completion 88.9
Ranked 3 of 122
Oklahoma City, OK
90.9 of 100
- CCNE-accredited
- Public
- Doctorate (professional)
- Offered online
4 DNP tracks at this
institution, Clinical Nurse Specialist, Family nurse practitioner, Nursing administration, Nursing practice (general). Ranked once, on the largest.
Oklahoma publishes the conversion most schools leave implicit: one credit hour of practice inquiry equals 64 clinical hours. That single line lets you work out what a given semester actually costs you in time rather than in credits. The degree spans 35 to 51 credit hours and 1,000 to 1,280 clinical hours depending on route, split into 31 didactic credits and 20 clinical. For nurse anesthesia from a BSN the college describes its strongest applicants rather than just its minimum: a grade point average above 3.5, at least two years of critical care, and demonstrated unit leadership through charge roles, preceptorships or governance. The interview runs two to three hours.
Scored on
- Published in-state graduate tuition 96.7
- Established program 83.4
Ranked 4 of 122
Fort Myers, FL
90.6 of 100
- CCNE-accredited
- Public
- Doctorate (professional)
Gulf Coast publishes four separate DNP curricula and the credit totals are nothing alike, so the number that matters is the one attached to your entry point. The BSN-to-DNP nurse practitioner route is 81 credits, full time or part time. If you already hold an MSN with an advanced practice focus, you finish in 36 credits over five full-time semesters. Nurse anesthesiology is a different proposition again: 112 credits across nine continuous full-time semesters, 36 months end to end, and it wants a full year of ICU experience behind you before classes start in the summer. CRNAs who already hold a master’s take a 37-credit version over six part-time semesters instead. Anesthesiology is also the one route with a standing campus commitment, once a week from that first summer through to graduation.
Scored on
- Published in-state graduate tuition 98.8
- Established program 100
- Institution-wide undergraduate completion 55.6
Ranked 5 of 122
Greensboro, NC
90.2 of 100
- CCNE-accredited
- Public
- Doctorate (professional)
- Offered online
Greensboro publishes the arithmetic that decides whether a post-master’s doctorate is worth starting. The post-master’s DNP runs 30 credits and 1,000 practicum hours, and the hours you already logged in a master’s count toward that total, which is how a full-time student finishes in four semesters, roughly 15 months, entering in the fall and ending the fall after. If your master’s practicum fell short, the school says you make up the difference here rather than waving it through. The nurse anesthesia concentration is a different commitment: 107 credits across nine semesters and 36 months, a May start, and graduate and clinical clock hours averaging about 35 a week. In-state tuition sits in the cheapest few percent of the programs on this site.
Scored on
- Published in-state graduate tuition 98.4
- Established program 100
- Institution-wide undergraduate completion 54.4
Ranked 6 of 122
Cincinnati, OH
89.3 of 100
- CCNE-accredited
- Public
- Doctorate (professional)
- Offered online
5 DNP tracks at this
institution, Adult health, Family nurse practitioner, Nursing practice (general), Pediatric, Psychiatric-mental health NP. Ranked once, on the largest.
Cincinnati builds its DNP curriculum around evidence-based practice, quality improvement, policy, informatics and leadership, and its family track is explicitly aimed at both national certification exams, the ANCC’s FNP-BC and the AANP’s. The pediatric acute care programs prepare nurses for fast-paced clinical settings and family-centerd care. Two structural details are worth knowing before you plan around it. From spring 2027, advanced health assessment students must complete a three-day on-campus immersion and demonstrate competency before beginning practicum, which for a distance-flagged program means three days in Ohio. And each practicum requires at least two DNP project team meetings, so supervision is scheduled rather than left to you to arrange.
Scored on
- Published in-state graduate tuition 87.1
- Established program 100
- Institution-wide undergraduate completion 75.6
Ranked 7 of 122
Salt Lake City, UT
89.3 of 100
- CCNE-accredited
- Public
- Doctorate (professional)
- Offered online
Utah publishes two MS-to-DNP timetables and what separates them is where you did your master’s. Come from another institution and it is 35 credit hours, five semesters full time starting in fall or seven part time starting in spring. Finish a master’s at Utah recently and the same degree is 30 credits, three semesters full time starting in summer. Either way the clinical requirement is 480 hours. The college counts every clinical, residency and practicum hour you earned during your MSN toward the 1,000 post-baccalaureate hours the degree is built on, so what you still owe depends on what you already banked rather than on a fixed number.
