2025 Best Registered Nursing Doctor's Degree Schools in Pennsylvania

If you pursue a doctor's degree in registered nursing, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #25 most popular program in the country. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.

College Factual looked at 6 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Registered Nursing Doctor's Degree Schools in Pennsylvania ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 148 doctor's degrees in registered nursing to qualified students.

What's on this page: * Our Methodology

• Best Doctor’s Degree Schools List

Choosing a Great Registered Nursing School for Your Doctor's Degree

The registered nursing doctor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. 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 account for this we include a college's overall Best Colleges for a Doctor's Degree ranking which itself looks at a host of different factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.

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 registered nursing students as compared to other majors.
• Major Demand - The number of registered nursing students who choose to seek a doctor's degree at the school.
• 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.
• Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized registered nursing related body.

Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for registered 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 Registered Nursing Doctor's Degree Schools in Pennsylvania list to help you make the college decision.

Best Schools for Doctorate Students to Study Registered Nursing in Pennsylvania

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

Top Pennsylvania Schools for a Doctorate in Registered Nursing

1

University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

33 Annual Graduates

University of Pennsylvania is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a doctor's degree in registered nursing. UPenn is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Philadelphia.More information about a doctorate in registered nursing from University of Pennsylvania

2

Villanova University
Villanova, PA

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

10 Annual Graduates

Villanova University is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a doctor's degree in registered nursing. Villanova is a large private not-for-profit university located in the suburb of Villanova.More information about a doctorate in registered nursing from Villanova University

3

University of Pittsburgh - Pittsburgh Campus
Pittsburgh, PA

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

21 Annual Graduates

University of Pittsburgh - Pittsburgh Campus is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a doctor's degree in registered nursing. Pitt is a very large public university located in the large city of Pittsburgh.More information about a doctorate in registered nursing from University of Pittsburgh - Pittsburgh Campus

4

Temple University
Philadelphia, PA

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

13 Annual Graduates

It is hard to beat Temple University if you want to pursue a doctor's degree in registered nursing. Temple is a very large public university located in the large city of Philadelphia.More information about a doctorate in registered nursing from Temple University

5

Chatham University
Pittsburgh, PA

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

65 Annual Graduates

Chatham is a small private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Pittsburgh.More information about a doctorate in registered nursing from Chatham University

6

Wilkes University
Wilkes-Barre, PA

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

4 Annual Graduates

Located in the city of Wilkes-Barre, Wilkes is a private not-for-profit university with a medium-sized student population.More information about a doctorate in registered nursing from Wilkes University

Best Registered Nursing Colleges in the Middle Atlantic Region

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

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
New York	366	4
Maryland	190	7
New Jersey	165	0
District of Columbia	143	8

View All Rankings >

Rankings in Majors Related to Registered Nursing

Registered Nursing is one of 23 different types of Nursing programs to choose from.

Most Popular Majors Related to Registered Nursing

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Nursing Practice	218
Nurse Anesthetist	154
Nursing Science	35
Clinical Nurse Specialist	31
Other Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing	23
Nursing Administration	13
Family Practice Nurse/Nursing	7
Nurse Midwife/Nursing Midwifery	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.