Ranked #5 in popularity, nursing is one of the most sought-after doctor's degree programs in the nation. So, there are lots of possibilities to explore when you're trying to determine where you want to get your degree.
In 2024, College Factual analyzed 96 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Nursing Doctor's Degree Schools in the Southeast Region ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 3,097 doctor's degrees in nursing to qualified students.
Choosing a Great Nursing School for Your Doctor's Degree
Your choice of nursing for getting your doctor's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality nursing program can vary widely even among the top schools. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
Overall Quality Is a Must
The overall quality of a doctor's degree school is important to ensure a quality education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges for a Doctor's Degree ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
Average Early-Career Salaries
Average early-career salary of those graduating with their doctor's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. That is, everyone wants their doctor's degree to be worth something, and salaries are one measure of determining that.
Other Factors We Consider
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
Major Focus - How much a school focuses on nursing students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - The number of nursing students who choose to seek a doctor's degree at the school.
Educational Resources - The amount of money and other resources allocated to students while they are pursuing their degree. These resources include such things as number of students per instructor and education expenditures per student.
Student Debt - How easy is it for nursing to pay back their student loans after receiving their doctor's degree.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized nursing related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for nursing students working on their doctor's degree.
Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Nursing Doctor's Degree Schools in the Southeast Region list, to help you choose the best school for you.
Best Schools for Doctorate Students to Study Nursing in the Southeast Region
Explore the top ranked colleges and universities for nursing students seeking a a doctor's degree. Only those schools that rank in the top 15% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
14 Top Southeast Region Schools for a Doctorate in Nursing
Duke University is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a doctor's degree in nursing. Located in the city of Durham, Duke is a private not-for-profit university with a large student population.
Nursing doctor's degree recipients from Duke University get an earnings boost of about $12,868 above the typical income of nursing graduates.
It is hard to beat Emory University if you wish to pursue a doctor's degree in nursing. Located in the large city of Atlanta, Emory is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
Those nursing students who get their doctor's degree from Emory University receive $2,537 more than the average nursing student.
Located in the small city of Coral Gables, U Miami is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
Doctorate recipients from the nursing program at University of Miami make $15,353 more than the average college graduate in this field shortly after graduation.
Located in the midsize city of Richmond, VCU is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Nursing doctor's degree recipients from Virginia Commonwealth University receive an earnings boost of about $55,760 over the typical income of nursing majors.
LSU Health - New Orleans is a small public university located in the large city of New Orleans.
Nursing doctor's degree recipients from Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center - New Orleans receive an earnings boost of about $51,060 above the average income of nursing graduates.
Here are some additional great schools for Nursing students in the Southeast Region that almost earned our Best Nursing Doctor's Degree Schools in the Southeast Region award.
The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
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).