2024 Best Nursing Master's Degree Schools in Virginia
Nursing is of the hottest master's degree programs in the United States, coming in as the #2 most popular major in the country. This means there are lots of options to choose from when you decide to get your degree.
For its 2024 ranking, College Factual looked at 17 schools in Virginia to determine which ones were the best for nursing students pursuing a master's degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 728 master's degrees in nursing during the 2020-2021 academic year.
What's on this page: * Our Methodology
Choosing a Great Nursing School for Your Master's Degree
Your choice of nursing for getting your master's degree school matters. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
A Great Overall School
The overall quality of a master's degree school is important to ensure a quality education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To account for this we consider a school's overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking which itself looks at a host of different factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
Early-Career Earnings
One measure we use to determine the quality of a school is to look at the average salary of master's graduates during the early years of their career. That is, everyone wants their master's degree to be worth something, and salaries are one measure of determining that.
Other Factors We Consider
The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.
- Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to nursing students as compared to other majors.
- Major Demand - How many other nursing students want to attend this school to pursue a master's degree.
- Educational Resources - How many resources are allocated to students. These resources may include educational expenditures per student, number of students per instructor, and graduation rate among other things.
- Student Debt - How much debt nursing students go into to obtain their master's degree and how well they are able to pay back that debt.
- 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.
More Ways to Rank Nursing Schools
When choosing the right school for you, it's important to arm yourself with all the facts you can. To that end, we've created a number of major-specific rankings, including this Best Nursing Master's Degree Schools in Virginia list to help you make the college decision.
Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Nursing in Virginia
The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing a master's degree in nursing.
10 Top Virginia Schools for a Master's in Nursing
It is hard to beat University of Virginia - Main Campus if you wish to pursue a master's degree in nursing. Located in the suburb of Charlottesville, University of Virginia is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Master's students who receive their degree from the nursing program make an average of $87,239 for their early career.
More information about a master’s in nursing from University of Virginia - Main Campus
Every student pursuing a degree in a master's degree in nursing has to check out Virginia Commonwealth University. VCU is a fairly large public university located in the city of Richmond.
Master's graduates who receive their degree from the nursing program earn about $94,371 in their early career salary.
More information about a master’s in nursing from Virginia Commonwealth University
It's hard to beat Shenandoah University if you want to pursue a master's degree in nursing. Located in the city of Winchester, Shenandoah is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population.
Master's recipients from the nursing degree program at Shenandoah University earn $9,052 above the average college grad in this field when they enter the workforce.
More information about a master’s in nursing from Shenandoah University
George Mason University is a good choice for students interested in a master's degree in nursing. Located in the suburb of Fairfax, GMU is a public university with a very large student population.
Soon after graduation, nursing master's recipients typically earn an average of $94,065 in their early careers.
More information about a master’s in nursing from George Mason University
Old Dominion is a very large public university located in the city of Norfolk.
Nursing master's degree recipients from Old Dominion University get an earnings boost of around $11,598 above the typical income of nursing graduates.
More information about a master’s in nursing from Old Dominion University
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