Here Are the Top Graduate Nursing Schools for 2026

For nurses looking to obtain an advanced degree, U.S. News & World Report released its annual rankings for graduate nursing programs on Tuesday.

Emory University’s Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing in Atlanta snagged first place in the nursing school master’s program rankings for the second year in a row, followed by Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, which took second place last year as well. Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and Ohio State University in Columbus tied for third place.

As for the best Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) programs, here Johns Hopkins took top billing, followed by Emory’s Woodruff and Rush University in Chicago in the second and third spots. Fourth place was a four-way tie between Duke University, the University of California San Francisco, the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and the University of Washington in Seattle.

U.S. News invited 682 nursing schools with graduate programs accredited by one of three main bodies — the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing, the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education, or the National League for Nursing Commission for Nursing Education Accreditation — to participate in a survey for its rankings calculations.

Of those that responded, 147 master’s programs and 154 DNP programs met the eligibility criteria to be included in the rankings. The rankings were based on 15 indicators, each differently weighted, and the scores were standardized and compared with all other ranked schools. Broadly speaking, those indicators fell into five main buckets: faculty resources; research activity (e.g., total grants from the NIH and other sources); quality assessment, based on scores from peers; program size; and student selectivity, including acceptance rates.

For the third year in a row, U.S. News placed more weight on program size (including the number of master’s degrees or doctorate degrees awarded), research activity, and faculty resources, while de-emphasizing qualitative assessments.

Rankings for individual master’s and DNP nursing specialties were based solely on assessments from nursing school deans and deans of graduate studies, who selected up to 15 schools that they felt offered the best programs in distinct specialty areas.

Below are the lists of the top 10 nursing schools for master’s and DNP degrees.

2026 Best Nursing Schools: Master’s Programs

1. Emory University, Atlanta

• Overall score: 100/100
• 2025 master’s acceptance rate: 46.99%
• 2025 mean full-time average undergraduate grade point average (GPA): 3.44
• 2025 master’s program enrollment: 661

2. Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore

• Overall score: 97/100
• 2025 master’s acceptance rate: 67.28%
• 2025 mean full-time average undergraduate GPA: 3.56
• 2025 master’s program enrollment: 416

3. Duke University, Durham, North Carolina (tie)

• Overall score: 95/100
• 2025 master’s acceptance rate: 74.79%
• 2025 mean full-time average undergraduate GPA: 3.47
• 2025 master’s program enrollment: 499

3. Ohio State University, Columbus (tie)

• Overall score: 95/100
• 2025 master’s acceptance rate: 62.69%
• 2025 mean full-time average undergraduate GPA: 3.47
• 2025 master’s program enrollment: 231

5. Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee

• Overall score: 94/100
• 2025 master’s acceptance rate: 61.94%
• 2025 mean full-time average undergraduate GPA: 3.51
• 2025 master’s program enrollment: 543

6. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

• Overall score: 92/100
• 2025 master’s acceptance rate: 65.75%
• 2025 mean full-time average undergraduate GPA: 3.66
• 2025 master’s program enrollment: 24

7. New York University Rory Meyers College of Nursing, New York City

• Overall score: 91/100
• 2025 master’s acceptance rate: 70.5%
• 2025 mean full-time average undergraduate GPA: 3.63
• 2025 master’s program enrollment: 199

8. University of Alabama at Birmingham (tie)

• Overall score: 89/100
• 2025 master’s acceptance rate: 82.4%
• 2025 mean full-time average undergraduate GPA: 3.55
• 2025 master’s program enrollment: 137

8. University of California Los Angeles (tie)

• Overall score: 89/100
• 2025 master’s acceptance rate: 20.23%
• 2025 mean full-time average undergraduate GPA: 3.58
• 2025 master’s program enrollment: 198

8. University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia (tie)

• Overall score: 89/100
• 2025 master’s acceptance rate: 69.61%
• 2025 mean full-time average undergraduate GPA: 3.56
• 2025 master’s program enrollment: 318

2026 Best Nursing Schools: DNP Programs

1. Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore

• Overall score: 100/100
• 2025 DNP acceptance rate: 50.18%
• 2025 mean full-time DNP average undergraduate GPA: 3.44
• 2025 master’s program enrollment: 338

2. Emory University, Atlanta

• Overall score: 90/100
• 2025 DNP acceptance rate: 32.63%
• 2025 mean full-time DNP average undergraduate GPA: 3.45
• 2025 master’s program enrollment: 218

3. Rush University, Chicago

• Overall score: 89/100
• 2025 DNP acceptance rate: 39.6%
• 2025 mean full-time DNP average undergraduate GPA: 3.56
• 2025 master’s program enrollment: 130

4. Duke University, Durham, North Carolina (tie)

• Overall score: 88/100
• 2025 DNP acceptance rate: 33.6%
• 2025 mean full-time DNP average undergraduate GPA: 3.56
• 2025 master’s program enrollment: 269

4. University of California San Francisco (tie)

• Overall score: 88/100
• 2025 DNP acceptance rate: 92.91%
• 2025 mean full-time DNP average undergraduate GPA: 3.70
• 2025 master’s program enrollment: 172

4. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (tie)

• Overall score: 88/100
• 2025 DNP acceptance rate: 67.16%
• 2025 mean full-time DNP average undergraduate GPA: 3.82
• 2025 master’s program enrollment: 36

4 .University of Washington, Seattle (tie)

• Overall score: 88/100
• 2025 DNP acceptance rate: 58.54%
• 2025 mean full-time DNP average undergraduate GPA: 3.62
• 2025 master’s program enrollment: 315

8. University of Minnesota — Twin Cities

• Overall score: 87/100
• 2025 DNP acceptance rate: 37.45%
• 2025 mean full-time DNP average undergraduate GPA: 3.52
• 2025 master’s program enrollment: 339

9. University of Alabama at Birmingham (tie)

• Overall score: 86/100
• 2025 DNP acceptance rate: 90.59%
• 2025 mean full-time DNP average undergraduate GPA: 3.26
• 2025 master’s program enrollment: 327

9. University of Pittsburgh (tie)

• Overall score: 86/100
• 2025 DNP acceptance rate: 18.9%
• 2025 mean full-time DNP average undergraduate GPA: 3.64
• 2025 master’s program enrollment: 150