2026 Best Clinical Nurse Leader Schools in the Great Lakes Region
Clinical Nurse Leader degree programs prepare students for a range of careers in the field. While the number of schools offering the program varies, there are still top-quality ones to be found.
College Factual analyzed 8 schools to build this 2026 ranking of the best clinical nurse leader schools.
What’s on this page:
Best Schools for Clinical Nurse Leader in the Great Lakes Region
If you are not interested in a particular degree level and want to know which schools are the overall best at delivering an education for the clinical nurse leader degrees they offer, see the list below.
Top Schools in Clinical Nurse Leader
Xavier University tops our 2026 ranking of the best clinical nurse leader schools. This moderately-sized private not-for-profit university is located in the city of Cincinnati. About 68% of students finish within six years. About 10 clinical nurse leader degrees were awarded at Xavier University in the most recent year. Students who receive their clinical nurse leader degree from Xavier University earn around $78,516 in the first couple years of their career. Xavier University graduates carry a median of $27,000 in student loans.
See the full clinical nurse leader program report for Xavier University
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Notes and References
This ranking is produced by College Factual (MF_RANKING_2025), 2026 edition. The methodology weighs graduation rate, post-graduation earnings, cost, and program quality, drawn primarily from the U.S. Department of Education (IPEDS and College Scorecard).
Ranking method: College Major Top Ranked · 8 schools evaluated.
- 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 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).
More about our data sources and methodologies.
