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Best Value Nursing Doctor's Degree Schools in Pennsylvania

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2023 Best Value Nursing Doctor's Degree Schools in Pennsylvania

Highlighting Quality Schools With More Affordable Pricing

27 Colleges
$17,857 Avg Tuition & Fees*
$115,233 Avg Salary

Finding the Best Nursing Doctor's Degree School for You

Nursing is the most popular major in Pennsylvania with 11,477 degrees and certificates handed out in 2020-2021.

When it comes to higher education, there are a lot of options for healthcare students. You can choose a traditional brick and mortar school, or with the growth of online education, you can attend a school half-way across the country without even leaving your house. Also there are many trade schools that offer short-term programs that open up more career options.

To assist you in seeing some of the education options that are available to you, Healthcare Degree Search has created its Best Value Nursing Doctor's Degree Schools in Pennsylvania ranking. Our analysis looked at 27 schools in Pennsylvania to see which doctor's degree programs offered the best value experiences for nursing students with the aim of identifying those quality schools that are more affordable than some of their counterparts.

When determining this ranking, we place a high emphasis on the school's quality as well as its sticker price. Even though a college may be affordable, it may not offer value. Specifically, our score for quality is discounted by the published tuition and fees charged by the given college. This gives the cost per unit of quality for each college. The more quality your dollar buys, the better the value.

Our calculations use out-of-state tuition and fees in our nationwide and regional rankings. For statewide rankings, we use average in-state tuition and fees.

2023 Best Value Nursing Doctor’s Degree Schools in Pennsylvania

The colleges and universities below are the best value schools for nursing majors pursuing a doctor's degree.

Top 10 Best Nursing Doctor's Degree Schools

#1

La Salle University

Philadelphia, PA

Our analysis found La Salle University to be the best value school for nursing students who want to pursue a doctor’s degree in Pennsylvania. Located in the city of Philadelphia, La Salle is a private not-for-profit school with a small student population.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at La Salle are $1,455 per year.

Read More…

A rank of #2 on this year’s list means West Chester University of Pennsylvania is a great value for nursing students working on their doctor’s degree. Located in the large suburb of West Chester, WCUPA is a public school with a large student population.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at WCUPA are $11,898 per year.

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#3

University of Scranton

Scranton, PA

The excellent doctor’s degree programs at University of Scranton helped the school earn the #3 place on this year’s ranking of the best value nursing schools in Pennsylvania. Located in the small city of Scranton, University of Scranton is a private not-for-profit college with a small student population.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at University of Scranton are $11,630 a year.

University of Scranton not only placed well in our value ranking, but it is also #4 on our Best Nursing Doctor’s Degree Schools in Pennsylvania list.

Full Nursing at University of Scranton Report

A rank of #3 on this year’s list means York College of Pennsylvania is a great value for nursing students working on their doctor’s degree. YCP is a small private not-for-profit school located in the suburb of York.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at YCP are $11,646 a year.

Read More…

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania. It ranked #5 on our 2023 Best Value Nursing Doctor’s Degree Schools in Pennsylvania list. Located in the city of Bloomsburg, Bloomsburg is a public college with a moderately-sized student population.

Bloomsburg graduate students pay an average of $11,871 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

Full Nursing at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania Report

Clarion University of Pennsylvania ranked #6 on this year’s Best Value Nursing Doctor’s Degree Schools in Pennsylvania list. Clarion University is a small public school located in the remote town of Clarion.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at Clarion University are $12,179 per year.

Full Nursing at Clarion University of Pennsylvania Report

#7

Holy Family University

Philadelphia, PA

Holy Family University ranked #7 on this year’s Best Value Nursing Doctor’s Degree Schools in Pennsylvania list. Located in the city of Philadelphia, Holy Family is a private not-for-profit college with a small student population.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at Holy Family are $12,181 a year.

Read full report on Nursing at Holy Family University

Millersville University of Pennsylvania did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best places for nursing students to get a doctor’s degree. It came in at #8 on the list. Millersville is a moderately-sized public school located in the large suburb of Millersville.

Millersville graduate students pay an average of $11,934 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

Full Nursing at Millersville University of Pennsylvania Report

Pennsylvania College of Health Sciences did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best places for nursing students to get a doctor’s degree. It came in at #9 on the list. Located in the suburb of Lancaster, PA College is a private not-for-profit school with a small student population.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at PA College are $16,128 per year.

Read full report on Nursing at Pennsylvania College of Health Sciences

#10

Villanova University

Villanova, PA

Villanova University came in at #10 in this year’s edition of the Best Value Nursing Doctor’s Degree Schools in Pennsylvania ranking. Villanova is a large private not-for-profit school located in the large suburb of Villanova.

Villanova graduate students pay an average of $21,199 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

Villanova also took the #1 spot in our Best Nursing Doctor’s Degree Schools in Pennsylvania rankings.

Read full report on Nursing at Villanova University

Best Value Nursing Colleges in the Middle Atlantic Region

Explore all the Best Value Nursing Colleges in the Middle Atlantic Area or other specific states within that region.

State Degrees Awarded
New York 17,708
Maryland 4,104
New Jersey 5,648
District of Columbia 990
Delaware 1,267

One of 30 majors within the healthcare area of study, nursing has other similar majors worth exploring.

Nursing Concentrations

Major Annual Graduates
Registered Nursing 266,651
Family Practice Nurse/Nursing 16,104
Nursing Administration 9,838
Nursing Practice 7,992
Other Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing 5,092
Nursing Science 4,600
Psychiatric/Mental Health Nurse/Nursing 2,287
Adult Health Nurse/Nursing 2,021
Nurse Anesthetist 1,936
Public Health/Community Nurse/Nursing 1,883
Critical Care Nursing 773
Geriatric Nurse/Nursing 563
School Nursing 553
Nurse Midwife/Nursing Midwifery 509
Clinical Nurse Leader 444
Clinical Nurse Specialist 419
Perioperative/Operating Room and Surgical Nurse/Nursing 331
Maternal/Child Health and Neonatal Nurse/Nursing 181
Occupational and Environmental Health Nursing 57
Emergency Room/Trauma Nursing 53
Palliative Care Nursing 14
Forensic Nursing 14

Majors Similar to Nursing

Related Major Annual Graduates
Health & Medical Administrative Services 89,359
Allied Health & Medical Assisting Services 84,492
Practical Nursing & Nursing Assistants 84,274
Allied Health Professions 82,308
Public Health 40,596

Notes and References

*These averages are for the top 25 schools only.

  • The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
  • Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).
  • Credit for the banner image above goes to Aleksahgabrielle.

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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