Scored on
- Published in-state graduate tuition 92.1
- Established program 100
- Institution-wide undergraduate completion 64.4
Ranked 8 of 122
Tuscaloosa, AL
89.1 of 100
- CCNE-accredited
- Public
- Doctorate (professional)
Alabama sets clinical hours by concentration rather than by degree, and the spread is wide. The college publishes 1,080 to 1,620 post-baccalaureate hours depending on which concentration you pick, against 540 for a post-master’s entry. A gap that size between two concentrations at one school is worth pinning down before you apply, because at the top end it is most of a year of placement. There is also a transfer rule that can buy time: the direct care core, meaning advanced pathophysiology, advanced physical assessment and advanced pharmacology, may transfer if you took those courses with a B or better within five years of applying. Five years is the part people miss. The doctorate carries no distance flag federally, so plan on Tuscaloosa.
Scored on
- Published in-state graduate tuition 87.5
- Established program 100
- Institution-wide undergraduate completion 73.3
- CCNE-accredited
- Public
- Doctorate (research)
- Offered online
Reno’s school of nursing secures your clinical placements for you, which removes the single biggest obstacle in an online doctorate, and then adds the exception in a footnote: you place yourself for the residency component. Both halves matter, and the second is the one to plan around. The program is fully online and open nationwide. Two pathways run, one from a bachelor’s leading to clinical education leadership or nurse executive work, and one from a master’s for nurses already practicing as advanced practitioners or already prepared as educators. If you take the clinical nurse leader master’s here first, a number of its core courses transfer into the doctorate. In-state tuition sits in the lower fifth on this site.
Scored on
- Published in-state graduate tuition 92.1
- Established program 100
- Institution-wide undergraduate completion 60
Ranked 10 of 122
Murray, KY
88.3 of 100
- CCNE-accredited
- Public
- Doctorate (professional)
Murray State publishes its curricula course by course, with the credit weight and the clinical hours attached to each one, which is a level of detail most schools keep behind an advising appointment. The post-master’s route shows what that buys you: the doctoral project runs across three sequential courses carrying 180 clinical hours apiece, so 540 hours accumulate through the project itself rather than in separate placements. Bachelor’s entry splits into nurse anesthesia and family practice, and the family sequence front-loads assessment and diagnostics before primary care clinical courses at 180 hours each. If you want to know what a semester will actually demand before you commit, this is a school that has already written it down.
Scored on
- Published in-state graduate tuition 91.9
- Established program 100
- Institution-wide undergraduate completion 60
Ranked 11 of 122
Lexington, KY
88.1 of 100
- CCNE-accredited
- Public
- Doctorate (professional)
- Offered online
Kentucky runs six specialties inside one BSN-to-DNP option and publishes a plan of study for each rather than one timetable for the degree. Full time is three years. If that will not fit around a roster there are five-year part-time plans and a modified four-year plan built specifically for nurses already working in direct care. Executive leadership sits apart from the clinical specialties with its own full- and part-time sequences. Your specialty decides your certification board as much as your coursework: family primary care goes to ANCC or AANP, both pediatric routes to the PNCB, and executive leadership to the ANCC nurse executive advanced exam or the AONE certified-in-executive-nursing-practice exam.
Scored on
- Published in-state graduate tuition 86.4
- Established program 100
- Institution-wide undergraduate completion 71.1
Ranked 12 of 122
Tempe, AZ
87.9 of 100
- CCNE-accredited
- Public
- Doctorate (research)
Arizona State runs its DNP majors at 84 credit hours and publishes the practicum inside that total rather than alongside it. The primary care pediatric track puts 13 of those credits, 585 clock hours, into practicum in a community setting. The acute care pediatric track goes considerably further at 1,170 practicum hours, which the college notes exceeds what the degree standard requires, and 600 of those must be direct patient care supervised by a nurse practitioner or a physician preceptor. If you already hold a master’s, up to 30 credit hours can be carried across, though that needs sign-off from your supervisory committee and the Graduate College rather than being automatic. Delivery is not uniform either: the education major is online while the pediatric majors sit at Downtown Phoenix.
