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Best Value Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools in California

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2023 Best Value Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools in California

Highlighting Quality Schools With More Affordable Pricing

16 Colleges
$18,067 Avg Tuition & Fees*
$99,011 Avg Salary

Finding the Best Nursing Graduate Certificate School for You

Nursing is the most popular major in California with 18,329 degrees and certificates handed out in 2020-2021.

There are lots of options to pick from today when trying to decide which healthcare program is right for you. With more and more schools offering online options, you could even register for a great program on the other side of the country. On top of that, there are a considerable number of trade schools that offer fast-track entry to many fields.

To help you arm yourself with the information you need to make your decision, Healthcare Degree Search has developed this Best Value Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools in California ranking. This report analyzed 16 schools in California to see which ones offered the best value graduate certificate programs for nursing students. The goal was to highlight schools with more affordable prices than others offering similar quality experiences.

Our ranking of value is based on the quality of a program as defined in our per sticker price dollar. 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.

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

Top 10 Best Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools

Our 2023 rankings named California State University - Dominguez Hills the best value school in California for nursing students working on their graduate certificate. CSUDH is a large public school located in the small city of Carson.

CSUDH graduate students pay an average of $8,494 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

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The excellent graduate certificate programs at California State University - Long Beach helped the school earn the #2 place on this year’s ranking of the best value nursing schools in California. CSULB is a very large public school located in the large city of Long Beach.

CSULB graduate students pay an average of $8,280 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

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A rank of #3 on this year’s list means West Coast University - Orange County is a great value for nursing students working on their graduate certificate. West Coast University - Orange County is a small private for-profit school located in the city of Anaheim.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at West Coast University - Orange County are $10,989 per year.

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You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend California State University - Los Angeles. It ranked #4 on our 2023 Best Value Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools in California list. Located in the large city of Los Angeles, Cal State LA is a public school with a very large student population.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at Cal State LA are $8,219 per year.

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#5

San Francisco State University

San Francisco, CA

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend San Francisco State University. It ranked #5 on our 2023 Best Value Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools in California list. Located in the city of San Francisco, SFSU is a public college with a very large student population.

SFSU graduate students pay an average of $8,738 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

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University of California - San Francisco ranked #6 on this year’s Best Value Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools in California list. Located in the city of San Francisco, UCSF is a public school with a small student population.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at UCSF are $12,999 a year.

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With a ranking of #7, Point Loma Nazarene University did quite well on this year’s best value schools for nursing students working on their graduate certificate. PLNU is a small private not-for-profit school located in the city of San Diego.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at PLNU are $11,880 per year.

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#8

Mount Saint Mary's University

Los Angeles, CA

Mount Saint Mary’s University ranked #8 on this year’s Best Value Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools in California list. Located in the city of Los Angeles, MSMU is a private not-for-profit college with a small student population.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at MSMU are $13,099 per year.

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#9

National University

La Jolla, CA

National University landed the #9 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best value graduate certificate nursing programs. Located in the large city of La Jolla, National University is a private not-for-profit school with a fairly large student population.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at National University are $15,480 per year.

National University also made our Best Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools in California list, coming in at #5.

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#9

Brandman University

Irvine, CA

With a ranking of #9, Brandman University did quite well on this year’s best value schools for nursing students working on their graduate certificate. Brandman is a moderately-sized private not-for-profit school located in the city of Irvine.

Brandman graduate students pay an average of $12,720 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

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Best Value Nursing Colleges in the Far Western US Region

Explore all the Best Value Nursing Schools in the Far Western US Area or other specific states within that region.

State Degrees Awarded
Oregon 1,502
Washington 3,851
Nevada 2,015
Hawaii 535
Alaska 177

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

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 16 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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