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Best Value Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools in the Great Lakes Region

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2023 Best Value Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools in the Great Lakes Region

Highlighting Quality Schools With More Affordable Pricing

46 Colleges
$13,206 Avg Tuition & Fees*
$99,011 Avg Salary

Finding the Best Nursing Graduate Certificate School for You

Nursing is the most popular major in the United States with 57,106 degrees and certificates handed out in 2020-2021.

When it comes to higher education, there are a lot of options for nursing students. Along with traditional schools that require in-person attendence, you can attend one of many reputable online schools. Some programs even offer a hybrid experience. Alternatively, you may choose a trade school that prepares you to enter the workforce with knowledge in a specific field.

The Best Value Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools in the Great Lakes Region ranking is one of many tools that Nursing Degree Search has developed to help you make your educational decision. Our analysis looked at 46 schools in the Great Lakes Region 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. Specifically, our score for quality is discounted by the published tuition and fees charged by the given college. This gives the cost per unit of quality for each college. The more quality your dollar buys, the better the value.

For nationwide and regional rankings, we use out-of-state tuition and fees in our calculations. For statewide rankings, we use average in-state tuition and fees.

Top 10 Best Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools

#1

Youngstown State University

Youngstown, OH

Our 2023 rankings named Youngstown State University the best value school in the Great Lakes Region for nursing students working on their graduate certificate. Youngstown State University is a fairly large public school located in the city of Youngstown.

Out-of-state tuition fees for graduate students at Youngstown State University are $6,931 per year.

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The excellent graduate certificate programs at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville helped the school earn the #2 place on this year’s ranking of the best value nursing schools in the Great Lakes Region . Located in the large suburb of Edwardsville, SIUE is a public college with a fairly large student population.

Out-of-state tuition fees for graduate students at SIUE are $9,316 per year.

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You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around you if you attend Saint Francis Medical Center College of Nursing. The school came in at #3 on this year’s Best Value Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools in the Great Lakes Region list. St. Francis Medical Center College of Nursing is a small private not-for-profit school located in the city of Peoria.

St. Francis Medical Center College of Nursing graduate students pay an average of $8,740 in tuition and fees each year.

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A rank of #4 on this year’s list means Concordia University, Wisconsin is a great value for nursing students working on their graduate certificate. Concordia University, Wisconsin is a moderately-sized private not-for-profit school located in the large suburb of Mequon.

Concordia University, Wisconsin graduate students pay an average of $11,760 in tuition and fees each year.

Concordia University, Wisconsin did well in our overall quality rankings, too. It placed #3 on our Best Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools in the Great Lakes Region list.

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You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around you if you attend Herzing University - Madison. The school came in at #5 on this year’s Best Value Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools in the Great Lakes Region list. Located in the city of Madison, Herzing University - Madison is a private not-for-profit college with a small student population.

Out-of-state tuition fees for graduate students at Herzing University - Madison are $11,680 per year.

In addition to its best value ranking, and one of the reasons why the school is on the list, Herzing University - Madison is ranked #4 for overall quality for nursing in the Great Lakes Region .

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With a ranking of #6, University of St Francis did quite well on this year’s best value schools for nursing students working on their graduate certificate. Located in the large suburb of Joliet, University of Saint Francis is a private not-for-profit college with a small student population.

Out-of-state tuition fees for graduate students at University of Saint Francis are $13,839 per year.

University of Saint Francis did well in our overall quality rankings, too. It placed #1 on our Best Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools in the Great Lakes Region list.

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Chamberlain University - Illinois did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best places for nursing students to get a graduate certificate. It came in at #7 on the list. Located in the suburb of Addison, Chamberlain - Illinois is a private for-profit school with a fairly large student population.

Out-of-state tuition fees for graduate students at Chamberlain - Illinois are $14,090 per year.

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Illinois State University landed the #8 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best value graduate certificate nursing programs. Located in the suburb of Normal, Illinois State is a public college with a fairly large student population.

Illinois State graduate students pay an average of $11,773 in tuition and fees each year.

On top of its placing in our value ranking, Illinois State also did well on our Best Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools in the Great Lakes Region list. It’s in the top 20% of all schools reviewed in this analysis.

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#9

Purdue University Global

Indianapolis, IN

Purdue University Global landed the #9 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best value graduate certificate nursing programs. Located in the city of Indianapolis, Purdue University Global is a public school with a fairly large student population.

Out-of-state tuition fees for graduate students at Purdue University Global are $10,582 per year.

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#10

Lewis University

Romeoville, IL

With a ranking of #10, Lewis University did quite well on this year’s best value schools for nursing students working on their graduate certificate. Located in the large suburb of Romeoville, Lewis is a private not-for-profit school with a medium-sized student population.

Out-of-state tuition fees for graduate students at Lewis are $14,960 per year.

In addition to its best value ranking, and one of the reasons why the school is on the list, Lewis is ranked #5 for overall quality for nursing in the Great Lakes Region .

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Best Nursing Colleges by State

Explore the best nursing colleges for a specific state in the Great Lakes region.

State Degrees Awarded
Michigan 7,345
Ohio 13,973
Illinois 21,938
Indiana 7,922
Wisconsin 5,410

Nursing Concentrations

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 25 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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