Scored on
- Published in-state graduate tuition 87.4
- Established program 100
- Institution-wide undergraduate completion 67.8
Ranked 13 of 122
Columbia, MO
87.9 of 100
- CCNE-accredited
- Public
- Doctorate (professional)
Missouri publishes a hard ceiling on transfer credit for its post-graduate certificates: a faculty advisor may recommend up to three credit hours from an accredited master’s or DNP advanced practice program, and no more. Three hours is one course. If you are shopping post-graduate certificates on the assumption that prior graduate work will shorten the path, this is a school where it barely will, and knowing that early saves an application. It is a large public university in Columbia conferring around forty nursing doctorates a year, so the program itself is substantial even though the transfer policy is tight. Its federal filing carries no distance-education flag, so plan on being in Columbia rather than at a distance.
Scored on
- Published in-state graduate tuition 84
- Established program 100
- Institution-wide undergraduate completion 75.6
Ranked 14 of 122
Tucson, AZ
87.6 of 100
- CCNE-accredited
- Public
- Doctorate (professional)
Arizona publishes a credit total and a clinical total for every specialty, and the ratio between them is the interesting part. The pediatric nurse practitioner route is 64 credit hours with 720 clinical hours. Executive health systems leadership is 50 credits with 630 practicum hours, so the leadership route trades away classroom time while giving up very little time in practice, which is not what most people assume about a track that is not primarily clinical. From a master’s, the post-master’s DNP is 35 credit hours. Setting that against the 64 the pediatric route takes from a bachelor’s is the clearest way to see what the master’s you already hold is worth in time rather than in money.
Scored on
- Published in-state graduate tuition 86.8
- Established program 100
- Institution-wide undergraduate completion 67.8
Ranked 15 of 122
Edwardsville, IL
87.2 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.
Scored on
- Published in-state graduate tuition 91.4
- Established program 100
- Institution-wide undergraduate completion 55.6
Ranked 16 of 122
Fairfax, VA
86.4 of 100
- CCNE-accredited
- Public
- Doctorate (research)
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.
Scored on
- Published in-state graduate tuition 89.1
- Established program 93.5
- Institution-wide undergraduate completion 67.8
Ranked 17 of 122
Oshkosh, WI
86.1 of 100
- CCNE-accredited
- Public
- Doctorate (professional)
Oshkosh publishes seven named routes rather than two entries with concentrations bolted on afterwards, and the distinctions between them are real. From a bachelor’s you can go to family practice, nurse anesthesia or psychiatric mental health. From a master’s you can go to family practice, psychiatric mental health, or an executive emphasis aimed at leadership work. There is also a separate route for advanced practice registered nurses moving into psychiatric mental health, which is a different starting point from a general master’s and is treated as one. Naming the routes this precisely means you can tell before applying which sequence you would actually be in, rather than finding out at advising. Nurse anesthesia from a bachelor’s is the heaviest of the seven.
Scored on
- Published in-state graduate tuition 94.3
- Established program 100
- Institution-wide undergraduate completion 43.3
Ranked 18 of 122
Jacksonville, AL
85.7 of 100
- CCNE-accredited
- Public
- Doctorate (professional)
- Offered online
Jacksonville State audits your master’s hours before it admits you rather than after. If your MSN carries fewer than 500 clinical practicum hours you are admitted conditionally and referred to an advanced experiential clinical course, and the admissions committee runs a gap analysis to decide how many of those hours, between one and five, you need to reach 500 and move on to the residency courses. Both the family nurse practitioner and the adult-gerontology acute care tracks then carry 700 clinical hours of their own, split between simulation and direct patient care. Entry wants a 3.0 GPA, taken on either your whole baccalaureate nursing program or its last 60 hours, whichever is higher.
Scored on
- Published in-state graduate tuition 89
- Established program 100
- Institution-wide undergraduate completion 53.3
Ranked 19 of 122
Chicago, IL
85.6 of 100
- CCNE-accredited
- Public
- Doctorate (professional)
Illinois Chicago admits once a year, in fall, and that single intake is the first thing to plan around. The degree runs anywhere from two to six years depending on focus area, entry route and whether you study full or part time. From a master’s it is usually two to four. From a BSN it is 77 credit hours. Delivery is hybrid in the real sense rather than the marketing one, with some courses online, some blended and some on campus. The clinical requirement is 1,000 practicum hours, and in the adult-gerontology acute care focus 675 of those sit inside the specialty itself. One structural point: the college charges the same per-credit rate to residents and non-residents, so an Illinois address does not change what you pay.
