Best PhD in Nursing Programs in Georgia, Ranked (2026)
Nursing faculty in Georgia earn a median of $77,720. The state's registered nurses earn $93,550. That $15,830 gap is the first thing to understand about the four PhD in nursing programs in Georgia, because a research doctorate usually moves you toward the lower of those two numbers rather than the higher one. The degree still pays for itself in the work it opens up: funded research, health policy, faculty posts that don't exist without it. Just do that arithmetic on the front end, while you're still choosing between Emory, Georgia State, Mercer, and Augusta.
Last updated
Programs ranked
4
Universities
4
Nursing faculty median
$77,720
Faculty jobs in GA
1,590
How We Ranked the Best PhD in Nursing Programs in Georgia
Campus and online programs are scored on separate models, because they compete on different
things, and this page lists both together with each one's score from its own model. Research
funding comes from NIH RePORTER, doctoral scale from federal IPEDS completions, and the
curriculum, funding and deadline figures from each school's own pages.
The full scoring model is here.
Georgia's decision is basically Emory or not-Emory. It's the only funded nursing PhD in the state and it holds all $28.3 million of Georgia's NINR money across 91 awards, while the other three hold none of it.
Where it wins. Full tuition waiver plus a twelve-month stipend, renewed annually for four years, with Laney Graduate School development funds on top. At application you pick between a Traditional track and an AI and Data Science track, backed by a T32 in women's health.
What you give up. Full time only, outside work capped at ten hours a week, and a November 1 deadline that closes three months before Georgia State's and seven before Augusta's. If you need to keep nursing, this one isn't open to you.
Funding. "All full-time admitted students are granted full tuition waiver and receive an annual stipend over 12 months in exchange for teaching and research services," renewed annually "for a total of four years," plus Professional Development Support Funds from Laney Graduate School.
Georgia State turns out 8 nursing PhDs a year, more than Emory, Mercer or Augusta manage individually and roughly two in five of the state's 19. It does it online, with four days on campus a year.
Where it wins. Two days in the fall and two in the spring is the entire campus obligation, and you can add a graduate certificate in Public Health or Health Literacy while working through the 60 post-master's credits. DNP holders get credit for prior coursework.
What you give up. Assistantships are described as limited rather than guaranteed, and from a BSN the requirement is 72 credits. There's no NINR-funded research in the college, so your mentors are teaching-heavy rather than grant-heavy.
Funding. Limited graduate teaching and research assistantships may be available.
Research. health disparities, urban health, cardiovascular health, intervention research, child, adolescent and young adult health, gerontology and health of older adults.
Every published detail for Georgia State University
Degree awarded
PhD
Delivery
Online
School
Byrdine F. Lewis College of Nursing and Health Professions
Entry points
BSN-to-PhD, MSN-to-PhD, post-master's
GRE
Not required
Applications close
February 1 (early); April 1 (late)
Part-time study
Available
Dissertation
Required
On campus
Two required on-campus days in the fall semester and two in the spring semester
Mercer runs its PhD purely as distance learning, and the price of that convenience is the steepest in Georgia. $1,224 a credit across 58 hours works out to about $70,990, three times Augusta's rate per credit hour.
Where it wins. Three years to completion, part-time available, and the HRSA Nurse Faculty Loan Program applies to tuition and fees if your plan of study includes nursing education coursework. The college also runs a Jonas Nurse Scholars cohort for people heading into faculty roles.
What you give up. That loan points you at a Georgia faculty market paying a median $77,720, about $15,800 under what the state's median staff RN makes. Whether you can enrol at all depends on the state you live in, and there's one fall intake.
Funding. Tuition is $1,224 per credit hour with $204 in fees per term; HRSA Nurse Faculty Loan Program funding is available to qualified students whose program includes nursing education coursework and can be applied to tuition and fees.
$405 a credit is the low number in Georgia, $819 less per hour than Mercer charges for a similarly distance-friendly setup, and Augusta runs two campuses, so in person can mean Augusta or Athens.
Where it wins. Hybrid coursework, dissertation research permitted at approved sites near your home or work, and two summer research intensives as the fixed travel. The HRSA loan here forgives up to 85 percent of the balance for four consecutive years of full-time faculty service.
What you give up. It sits last of the four Georgia programs on our ranking, holds zero NINR awards and graduates three doctorates a year, so what you're buying is the price and the schedule rather than the research base.
Funding. Graduate research assistantships; the University System of Georgia Tuition Assistance Program for USG employees; and the HRSA-funded AU Nurse Faculty Loan Program, which forgives up to 85% of the loan for four consecutive years of full-time nursing faculty service.
Research. cardiovascular health, community-based participatory interventions, health promotion.
Every published detail for Augusta University
Degree awarded
PhD
Delivery
Hybrid
School
College of Nursing
Entry points
BSN-to-PhD, MSN-to-PhD, post-master's
GRE
Not required
Minimum GPA
3
Applications close
June 15 (priority deadline May 15)
Part-time study
Available
Dissertation
Required
On campus
Two summer research-intensive workshops are built into the curriculum; remaining coursework is distance-accessible
What Nursing Faculty and Nurse Researchers Earn in Georgia
The spread under Georgia's faculty median is where it gets uncomfortable. Faculty pay runs from $44,480 at the tenth percentile to $111,820 at the ninetieth, and that bottom figure sits far under the $68,920 Georgia RNs earn at the same point. Low-end instructor work is often part-time or contingent, and it pays like it. The Georgia faculty median of $77,720 also falls below the national faculty median of $80,250, while the state's RN median of $93,550 runs close to the national RN median of $97,550. About 1,590 people hold postsecondary nursing instructor jobs here against roughly 100,950 RN jobs, so faculty openings are a far smaller market to compete in.
The median Georgia program is 59 credits and about three years of full-time study, which is a short runway for a research doctorate. All four programs accept BSN-prepared nurses directly, so you can go from a bachelor's to a PhD without stopping for a master's, and that's usually where the years get saved.
Three of the four allow part-time enrollment, and the formats sort out by school. Emory in Atlanta is on campus. Georgia State, also in Atlanta, runs its PhD online, as does Mercer in Macon. Augusta University is hybrid. Staying in metro Atlanta gets you a choice between an on-campus research program and an online one without moving, which isn't true from Macon or Augusta.
A three-year median is a full-time median. Add a clinical job and part-time enrollment and the arithmetic changes fast, so ask each program what its part-time students actually finish in rather than what the catalog page says.
Questions About Nursing PhD Programs in Georgia
How many PhD in nursing programs are there in Georgia?
4, at 4 universities. 2 are campus-based and 2 run online.
Can you go straight from a BSN to a PhD in nursing in Georgia?
Yes. All four Georgia programs, Emory, Georgia State, Mercer, and Augusta, admit BSN-prepared nurses directly into the PhD, so a master's isn't a prerequisite. Two of the four also admit without a GRE score.
Which Georgia nursing PhD programs are online?
Georgia State University in Atlanta and Mercer University in Macon deliver the PhD in nursing online. Augusta University runs a hybrid program, and Emory University in Atlanta is on campus.
What do nursing professors earn in Georgia?
Postsecondary nursing instructors in Georgia earn a $77,720 median. The bottom 10% earn $44,480 and the top 10% clear $111,820, across 1,590 jobs in the state. The national median is $80,250.
Can you do a nursing PhD in Georgia without moving?
2 of the 4 programs in Georgia run online. You can also apply to any of the online programs based in other states, since an online nursing PhD does not care where you live. They are all ranked here.