Best PhD in Nursing Programs in Missouri, Ranked (2026)

Cheapest per credit of the six Missouri programs, and it's the one that will take you without a nursing degree at all. Enrolled students have come from physical therapy, social work, informatics and public health.

Where it wins. At $681.30 a credit the full 72 hours run about $49,000, roughly $17,500 less than UMSL charges across its 66. Mizzou also sits on the second largest pile of NINR money in Missouri, about $2.2 million across eight awards.

What you give up. It's also the longest coursework requirement in the state at 72 credits, the 3.3 GPA floor is the highest in Missouri, and you're back in Columbia for four days every spring until the coursework is finished and the exam is passed.

If you can't travel, this is the Missouri program that doesn't ask you to. Coursework is 95 percent asynchronous and the residency is a three-credit research course arranged with a faculty member, not a week on campus.

Where it wins. Every other Missouri program pulls you back to a campus: spring intensives at Mizzou, a summer institute twice at UMKC, August orientation and a yearly conference at SLU, in-person terms at WashU and Goldfarb. UMSL admits on a rolling basis and answers within four weeks.

What you give up. You pay for that flexibility. At $1,009 a credit the 66 hours come to about $66,600, second dearest in Missouri, and the college holds zero NINR awards, so a funded lab isn't part of the deal.

The research money in Missouri nursing is concentrated here. WashU's department holds about $6.1 million across 13 NINR awards, roughly seventy percent of every NINR dollar in the state.

Where it wins. It sits inside the School of Medicine rather than a nursing college, and the teaching is split accordingly: Goldfarb faculty deliver nursing science and research methods, WashU faculty the statistics core and your minor in informatics, clinical investigation or implementation science.

What you give up. It's a small operation, one doctorate a year, so your cohort is a handful of people. The Mentored Experience Requirement includes a semester teaching as an Assistant in Instruction, on top of coursework and the dissertation.

Six years is what UMKC puts on the clock, the longest in Missouri, and in exchange the 61 credits at $803 each come to about $48,980, the smallest total tuition bill of the six programs here.

Where it wins. It asks more of you at the end than the others do. Graduating requires a published paper and a conference presentation alongside the dissertation, which is exactly the record a hiring committee for a tenure-track post wants to see.

What you give up. Coming from a BSN you add 12 master's-level credits first, so the real bill is closer to $58,600. There's one start a year, in summer, behind a March 6 deadline.

SLU built its doctorate around Friday. Classes run Friday mornings and afternoons, live, with distance students joining the same room, which is why nurses who can't afford to quit working end up here.

Where it wins. It graduates 9 nursing PhDs a year, more than any other Missouri program and about two of every five the state produces. Post-MSN the coursework is 46 credits, the shortest requirement in Missouri.

What you give up. At $1,450 a credit those 46 hours still come to about $66,700, so the shortest program in the state costs roughly what UMSL's 66 credits do. Budget for August orientation and the Midwest Nursing Research Society conference every year.

Goldfarb and WashU run one St. Louis consortium under two names, and this is the door with a part-time track. Fifteen to eighteen terms at 10 to 20 hours a week, and the degree comes out joint with WashU Medicine.

Where it wins. No Missouri program carries a guaranteed package, and Goldfarb comes closest: its launch announcement promised full tuition, a monthly stipend, health cover and conference travel, and the part-time track puts BJC tuition reimbursement in play for system employees.

What you give up. Tuition is $920 a credit, about $57,000 across the 62, and the admissions window is unforgiving. One fall cohort, applications closing January 12. Miss it and you wait a year.