Scored on
- Published in-state graduate tuition 85.3
- Established program 100
- Institution-wide undergraduate completion 61.1
Ranked 20 of 122
Highland Heights, KY
84.9 of 100
- CCNE-accredited
- Public
- Doctorate (professional)
- Offered online
Northern Kentucky puts a hard experience gate at the door rather than partway through: one year minimum of full-time critical care experience as a registered nurse, within the past two years, with employer verification on a form. Recency is the part that catches people out, because intensive care work from five years ago does not count however much of it there was. From a BSN the degree is 106 credit hours over nine semesters, three years exactly. The post-master’s nurse anesthesia route is 37 semester credits over six semesters instead. Between 106 credits and 37, the master’s you already hold is worth roughly two years here.
Scored on
- Published in-state graduate tuition 88.6
- Established program 100
- Institution-wide undergraduate completion 50
Ranked 21 of 122
West Lafayette, IN
84.9 of 100
- CCNE-accredited
- Public
- Doctorate (professional)
- Offered online
Purdue Global publishes the number most schools keep to themselves: it expects 15 to 18 hours of course work a week. That is the figure to hold up against your roster, and it is more useful than any completion estimate, because an estimate assumes you can find those hours in the first place. The doctorate runs nine courses and averages about a year and a half, taught entirely online. Nine courses is a short structure, which is what a post-master’s route looks like once the clinical core is behind you. This is a public online university of about 45,000 students conferring roughly forty nursing doctorates a year, so the program is real but small against the institution, and your cohort is scattered across the country rather than gathered anywhere.
Scored on
- Published in-state graduate tuition 89.6
- Established program 100
- Institution-wide undergraduate completion 47.8
Ranked 22 of 122
Lynchburg, VA
84.5 of 100
- CCNE-accredited
- Private nonprofit
- Doctorate (research)
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.
Scored on
- Published in-state graduate tuition 81.4
- Established program 100
- Institution-wide undergraduate completion 64.4
Ranked 23 of 122
Eau Claire, WI
84.5 of 100
- CCNE-accredited
- Public
- Doctorate (professional)
Eau Claire requires a Wisconsin registered nurse license, and it puts a date on it. Post-master’s students need it at least two weeks before the program starts. Bachelor’s-entry students need it by 1 July immediately following admission. Licensure by endorsement takes time, so if you are out of state, start that process when you apply rather than when you are accepted. Both routes want a 3.00 grade point average and degrees from programs accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education, the National League for Nursing or the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing, plus a statistics course passed at C or better. After admission come health records, a criminal background check and current CPR certification.
Scored on
- Published in-state graduate tuition 92.9
- Established program 85.7
- Institution-wide undergraduate completion 63.3
Ranked 24 of 122
Winona, MN
84 of 100
- CCNE-accredited
- Public
- Doctorate (professional)
- Offered online
5 DNP tracks at this
institution, Adult health, Critical care, Family nurse practitioner, Nursing administration, Psychiatric-mental health NP. Ranked once, on the largest.
Winona State scopes its post-master’s doctorate narrowly: your master’s has to be in nursing with a focus in administration or leadership. A clinical practitioner master’s is not the intended input here, which makes this a leadership doctorate in substance as well as in name. A year of clinical nursing experience in a master’s-level role is recommended on top of that. The provision worth knowing before you commit is that you can take up to 12 credits as a non-degree student and transfer them in once you are accepted. That lets you test the program and the workload against your life before carrying a full application, which very few schools allow.
Scored on
- Published in-state graduate tuition 92.2
- Established program 89.8
- Institution-wide undergraduate completion 55.6
Ranked 25 of 122
Trenton, NJ
83.8 of 100
- CCNE-accredited
- Public
- Doctorate (professional)
- Offered online
Thomas Edison built its whole institution around working adults, and the doctorate shows it: 36 credits, finishing in 12 to 24 months, with a scholarly immersion project you can run inside your current job rather than somewhere else. Twelve months is fast for a doctorate, and it is only plausible because the project is meant to sit on top of work you are already doing. If your employer has a problem worth fixing and will let you fix it, that is the shape this program assumes. Everything runs online. In-state tuition is in the cheapest tenth on this site, and the out-of-state rate is barely higher, which is unusual for a public university.
Scored on
- Published in-state graduate tuition 94.6
- Established program 69.9
