2025 Best Nursing Master's Degree Schools in North Carolina

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.

College Factual looked at 13 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Nursing Master's Degree Schools in North Carolina ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 766 master's degrees in nursing during the 2022-2023 academic year.

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. 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 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.

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

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 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.

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

Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Nursing in North Carolina

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

10 Top North Carolina Schools for a Master's in Nursing

1

Duke University
Durham, NC

208 Annual Graduates

$109,702 Median Starting Salary

It is difficult to beat Duke University if you wish to pursue a master's degree in nursing. Located in the large city of Durham, Duke is a private not-for-profit university with a large student population.

Master's students who receive their degree from the nursing program earn an average of $109,702 in the first couple years of their career.

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

2

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC

49 Annual Graduates

$99,792 Median Starting Salary

It's hard to beat University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill if you wish to pursue a master's degree in nursing. UNC Chapel Hill is a very large public university located in the small city of Chapel Hill.

Soon after graduating, nursing master's recipients typically earn about $99,792 in their early careers.

More information about a master’s in nursing from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

3

East Carolina University
Greenville, NC

69 Annual Graduates

$112,198 Median Starting Salary

East Carolina University is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a master's degree in nursing. ECU is a fairly large public university located in the city of Greenville.

Nursing master's degree recipients from East Carolina University earn a boost of about $2,011 over the average earnings of nursing majors.

More information about a master’s in nursing from East Carolina University

4

University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Greensboro, NC

21 Annual Graduates

$93,594 Median Starting Salary

University of North Carolina at Greensboro is one of the best schools in the country for getting a master's degree in nursing. UNC Greensboro is a large public university located in the city of Greensboro.

Master's graduates who receive their degree from the nursing program make about $93,594 in the first couple years of working.

More information about a master’s in nursing from University of North Carolina at Greensboro

5

University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Charlotte, NC

60 Annual Graduates

$118,061 Median Starting Salary

Located in the large city of Charlotte, UNC Charlotte is a public university with a very large student population.

Master's recipients from the nursing program at University of North Carolina at Charlotte earn $7,874 more than the standard college grad with the same degree shortly after graduation.

More information about a master’s in nursing from University of North Carolina at Charlotte

6

University of North Carolina at Wilmington
Wilmington, NC

141 Annual Graduates

$92,353 Median Starting Salary

Located in the medium-sized city of Wilmington, UNCW is a public university with a large student population.

Students who graduate with their master's from the nursing program report average early career earnings of $92,353.

More information about a master’s in nursing from University of North Carolina at Wilmington

7

Cabarrus College of Health Sciences
Concord, NC

27 Annual Graduates

Cabarrus College of Health Sciences is a fairly small private not-for-profit college located in the city of Concord.More information about a master’s in nursing from Cabarrus College of Health Sciences

8

Gardner - Webb University
Boiling Springs, NC

26 Annual Graduates

$94,355 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 master's from the nursing program report average early career earnings of $94,355.

More information about a master’s in nursing from Gardner - Webb University

9

Western Carolina University
Cullowhee, NC

38 Annual Graduates

$106,628 Median Starting Salary

WCU is a large public university located in the distant town of Cullowhee.

Master's graduates who receive their degree from the nursing program make an average of $106,628 in the first couple years of working.

More information about a master’s in nursing from Western Carolina University

10

University of Mount Olive
Mount Olive, NC

11 Annual Graduates

Located in the rural area of Mount Olive, UMO is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population.More information about a master’s in nursing from University of Mount Olive

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	208	2,300
Georgia	190	1,353
Virginia	182	728
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 >

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
Family Practice Nurse/Nursing	223
Registered Nursing	153
Other Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing	121
Nursing Administration	96
Adult Health Nurse/Nursing	59
School Nursing	30
Nurse Anesthetist	24
Nursing Science	22
Psychiatric/Mental Health Nurse/Nursing	18
Women’s Health Nurse/Nursing	15

Majors Similar to Nursing

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Public Health	711
Allied Health Professions	596
Health & Medical Administrative Services	443
Rehabilitation & Therapeutic Professions	278
Mental & Social Health Services	234
Communication Sciences	222
Medical Illustration & Informatics	98
Pharmacy/Pharmaceutical Sciences	63
Dietetics & Clinical Nutrition Services	52
Bioethics/Medical Ethics	49

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.