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Best Value Nursing Doctor's Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region

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2023 Best Value Nursing Doctor's Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region

Highlighting Quality Schools With More Affordable Pricing

64 Colleges
$12,888 Avg Tuition & Fees*
$115,233 Avg Salary

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.

2023 Best Value Nursing Doctor’s Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region

The colleges and universities below are the best value schools for nursing majors pursuing a doctor's degree.

Top 10 Best Nursing Doctor's Degree Schools

#1

Ferris State University

Big Rapids, MI

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 college with a fairly large student population.

Out-of-state tuition fees for graduate students at Ferris are $8,232 per 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.

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The excellent doctor’s degree programs at Saint Francis Medical Center College of Nursing helped the school earn the #2 place on this year’s ranking of the best value nursing schools in the Great Lakes Region . St. Francis Medical Center College of Nursing is a fairly small private not-for-profit school located in the midsize city of Peoria.

St. Francis Medical Center College of Nursing graduate students pay an average of $8,740 in tuition and fees each year.

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#3

Ashland University

Ashland, OH

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Ashland University. It ranked #3 on our 2023 Best Value Nursing Doctor’s Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region list. Ashland is a small private not-for-profit school located in the fringe town of Ashland.

The average tuition and fees for an out-of-state graduate students at Ashland are $6,972 a year.

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#4

Viterbo University

La Crosse, WI

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around you if you attend Viterbo University. The school came in at #4 on this year’s Best Value Nursing Doctor’s Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region list. Viterbo is a small private not-for-profit school located in the small city of La Crosse.

Viterbo graduate students pay an average of $9,488 in tuition and fees each year.

Full Nursing at Viterbo University Report

#5

McKendree University

Lebanon, IL

The excellent doctor’s degree programs at McKendree University helped the school earn the #5 place on this year’s ranking of the best value nursing schools in the Great Lakes Region . Located in the large 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.

Full Nursing at McKendree University Report

With a ranking of #6, Chamberlain University - Illinois did quite well on this year’s best value schools for nursing students working on their doctor’s degree. Located in the suburb of Addison, Chamberlain - Illinois is a private for-profit college with a fairly large student population.

Chamberlain - Illinois graduate students pay an average of $14,090 in tuition and fees each 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 large suburb of Edwardsville, SIUE is a public college with a fairly large student population.

The average tuition and fees for an out-of-state graduate students at SIUE are $9,316 a year.

Full Nursing at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Report

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.

Out-of-state tuition fees for graduate students at University of Saint Francis are $13,839 per 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 .

Full Nursing at University of St Francis Report

#9

Otterbein University

Westerville, OH

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.

Out-of-state tuition fees for graduate students at Otterbein are $14,392 per year.

In addition to its great value ranking, Otterbein is in the top 15% of all schools on our Best Nursing Doctor’s Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region list.

Full Nursing at Otterbein University Report

With a ranking of #10, Illinois State University did quite well on this year’s best value schools for nursing students working on their doctor’s degree. Located in the suburb of Normal, Illinois State is a public school with a fairly large student population.

The average tuition and fees for an out-of-state graduate students at Illinois State are $11,773 a year.

In addition to its great value ranking, Illinois State is in the top 20% of all schools on our Best Nursing Doctor’s Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region list.

Full Nursing at Illinois State University Report

Honorable Mentions

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

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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