2025 Best Nursing Practice Doctor's Degree Schools in the Southeast Region

Ranked #7 in popularity, nursing practice 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.

College Factual looked at 57 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Nursing Practice Doctor's Degree Schools in the Southeast Region ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 2,674 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. 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 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 the Southeast Region list to help you make the college decision.

Best Schools for Doctorate Students to Study Nursing Practice in the Southeast Region

The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing a doctor's degree in nursing practice. Only those schools that rank in the top 20% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.

11 Top Southeast Region Schools for a Doctorate in Nursing Practice

1

Duke University
Durham, NC

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

48 Annual Graduates

Duke University is a great decision for students pursuing a doctor's degree in nursing practice. Located in the large city of Durham, Duke is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.More information about a doctorate in nursing practice from Duke University

2

Emory University
Atlanta, GA

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

34 Annual Graduates

Emory University is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a doctor's degree in nursing practice. Located in the city of Atlanta, Emory is a private not-for-profit university with a large student population.More information about a doctorate in nursing practice from Emory University

3

Virginia Commonwealth University
Richmond, VA

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

13 Annual Graduates

Virginia Commonwealth University is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a doctor's degree in nursing practice. Located in the medium-sized city of Richmond, VCU is a public university with a fairly large student population.More information about a doctorate in nursing practice from Virginia Commonwealth University

4

Samford University
Birmingham, AL

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

13 Annual Graduates

Any student who is interested in a doctor's degree in nursing practice needs to look into Samford University. Located in the suburb of Birmingham, Samford is a private not-for-profit university with a moderately-sized student population.More information about a doctorate in nursing practice from Samford University

5

University of Miami
Coral Gables, FL

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

46 Annual Graduates

U Miami is a large private not-for-profit university located in the suburb of Coral Gables.More information about a doctorate in nursing practice from University of Miami

6

The University of Tennessee - Health Science Center
Memphis, TN

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

76 Annual Graduates

UTHSC is a small public university located in the large city of Memphis.More information about a doctorate in nursing practice from The University of Tennessee - Health Science Center

7

University of Florida
Gainesville, FL

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

109 Annual Graduates

Located in the medium-sized city of Gainesville, UF is a public university with a fairly large student population.More information about a doctorate in nursing practice from University of Florida

8

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

33 Annual Graduates

UNC Chapel Hill is a very large public university located in the small city of Chapel Hill.More information about a doctorate in nursing practice from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

9

Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center - New Orleans
New Orleans, LA

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

65 Annual Graduates

LSU Health - New Orleans is a small public university located in the large city of New Orleans.More information about a doctorate in nursing practice from Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center - New Orleans

10

Medical University of South Carolina
Charleston, SC

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

48 Annual Graduates

Located in the city of Charleston, MUSC is a public university with a small student population.More information about a doctorate in nursing practice from Medical University of South Carolina

11

University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
Little Rock, AR

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

34 Annual Graduates

Located in the midsize city of Little Rock, UAMS is a public university with a small student population.More information about a doctorate in nursing practice from University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences

Additional Noteworthy Schools

Here are some additional great schools for Nursing Practice students in the Southeast Region that almost earned our Best Nursing Practice Doctor's Degree Schools in the Southeast Region award.

Rank	College	Location
12	University of Virginia - Main Campus	Charlottesville, VA
13	University of Alabama at Birmingham	Birmingham, AL
14	University of South Carolina - Columbia	Columbia, SC
15	Jacksonville University	Jacksonville, FL
16	University of Louisville	Louisville, KY
17	University of Kentucky	Lexington, KY
18	University of South Alabama	Mobile, AL
19	University of North Florida	Jacksonville, FL

Best Nursing Practice Colleges by State

Explore the best nursing practice colleges for a specific state in the Southeast Region .

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Florida	217	511
North Carolina	190	282
Georgia	190	86
Virginia	182	122
Mississippi	154	45
Tennessee	150	180
Louisiana	146	106
Alabama	139	241
South Carolina	135	35
Kentucky	119	214
Arkansas	74	65
West Virginia	61	10

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 Related Majors

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Nurse Anesthetist	361
Nursing Science	257
Other Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing	250
Nursing Administration	117
Family Practice Nurse/Nursing	100
Registered Nursing	29
Psychiatric/Mental Health Nurse/Nursing	17
Adult Health Nurse/Nursing	14
Critical Care Nursing	5
School Nursing	4

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.