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Best Value Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools in California

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2023 Best Value Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools in California

Identifying Quality Schools at More Affordable Prices

16 Colleges
$18,067 Avg Tuition & Fees*
$99,011 Avg Salary

Finding the Best Nursing Graduate Certificate School for You

Out of the majors we analyze each year, nursing was the most popular one in California. In total, 18,329 people earned a degree or certificate in the field from a school in California.

There are so many nursing programs in today's world that it can tough to figure out which one is the right one for you. With more and more schools offering online options, you could even register for a great program on the other side of the country. On top of that, there are a considerable number of trade schools that offer fast-track entry to many fields.

Along with in-depth profiles of schools and the programs they offer, Nursing Degree Search has created the Best Value Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools in California to help you in your search for the best school for you. Our analysis looked at 16 schools in California to see which graduate certificate programs offered the best value experiences for nursing students with the aim of identifying those quality schools that are more affordable than some of their counterparts.

This ranking is not just a list of inexpensive schools. We also consider each school's quality, since we believe a low-quality school may not be a 'bargain' at any price. More specifically, we discount our quality score by the published tuition and fees charged by a school. This gives the cost per unit of quality for each college. The value is determined by how much quality your dollar buys.

For nationwide and regional rankings, we use out-of-state tuition and fees in our calculations. Average in-state tuition and fees are used for our statewide rankings.

2023 Best Value Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools in California

The colleges and universities below are the best value schools for nursing majors pursuing a graduate certificate.

Top 10 Best Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools

Our 2023 rankings named California State University - Dominguez Hills the best value school in California for nursing students working on their graduate certificate. Located in the city of Carson, CSUDH is a public school with a fairly large student population.

CSUDH graduate students pay an average of $8,494 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

CSUDH also took the #1 spot in our Best Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools in California rankings.

Read full report on Nursing at California State University - Dominguez Hills

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend California State University - Long Beach. It ranked #2 on our 2023 Best Value Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools in California list. Located in the large city of Long Beach, CSULB is a public college with a very large student population.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at CSULB are $8,280 a year.

CSULB also took the #3 spot in our Best Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools in California rankings.

Read More…

Out of the 16 schools in California that were part of this year’s ranking, West Coast University - Orange County landed the # 3 spot on the list. Located in the city of Anaheim, West Coast University - Orange County is a private for-profit school with a small student population.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at West Coast University - Orange County are $10,989 a year.

Read More…

Out of the 16 schools in California that were part of this year’s ranking, California State University - Los Angeles landed the # 4 spot on the list. Cal State LA is a very large public school located in the city of Los Angeles.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at Cal State LA are $8,219 a year.

Read full report on Nursing at California State University - Los Angeles

#5

San Francisco State University

San Francisco, CA

Out of the 16 schools in California that were part of this year’s ranking, San Francisco State University landed the # 5 spot on the list. SFSU is a fairly large public school located in the city of San Francisco.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at SFSU are $8,738 per year.

Read full report on Nursing at San Francisco State University

University of California - San Francisco landed the #6 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best value graduate certificate nursing programs. UCSF is a small public school located in the city of San Francisco.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at UCSF are $12,999 a year.

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Point Loma Nazarene University ranked #7 on this year’s Best Value Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools in California list. Located in the large city of San Diego, PLNU is a private not-for-profit school with a small student population.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at PLNU are $11,880 per year.

PLNU not only placed well in our value ranking, but it is also #4 on our Best Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools in California list.

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#8

Mount Saint Mary's University

Los Angeles, CA

Mount Saint Mary’s University did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best places for nursing students to get a graduate certificate. It came in at #8 on the list. MSMU is a small private not-for-profit school located in the city of Los Angeles.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at MSMU are $13,099 a year.

Read full report on Nursing at Mount Saint Mary’s University

#9

National University

La Jolla, CA

National University landed the #9 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best value graduate certificate nursing programs. National University is a large private not-for-profit school located in the large city of La Jolla.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at National University are $15,480 per year.

National University also took the #2 spot in our Best Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools in California rankings.

Read More…

#9

Brandman University

Irvine, CA

Brandman University did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best places for nursing students to get a graduate certificate. It came in at #9 on the list. Located in the city of Irvine, Brandman is a private not-for-profit college with a moderately-sized student population.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at Brandman are $12,720 a year.

Read full report on Nursing at Brandman University

Best Value Nursing Colleges in the Far Western US Region

Explore all the Best Value Nursing Schools in the Far Western US Area or other specific states within that region.

State Degrees Awarded
Washington 3,851
Nevada 2,015
Alaska 177
Hawaii 535
Oregon 1,502

Nursing Focus Areas

Major Annual Graduates
Registered Nursing 266,651
Family Practice Nurse/Nursing 16,104
Nursing Administration 9,838
Nursing Practice 7,992
Other Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing 5,092
Nursing Science 4,600
Psychiatric/Mental Health Nurse/Nursing 2,287
Adult Health Nurse/Nursing 2,021
Nurse Anesthetist 1,936
Public Health/Community Nurse/Nursing 1,883
Critical Care Nursing 773
Geriatric Nurse/Nursing 563
School Nursing 553
Nurse Midwife/Nursing Midwifery 509
Clinical Nurse Leader 444
Clinical Nurse Specialist 419
Perioperative/Operating Room and Surgical Nurse/Nursing 331
Maternal/Child Health and Neonatal Nurse/Nursing 181
Occupational and Environmental Health Nursing 57
Emergency Room/Trauma Nursing 53
Palliative Care Nursing 14
Forensic Nursing 14

Related Major Annual Graduates
Practical Nursing & Nursing Assistants 84,274

Notes and References

*These averages are for the top 16 schools only.

  • 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.

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