If you pursue a master's degree in nursing, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #2 most popular program in the country. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.
College Factual reviewed 3 schools in District of Columbia to determine which ones were the best for master's degree seekers in the field of nursing. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 448 master's degrees in nursing during the 2020-2021 academic year.
Choosing a Great Nursing School for Your Master's Degree
The nursing master's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality nursing program can vary widely even among the top schools. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
Quality Overall Is Important
A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges for a Master'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 Earnings
To determine the overall quality of a graduate school, one factor we look at is the average early-career salary of those receiving their master's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their master's degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.
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 master'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 master'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 schools for nursing students working on their master'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 Master's Degree Schools in District of Columbia list, to help you choose the best school for you.
Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Nursing in District of Columbia
Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a master's degree in nursing.
Top District of Columbia Schools for a Master's in Nursing
Georgetown University is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a master's degree in nursing. Located in the city of Washington, Georgetown is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
Master's recipients from the nursing degree program at Georgetown University make $4,745 above the average college graduate in this field shortly after graduation.
George Washington University is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a master's degree in nursing. GWU is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Washington.
Master's students who receive their degree from the nursing program earn around $95,274 in the first couple years of working.
It is difficult to beat Catholic University of America if you want to pursue a master's degree in nursing. Located in the large city of Washington, CUA is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population.
Master's students who receive their degree from the nursing program make about $100,058 in the first couple years of their career.
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).
college factual
The nursing master's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality nursing program can vary widely even among the top schools. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
