2025 Best Nursing Master's Degree Schools in Florida

Nursing is of the hottest master's degree programs in the United States, coming in as the #2 most popular major in the country. This means there are lots of options to choose from when you decide to get your degree.

In 2025, College Factual analyzed 20 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Nursing Master's Degree Schools in Florida ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 2,475 master's degrees in nursing during the 2022-2023 academic year.

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. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.

A Great Overall School

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 include a college's overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking which itself looks at a combination of various 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 master's graduates during the early years of their career. That is, everyone wants their master's degree to be worth something, and salaries are one measure of determining that.

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 full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools 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 Florida list to help you make the college decision.

Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Nursing in Florida

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

10 Top Florida Schools for a Master's in Nursing

1

University of Miami
Coral Gables, FL

121 Annual Graduates

$107,332 Median Starting Salary

Every student who is interested in a master's degree in nursing has to check out University of Miami. Located in the large suburb of Coral Gables, U Miami is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.

Master's graduates who receive their degree from the nursing program make an average of $107,332 in their early career salary.

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

2

Florida International University
Miami, FL

104 Annual Graduates

$114,379 Median Starting Salary

Any student pursuing a degree in a master's degree in nursing needs to check out Florida International University. Located in the suburb of Miami, FIU is a public university with a very large student population.

Soon after graduation, nursing master's recipients usually make around $114,379 in the first five years of their career.

More information about a master’s in nursing from Florida International University

3

Keiser University - Ft Lauderdale
Fort Lauderdale, FL

75 Annual Graduates

$123,825 Median Starting Salary

It is hard to beat Keiser University - Ft Lauderdale if you want to pursue a master's degree in nursing. Located in the medium-sized city of Fort Lauderdale, Keiser University - Ft Lauderdale is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.

Master's recipients from the nursing degree program at Keiser University - Ft Lauderdale get $4,317 more than the average graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.

More information about a master’s in nursing from Keiser University - Ft Lauderdale

4

University of South Florida - Main Campus
Tampa, FL

239 Annual Graduates

$108,040 Median Starting Salary

It is difficult to beat University of South Florida - Main Campus if you wish to pursue a master's degree in nursing. Located in the large city of Tampa, USF Tampa is a public university with a very large student population.

Master's graduates who receive their degree from the nursing program make about $108,040 in the first couple years of their career.

More information about a master’s in nursing from University of South Florida - Main Campus

5

Nova Southeastern University
Fort Lauderdale, FL

237 Annual Graduates

$102,338 Median Starting Salary

Located in the suburb of Fort Lauderdale, NUS Florida is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population.

Students who graduate with their master's from the nursing program report average early career wages of $102,338.

More information about a master’s in nursing from Nova Southeastern University

6

Florida State University
Tallahassee, FL

30 Annual Graduates

$209,572 Median Starting Salary

Florida State is a very large public university located in the midsize city of Tallahassee.

Those nursing students who get their master's degree from Florida State University make $90,064 more than the typical nursing grad.

More information about a master’s in nursing from Florida State University

7

Barry University
Miami, FL

51 Annual Graduates

$149,750 Median Starting Salary

Located in the suburb of Miami, Barry University is a private not-for-profit university with a medium-sized student population.

Master's recipients from the nursing major at Barry University get $30,242 more than the typical college graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.

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

8

AdventHealth University
Orlando, FL

36 Annual Graduates

$212,540 Median Starting Salary

Located in the city of Orlando, AHU is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population.

Those nursing students who get their master's degree from AdventHealth University receive $93,032 more than the standard nursing student.

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

9

Jacksonville University
Jacksonville, FL

109 Annual Graduates

$98,285 Median Starting Salary

JU is a small private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Jacksonville.

Soon after graduating, nursing master's recipients typically make around $98,285 in the first five years of their career.

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

10

South University, Tampa
Tampa, FL

80 Annual Graduates

$102,397 Median Starting Salary

Located in the large city of Tampa, South University, Tampa is a private for-profit university with a small student population.

Master's graduates who receive their degree from the nursing program earn about $102,397 for their early career.

More information about a master’s in nursing from South University, Tampa

Best Nursing Colleges in the Southeast Region

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

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Georgia	190	1,353
Virginia	182	728
North Carolina	178	931
Tennessee	166	1,147
Alabama	151	1,997
Kentucky	147	1,361
Louisiana	147	340
South Carolina	146	369
Mississippi	145	175
Arkansas	121	229
West Virginia	112	145

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
Family Practice Nurse/Nursing	1,114
Registered Nursing	975
Nursing Administration	185
Nurse Anesthetist	55
Critical Care Nursing	44
Nursing Practice	35
Psychiatric/Mental Health Nurse/Nursing	26
Clinical Nurse Specialist	25
Adult Health Nurse/Nursing	8
School Nursing	8

Majors Similar to Nursing

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Mental & Social Health Services	1,183
Public Health	816
Allied Health Professions	805
Health & Medical Administrative Services	638
Communication Sciences	586
Pharmacy/Pharmaceutical Sciences	340
Rehabilitation & Therapeutic Professions	326
Health Sciences & Services	204
Medical Illustration & Informatics	120
Alternative Medicine & Systems	109

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.