2023 Best Value Nursing Doctor's Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region
Highlighting Quality Schools With More Affordable Pricing
Finding the Best Nursing Doctor's Degree School for You
With 322,592 degrees and certificates handed out in 2020-2021, nursing is the #3 most popular major in the United States.
Today's students have lots of options to pick from when considering higher education opportunities. You can choose a traditional brick and mortar school, or with the growth of online education, you can attend a school half-way across the country without even leaving your house. Also there are many trade schools that offer short-term programs that open up more career options.
The Best Value Nursing Doctor's Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region ranking is one of many tools that Course Advisor has developed to help you make your educational decision. This report analyzed 64 schools in the Great Lakes Region to see which ones offered the best value doctor's degree programs for nursing students. The goal was to highlight schools with more affordable prices than others offering similar quality experiences.
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 Doctor's Degree Schools
Our analysis found Ferris State University to be the best value school for nursing students who want to pursue a doctor’s degree in the Great Lakes Region . Located in the town of Big Rapids, Ferris is a public school with a fairly large student population.
The average tuition and fees for an out-of-state graduate students at Ferris are $8,232 a year.
As a testament to the quality of education it offers, Ferris also is in the top 20% of our Best Nursing Doctor’s Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region ranking.
Full Nursing at Ferris State University Report
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Out of the 64 schools in the Great Lakes Region that were part of this year’s ranking, Saint Francis Medical Center College of Nursing landed the # 2 spot on the list. St. Francis Medical Center College of Nursing is a fairly small private not-for-profit school located in the medium-sized city of Peoria.
Out-of-state tuition fees for graduate students at St. Francis Medical Center College of Nursing are $8,740 per year.
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A rank of #3 on this year’s list means Ashland University is a great value for nursing students working on their doctor’s degree. Ashland is a small private not-for-profit school located in the town of Ashland.
Out-of-state tuition fees for graduate students at Ashland are $6,972 per year.
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A rank of #4 on this year’s list means Viterbo University is a great value for nursing students working on their doctor’s degree. Viterbo is a small private not-for-profit school located in the small city of La Crosse.
The average tuition and fees for an out-of-state graduate students at Viterbo are $9,488 a year.
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Out of the 64 schools in the Great Lakes Region that were part of this year’s ranking, McKendree University landed the # 5 spot on the list. Located in the suburb of Lebanon, McKendree is a private not-for-profit college with a small student population.
Out-of-state tuition fees for graduate students at McKendree are $9,756 per year.
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Chamberlain University - Illinois came in at #6 in this year’s edition of the Best Value Nursing Doctor’s Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region ranking. Located in the suburb of Addison, Chamberlain - Illinois is a private for-profit school with a fairly large student population.
Out-of-state tuition fees for graduate students at Chamberlain - Illinois are $14,090 per year.
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Southern Illinois University Edwardsville landed the #7 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best value doctor’s degree nursing programs. Located in the suburb of Edwardsville, SIUE is a public college with a large student population.
Out-of-state tuition fees for graduate students at SIUE are $9,316 per year.
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University of St Francis did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best places for nursing students to get a doctor’s degree. It came in at #8 on the list. Located in the suburb of Joliet, University of Saint Francis is a private not-for-profit college with a small student population.
University of Saint Francis graduate students pay an average of $13,839 in tuition and fees each year.
In addition to its best value ranking, and one of the reasons why the school is on the list, University of Saint Francis is ranked #5 for overall quality for nursing in the Great Lakes Region .
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Otterbein University did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best places for nursing students to get a doctor’s degree. It came in at #9 on the list. Otterbein is a small private not-for-profit school located in the large suburb of Westerville.
Otterbein graduate students pay an average of $14,392 in tuition and fees each year.
Otterbein also claimed a spot on our Best Nursing Doctor’s Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region list. It’s in the top 15% of all schools in this category.
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Illinois State University ranked #10 on this year’s Best Value Nursing Doctor’s Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region list. Located in the midsize suburb of Normal, Illinois State is a public school with a very large student population.
Illinois State graduate students pay an average of $11,773 in tuition and fees each year.
On top of its placing in our value ranking, Illinois State also did well on our Best Nursing Doctor’s Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region list. It’s in the top 20% of all schools reviewed in this analysis.
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These are some additional schools worth mentioning that are also great but just didn't quite make the cut to earn our top Best Value Nursing Doctor's Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region award.
| Rank | College | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 11 | Lewis University | Romeoville, IL |
| 12 | Purdue University Global | Indianapolis, IN |
| 12 | Alverno College | Milwaukee, WI |
Best Nursing Colleges by State
Explore the best nursing colleges for a specific state in the Great Lakes region.
| State | Degrees Awarded |
|---|---|
| Michigan | 7,345 |
| Ohio | 13,973 |
| Illinois | 21,938 |
| Indiana | 7,922 |
| Wisconsin | 5,410 |
More Nursing Rankings in the Great Lakes Region
Nursing Related Majors for Nursing
One of 30 majors within the area of study, nursing has other similar majors worth exploring.
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 25 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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