2025 Best Nursing Master's Degree Schools in Rhode Island

Ranked #2 in popularity, nursing is one of the most sought-after master'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.

In 2025, College Factual analyzed 3 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Nursing Master's Degree Schools in Rhode Island ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 82 master's degrees in nursing to qualified students.

What's on this page: * Our Methodology

• Best Master’s Degree Schools List

Choosing a Great Nursing School for Your Master's Degree

Your choice of nursing for getting your master'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 master's degree school is important to ensure a quality education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To take this into account we consider a college's overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking which itself looks at a collection of various factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.

Average Early-Career Salaries

Average early-career salary of those graduating with their master's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. After all, your master's degree won't mean much if it doesn't help you find a job that will help you earn a living.

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 master'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 master'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 complete 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.

More Ways to Rank Nursing Schools

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 Master's Degree Schools in Rhode Island list to help you make the college decision.

Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Nursing in Rhode Island

Learn about the top ranked colleges and universities for nursing students seeking a a master's degree.

Top Rhode Island Schools for a Master's in Nursing

1

University of Rhode Island
Kingston, RI

28 Annual Graduates

$109,305 Median Starting Salary

University of Rhode Island is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a master's degree in nursing. URI is a fairly large public university located in the large suburb of Kingston.

Students who graduate with their master's from the nursing program report average early career wages of $109,305.

More information about a master’s in nursing from University of Rhode Island

2

Rhode Island College
Providence, RI

29 Annual Graduates

$141,941 Median Starting Salary

Rhode Island College is a wonderful decision for individuals pursuing a master's degree in nursing. RIC is a medium-sized public college located in the large suburb of Providence.

Those nursing students who get their master's degree from Rhode Island College earn $16,318 more than the average nursing student.

More information about a master’s in nursing from Rhode Island College

3

Salve Regina University
Newport, RI

19 Annual Graduates

Salve Regina University is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a master's degree in nursing. Salve Regina is a small private not-for-profit university located in the suburb of Newport.More information about a master’s in nursing from Salve Regina University

Best Nursing Colleges in the New England Region

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

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Massachusetts	222	1,441
Connecticut	153	506
New Hampshire	108	281
Vermont	91	0
Maine	90	125

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 Science	28
Family Practice Nurse/Nursing	25
Geriatric Nurse/Nursing	21
Public Health/Community Nurse/Nursing	8

Most Popular Related Majors

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Allied Health Professions	81
Health & Medical Administrative Services	58
Mental & Social Health Services	54
Rehabilitation & Therapeutic Professions	52
Public Health	46
Dietetics & Clinical Nutrition Services	44
Medical Science	38
Communication Sciences	13
Pharmacy/Pharmaceutical Sciences	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.