Nursing PhD Programs in the United States: The 2026 Census of All 140

Key Findings From the Nursing PhD Census

• 48 of 140 nursing PhD programs are delivered online, 40 are hybrid and 52 are on campus only.
• 32 of 38 online programs that state their visit rules require you on campus at least once. Only 6 ask for no trip at all.
• 20 of 96 programs with a stated funding package are fully funded, and 18 of those 20 are on campus.
• The median online program costs $695 per credit. The median on-campus program lists $920.
• The typical program is 60 credits and 4 years. Online programs publish a median of 3.75 years.
• 103 of 135 programs admit nurses straight from a BSN. 32 require a master's first.
• The South holds 61 of 139 programs. The Midwest has 29, and only 1 of them is fully funded.

Every figure uses only the programs where we hold the fact, and each chart and finding shows its own count. The methodology is below.

How Many Nursing PhD Programs Are Online?

48 of the 140 programs are online, which is 34%. 40 more are hybrid, a mix of live online classes and regular days on campus. 52 are taught on campus only. Put together, 88 of 140 programs let a working nurse do a large share of the coursework from home.

That is a real shift from the traditional research doctorate, which expected you to move to a university town and work in a lab. The online programs are ranked on their own list, and the on-campus and hybrid programs on another.

Do Online Nursing PhD Programs Still Require Campus Visits?

Mostly, yes. Of the 38 online programs that state their rules, 32 require at least one trip. They call it an intensive, an immersion, a residency or an orientation, and it runs from a couple of days to a week or more, often once or twice a year. 6 online programs ask for no on-campus time.

Budget for it. A week in Tucson or Aurora each summer for three years means flights, a hotel and time off work, and none of that is in the tuition number.

The 10 remaining online programs do not state a visit rule we can quote, so they are left out of this count. The online ranking shows each program's residency detail where we hold it.

Which Nursing PhD Programs Are Fully Funded?

Of the 96 programs with a stated funding package, 20 promise full funding: tuition covered plus a stipend for full-time students. 18 of the 34 campus programs with a stated package do. Only 1 of 31 online programs and 1 of 31 hybrid programs do.

The split is the price of flexibility. Funding usually comes with an assistantship, which means you work in a faculty member's research and you are on site to do it. If you keep your nursing job and study online, you will most likely pay tuition. The fully funded programs are listed together.

Tuition is where the funding gap shows. Online programs list a median of $695 per credit across 41 programs, hybrid programs $866 across 34, and campus programs $920 across 25. Public universities list a median of $669 and private ones $1,450.

Read the campus number carefully. Many funded programs charge a list price they then waive, so what a funded student pays is far lower. Rates are as each school publishes them, and some bill by the quarter and some by the semester.

How Long and How Many Credits Is a Nursing PhD?

The median program is 60 credits across 112 programs that publish a credit total, and the range runs from 42 to 96. Programs that publish a time to degree give a median of 4 years across 95 programs, from 2 to 6.

Online programs publish a median of 3.75 years (31 programs), hybrid 4 (23) and campus 4 (41). Treat those as the plan on paper. The dissertation is where real timelines stretch, and our guide to how long a nursing PhD really takes covers why.

Part-time study is common. 37 of 38 online programs with a stated rule allow part-time enrollment, compared with 24 of 34 campus programs.

Do You Need a Master's Before a Nursing PhD?

Not usually. 103 of the 135 programs that state an entry route accept BSN-to-PhD applicants, 115 accept MSN-to-PhD applicants, and 74 accept post-master's applicants such as DNP-prepared nurses. Only 3 are BSN-only. 32 require a master's degree first.

The route depends on format. 43 of 49 campus programs admit from a BSN, but 32 of 48 online programs do. Online programs are less likely to admit straight from a BSN. Holding a DNP? See the DNP-to-PhD programs.

The GRE is nearly gone. Of 78 programs that state a GRE rule, 76 do not require it.

Where Are the Nursing PhD Programs?

The South has 61 of 139 programs across 16 states and the District of Columbia, and 23 of them are online. The Northeast has 30, the Midwest 29 and the West 19. Pennsylvania has the most of any state with 9, followed by Florida, Massachusetts and Texas with 8 each. 17 states and territories have exactly one program.

Where you live matters most for funding. The Midwest has 29 programs and 1 fully funded one. The Northeast has 6 and the West 5. See every state on the nursing PhD rankings by state.

Why the Number of Nursing PhD Programs Matters

The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) reports that less than 1% of today's nursing workforce has earned a PhD, and that these nurses are in high demand as the need for nurse scientists, faculty and leaders rises. Its analysis found PhD enrollment fell 12% from 2012 to 2021, from 5,110 to 4,476 students, while graduations rose 20%, from 611 to 733.

A nurse who cannot leave a job or a city has fewer ways into a doctorate, which is why online and hybrid formats matter. Source: AACN, Data Spotlight: Trends in Nursing PhD Programs, July 6, 2022.

All 140 PhD in Nursing Programs in One Table

Every program in the census, A to Z. Select a column heading to sort. Each school name links to its full write-up. A blank cell means the figure is not part of our record for that program, and visit rules are listed for online programs only. Download the data as a CSV.

What the Nursing PhD Census Means for You

Decide how you will pay before you decide where to go. If you want full funding, you are choosing among a short list of campus programs, and you should expect to study full time and work on a faculty member's research. Browse the fully funded programs first.

If you need to keep working, online and hybrid programs are the realistic route, and you will pay tuition. Check the visit rule before you apply, because 32 of the 38 online programs that state theirs require travel. Pick the programs whose trips you can afford and schedule.

If you hold a BSN, you have more choices than you may think, since 103 programs accept it. If you are weighing a PhD against a clinical doctorate, read PhD vs DNP, and look up how people pay for a nursing PhD. Our A-to-Z directory lists every program.

Methodology

Programs. The census covers 140 research doctorate programs (PhD or equivalent) in nursing at 138 US universities in 44 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Program facts come from each school's own published program pages, collected through October 1, 2026. Institution details come from the US Department of Education's IPEDS data. The full ranking methodology is here.

Definitions. Online means the program states coursework is delivered at a distance. Hybrid means regular live classes or required days on campus alongside online work. On campus means in-person study. A campus visit is a stated requirement to attend in person for an intensive, immersion, residency or orientation. Continuous-registration rules are not visits. Fully funded means the school describes tuition coverage plus a stipend for full-time students.

Counts. Each figure uses only the programs where we hold that fact, and the count appears beside it: visit rules 38 of 48 online programs, funding 96 of 140, credits 112, time to degree 95, per-credit tuition 100, entry route 135.

Medians are used throughout. Per-credit figures exclude programs listing $0, and they mix quarter and semester credits as schools publish them. Regional totals use the four Census Bureau regions, and Puerto Rico is not in a region.

External source. AACN, Data Spotlight: Trends in Nursing PhD Programs, July 6, 2022, viewed October 6, 2026. The census numbers are ours and are not AACN figures.

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