2025 Best Nursing Doctor's Degree Schools in Wisconsin

Nursing is of the hottest doctor's degree programs in the United States, coming in as the #5 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 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 6 schools in Wisconsin to determine which ones were the best for nursing students pursuing a doctor's degree. Combined, these schools handed out 208 doctor's degrees in nursing to qualified students.

What's on this page: * Our Methodology

• Best Doctor’s Degree Schools List

Choosing a Great Nursing School for Your Doctor's Degree

The nursing doctor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. 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

A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To take this into account we consider a college's overall Best Colleges for a Doctor's Degree ranking which itself looks at a combination 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 doctorate graduates during the early years of their career. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their doctor's degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.

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

More Ways to Rank Nursing Schools

Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Nursing Doctor's Degree Schools in Wisconsin ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.

Best Schools for Doctorate Students to Study Nursing in Wisconsin

The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing a doctor's degree in nursing.

Top Wisconsin Schools for a Doctorate in Nursing

1

University of Wisconsin - Madison
Madison, WI

27 Annual Graduates

It is hard to beat University of Wisconsin - Madison if you want to pursue a doctor's degree in nursing. UW - Madison is a very large public university located in the city of Madison.More information about a doctorate in nursing from University of Wisconsin - Madison

2

Marquette University
Milwaukee, WI

23 Annual Graduates

Marquette University is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a doctor's degree in nursing. Marquette is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Milwaukee.More information about a doctorate in nursing from Marquette University

3

Viterbo University
La Crosse, WI

27 Annual Graduates

$112,130 Median Starting Salary

It's hard to beat Viterbo University if you wish to pursue a doctor's degree in nursing. Located in the small city of La Crosse, Viterbo is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population.

Nursing doctor's degree recipients from Viterbo University earn a boost of about $3,016 over the average income of nursing graduates.

More information about a doctorate in nursing from Viterbo University

4

University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire
Eau Claire, WI

21 Annual Graduates

$104,318 Median Starting Salary

University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire is one of the best schools in the country for getting a doctor's degree in nursing. UW - Eau Claire is a medium-sized public university located in the small city of Eau Claire.

Doctorate students who receive their degree from the nursing program make around $104,318 in their early career salary.

More information about a doctorate in nursing from University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire

5

University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
Milwaukee, WI

48 Annual Graduates

UWM is a fairly large public university located in the city of Milwaukee.More information about a doctorate in nursing from University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee

6

University of Wisconsin - Oshkosh
Oshkosh, WI

56 Annual Graduates

$110,893 Median Starting Salary

UW Oshkosh is a fairly large public university located in the city of Oshkosh.

Doctorate graduates who receive their degree from the nursing program earn around $110,893 in their early career salary.

More information about a doctorate in nursing from University of Wisconsin - Oshkosh

Best Nursing Colleges in the Great Lakes Region

Explore all the Best Nursing Schools in the Great Lakes Area or other specific states within that region.

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Illinois	153	1,166
Michigan	149	169
Ohio	144	238
Indiana	132	190

View All Rankings >

Rankings in Majors Related to Nursing

One of 34 majors within the Health Professions area of study, Nursing has other similar majors worth exploring.

Nursing Concentrations

Major	Annual Graduates
Nursing Practice	181
Registered Nursing	11
Family Practice Nurse/Nursing	11
Nursing Administration	2
Nursing Science	2
Adult Health Nurse/Nursing	1

Majors Similar to Nursing

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Medicine	396
Rehabilitation & Therapeutic Professions	321
Pharmacy/Pharmaceutical Sciences	222
Dentistry	114
Public Health	29
Communication Sciences	17
Other Health Professions	6
Medical Science	4
Medical Illustration & Informatics	4
Mental & Social Health Services	3

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.