2025 Best Nursing Practice Doctor's Degree Schools in California

If you pursue a doctor's degree in nursing practice, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #7 most popular program in the country. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.

College Factual reviewed 5 schools in California to determine which ones were the best for doctor's degree seekers in the field of nursing practice. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 279 doctor's degrees in nursing practice during the 2022-2023 academic year.

Jump to one of the following sections: * Our Methodology

• Best Doctor’s Degree Schools List

Choosing a Great Nursing Practice School for Your Doctor's Degree

Your choice of nursing practice for getting your doctor'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. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:

Quality Overall Is Important

The overall quality of a doctor's degree school is important to ensure a good 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.

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 practice students vs. other majors.
• Major Demand - How many other nursing practice students want to attend this school to pursue a doctor's degree.
• 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.
• Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized nursing practice related body.

Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for nursing practice students working on their doctor's degree.

One Size Does Not Fit All

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 Practice Doctor's Degree Schools in California list to help you make the college decision.

Best Schools for Doctorate Students to Study Nursing Practice in California

Explore the top ranked colleges and universities for nursing practice students seeking a a doctor's degree.

Top California Schools for a Doctorate in Nursing Practice

1

Samuel Merritt University
Oakland, CA

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

33 Annual Graduates

Samuel Merritt University is a great option for individuals pursuing a doctor's degree in nursing practice. Located in the large city of Oakland, Samuel Merritt University is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population.More information about a doctorate in nursing practice from Samuel Merritt University

2

University of California - Irvine
Irvine, CA

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

18 Annual Graduates

It's difficult to beat University of California - Irvine if you want to pursue a doctor's degree in nursing practice. UC Irvine is a very large public university located in the city of Irvine.More information about a doctorate in nursing practice from University of California - Irvine

3

University of California - Los Angeles
Los Angeles, CA

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

14 Annual Graduates

Every student pursuing a degree in a doctor's degree in nursing practice needs to look into University of California - Los Angeles. Located in the city of Los Angeles, UCLA is a public university with a very large student population.More information about a doctorate in nursing practice from University of California - Los Angeles

4

California State University - Fullerton
Fullerton, CA

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

54 Annual Graduates

It's hard to beat California State University - Fullerton if you want to pursue a doctor's degree in nursing practice. Located in the suburb of Fullerton, Cal State Fullerton is a public university with a fairly large student population.More information about a doctorate in nursing practice from California State University - Fullerton

5

West Coast University - Orange County
Anaheim, CA

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

13 Annual Graduates

Located in the city of Anaheim, West Coast University - Orange County is a private for-profit university with a small student population.More information about a doctorate in nursing practice from West Coast University - Orange County

Best Nursing Practice Colleges in the Far Western US Region

Explore all the Best Nursing Practice Schools in the Far Western US Area or other specific states within that region.

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Washington	216	75
Oregon	145	40
Nevada	111	59
Hawaii	65	15
Alaska	21	3

View All Rankings >

Rankings in Majors Related to Nursing Practice

Nursing Practice is one of 23 different types of Nursing programs to choose from.

Most Popular Majors Related to Nursing Practice

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Psychiatric/Mental Health Nurse/Nursing	56
Registered Nursing	53
Family Practice Nurse/Nursing	29
Nursing Science	17
Nurse Anesthetist	16
Nursing Administration	9
Adult Health Nurse/Nursing	5
Other Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing	4
School Nursing	3
Clinical Nurse Specialist	1

Notes and References

• 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).
• Credit for the banner image above goes to Aleksahgabrielle. More about our data sources and methodologies.