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Best Value Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools in North Carolina

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2023 Best Value Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools in North Carolina

Highlighting Quality Schools With More Affordable Pricing

10 Colleges
$14,181 Avg Tuition & Fees*
$99,011 Avg Salary

Finding the Best Nursing Graduate Certificate School for You

Nursing is the most popular major in North Carolina with 7,425 degrees and certificates handed out in 2020-2021.

When it comes to higher education, there are a lot of options for healthcare students. Along with traditional schools that require in-person attendence, you can attend one of many reputable online schools. Some programs even offer a hybrid experience. Alternatively, you may choose a trade school that prepares you to enter the workforce with knowledge in a specific field.

The Best Value Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools in North Carolina ranking is one of many tools that Healthcare Degree Search has developed to help you make your educational decision. Our analysis looked at 10 schools in North Carolina to see which graduate certificate 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.

Top 10 Best Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools

Our 2023 rankings named Appalachian State University the best value school in North Carolina for nursing students working on their graduate certificate. Located in the town of Boone, Appalachian State is a public school with a fairly large student population.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at Appalachian State are $8,007 a year.

Appalachian State also made our Best Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools in North Carolina list, coming in at #5.

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#2

East Carolina University

Greenville, NC

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around you if you attend East Carolina University. The school came in at #2 on this year’s Best Value Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools in North Carolina list. Located in the small city of Greenville, ECU is a public school with a very large student population.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at ECU are $7,594 a year.

ECU also made our Best Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools in North Carolina list, coming in at #2.

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A rank of #3 on this year’s list means University of North Carolina at Charlotte is a great value for nursing students working on their graduate certificate. UNC Charlotte is a very large public school located in the city of Charlotte.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at UNC Charlotte are $7,713 a year.

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#4

Winston - Salem State University

Winston-Salem, NC

The excellent graduate certificate programs at Winston - Salem State University helped the school earn the #4 place on this year’s ranking of the best value nursing schools in North Carolina. Located in the city of Winston-Salem, WSSU is a public college with a moderately-sized student population.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at WSSU are $6,718 a year.

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You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around you if you attend University of North Carolina at Wilmington. The school came in at #5 on this year’s Best Value Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools in North Carolina list. Located in the medium-sized city of Wilmington, UNCW is a public college with a fairly large student population.

UNCW graduate students pay an average of $7,514 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

UNCW did well in our overall quality rankings, too. It placed #4 on our Best Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools in North Carolina list.

Full Nursing at University of North Carolina at Wilmington Report

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University of North Carolina at Greensboro ranked #6 on this year’s Best Value Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools in North Carolina list. UNC Greensboro is a fairly large public school located in the city of Greensboro.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at UNC Greensboro are $8,265 a year.

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#7

Gardner - Webb University

Boiling Springs, NC

Gardner - Webb University ranked #7 on this year’s Best Value Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools in North Carolina list. Gardner - Webb is a small private not-for-profit school located in the town of Boiling Springs.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at Gardner - Webb are $10,130 per year.

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University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill landed the #8 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best value graduate certificate nursing programs. UNC Chapel Hill is a fairly large public school located in the small city of Chapel Hill.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at UNC Chapel Hill are $12,566 a year.

UNC Chapel Hill did well in our overall quality rankings, too. It placed #3 on our Best Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools in North Carolina list.

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Queens University of Charlotte did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best places for nursing students to get a graduate certificate. It came in at #9 on the list. Located in the city of Charlotte, Queens is a private not-for-profit school with a small student population.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at Queens are $14,166 per year.

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#10

Duke University

Durham, NC

Duke University ranked #10 on this year’s Best Value Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools in North Carolina list. Duke is a fairly large private not-for-profit school located in the city of Durham.

Duke graduate students pay an average of $59,141 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

Duke also took the #1 spot in our Best Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools in North Carolina rankings.

Full Nursing at Duke University Report

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Best Value Nursing Colleges in the Southeast Region

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

State Degrees Awarded
Florida 21,209
Tennessee 6,004
Kentucky 6,395
Georgia 7,112
West Virginia 1,771
Virginia 6,775
Alabama 7,364
Louisiana 3,502
Mississippi 2,838
South Carolina 3,296
Arkansas 2,882

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 10 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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