2025 Best Nursing Doctor's Degree Schools in North Carolina

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.

College Factual reviewed 9 schools in North Carolina to determine which ones were the best for doctor's degree seekers in the field of nursing. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 470 doctor's degrees in nursing 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 School for Your Doctor's Degree

Your choice of nursing for getting your doctor's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality nursing program can vary widely even among the top schools. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.

A Great Overall School

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.

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

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 doctor'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 doctor'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 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 Doctor's Degree Schools in North Carolina list to help you make the college decision.

Best Schools for Doctorate Students to Study Nursing in North Carolina

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

Top North Carolina Schools for a Doctorate in Nursing

1

Duke University
Durham, NC

97 Annual Graduates

$156,275 Median Starting Salary

Every student who is interested in a doctor's degree in nursing needs to take a look at Duke University. Located in the city of Durham, Duke is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.

Those nursing students who get their doctor's degree from Duke University earn $25,388 more than the standard nursing graduate.

More information about a doctorate in nursing from Duke University

2

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC

39 Annual Graduates

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a doctor's degree in nursing. UNC Chapel Hill is a very large public university located in the small city of Chapel Hill.More information about a doctorate in nursing from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

3

East Carolina University
Greenville, NC

80 Annual Graduates

$106,444 Median Starting Salary

East Carolina University is a great option for individuals interested in a doctor's degree in nursing. ECU is a very large public university located in the city of Greenville.

After graduating, nursing doctorate recipients generally earn around $106,444 at the beginning of their careers.

More information about a doctorate in nursing from East Carolina University

4

University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Greensboro, NC

73 Annual Graduates

$149,239 Median Starting Salary

University of North Carolina at Greensboro is a great decision for students pursuing a doctor's degree in nursing. UNC Greensboro is a fairly large public university located in the city of Greensboro.

Doctorate recipients from the nursing major at University of North Carolina at Greensboro get $18,352 more than the typical college graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.

More information about a doctorate in nursing from University of North Carolina at Greensboro

5

University of North Carolina at Wilmington
Wilmington, NC

70 Annual Graduates

Located in the city of Wilmington, UNCW is a public university with a fairly large student population.More information about a doctorate in nursing from University of North Carolina at Wilmington

6

University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Charlotte, NC

25 Annual Graduates

Located in the city of Charlotte, UNC Charlotte is a public university with a very large student population.More information about a doctorate in nursing from University of North Carolina at Charlotte

7

Gardner - Webb University
Boiling Springs, NC

37 Annual Graduates

$111,589 Median Starting Salary

Gardner - Webb is a small private not-for-profit university located in the rural area of Boiling Springs.

Students who graduate with their doctorate from the nursing program report average early career earnings of $111,589.

More information about a doctorate in nursing from Gardner - Webb University

8

Western Carolina University
Cullowhee, NC

19 Annual Graduates

WCU is a fairly large public university located in the distant town of Cullowhee.More information about a doctorate in nursing from Western Carolina University

9

Lenoir - Rhyne University
Hickory, NC

16 Annual Graduates

Lenoir - Rhyne University is a small private not-for-profit university located in the city of Hickory.More information about a doctorate in nursing from Lenoir - Rhyne University

Best Nursing Colleges in the Southeast Region

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

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Florida	138	636
Virginia	127	237
Georgia	126	236
Mississippi	113	50
Louisiana	103	147
Tennessee	102	344
Alabama	98	490
South Carolina	91	79
Kentucky	87	404
Arkansas	58	66
West Virginia	49	36

View All Rankings >

Nursing Related Rankings by Major

Nursing is one of 34 different types of Health Professions programs to choose from.

Nursing Focus Areas

Major	Annual Graduates
Nursing Practice	366
Nursing Science	27
Nurse Anesthetist	24
Family Practice Nurse/Nursing	23
Registered Nursing	14
Adult Health Nurse/Nursing	6
School Nursing	4
Psychiatric/Mental Health Nurse/Nursing	4
Nursing Administration	2

Majors Similar to Nursing

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Medicine	690
Rehabilitation & Therapeutic Professions	528
Pharmacy/Pharmaceutical Sciences	374
Dentistry	139
Public Health	27
Health & Medical Administrative Services	24
Alternative Medicine & Systems	24
Communication Sciences	23
Movement & Mind-Body Therapies	8
Medical Illustration & Informatics	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.