2025 Best Nursing Master's Degree Schools in District of Columbia

If you pursue a master's degree in nursing, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #2 most popular program in the country. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.

For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 3 schools in District of Columbia to determine which ones were the best for nursing students pursuing a master's degree. Combined, these schools handed out 413 master's degrees in nursing to qualified students.

Jump to one of the following sections: * Our Methodology

• Best Master’s Degree Schools List

Choosing a Great Nursing School for Your Master's Degree

The nursing master's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality nursing program can vary widely even among the top schools. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:

Quality Overall Is Important

A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.

Average Earnings

To determine the overall quality of a graduate school, one factor we look at is the average early-career salary of those receiving their master's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their master'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 master'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 master's degree.
• 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 colleges for nursing students working on their master's degree.

One Size Does Not Fit All

Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Nursing Master's Degree Schools in District of Columbia list, to help you choose the best school for you.

Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Nursing in District of Columbia

Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a master's degree in nursing.

Top District of Columbia Schools for a Master's in Nursing

1

George Washington University
Washington, DC

164 Annual Graduates

$102,660 Median Starting Salary

George Washington University is one of the best schools in the country for getting a master's degree in nursing. GWU is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Washington.

Students who graduate with their master's from the nursing program state that they receive average early career wages of $102,660.

More information about a master’s in nursing from George Washington University

2

Georgetown University
Washington, DC

233 Annual Graduates

$112,845 Median Starting Salary

Georgetown University is one of the best schools in the country for getting a master's degree in nursing. Located in the city of Washington, Georgetown is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population.

Those nursing students who get their master's degree from Georgetown University make $3,730 more than the standard nursing graduate.

More information about a master’s in nursing from Georgetown University

3

Catholic University of America
Washington, DC

11 Annual Graduates

$111,840 Median Starting Salary

It is hard to beat Catholic University of America if you want to pursue a master's degree in nursing. Located in the large city of Washington, CUA is a private not-for-profit university with a moderately-sized student population.

Master's recipients from the nursing major at Catholic University of America make $2,725 above the typical college grad in this field shortly after graduation.

More information about a master’s in nursing from Catholic University of America

Best Nursing Colleges in the Middle Atlantic Region

Explore all the Best Nursing Colleges in the Middle Atlantic Area or other specific states within that region.

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
New York	261	2,540
Pennsylvania	248	2,051
Maryland	193	624
New Jersey	188	445
Delaware	109	129

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
Registered Nursing	237
Family Practice Nurse/Nursing	96
Nursing Practice	19
Occupational and Environmental Health Nursing	18
Geriatric Nurse/Nursing	12
Psychiatric/Mental Health Nurse/Nursing	11
Nursing Science	10
Nursing Administration	7
Nurse Midwife/Nursing Midwifery	3

Most Popular Majors Related to Nursing

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Public Health	640
Health & Medical Administrative Services	318
Communication Sciences	109
Rehabilitation & Therapeutic Professions	101
Allied Health Professions	62
Mental & Social Health Services	51
Clinical/Medical Laboratory Science	33
Other Health Professions	14
Medical Illustration & Informatics	8
Bioethics/Medical Ethics	5

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.