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Best Value Nursing Master's Degree Schools in the Far Western US Region

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2023 Best Value Nursing Master's Degree Schools in the Far Western US Region

Highlighting Quality Schools With More Affordable Pricing

56 Colleges
$17,002 Avg Tuition & Fees*
$98,140 Avg Salary

Finding the Best Nursing Master's Degree School for You

Nursing is the most popular major in the United States with 26,717 degrees and certificates handed out in 2020-2021.

There are lots of options to pick from today when trying to decide which nursing program is right for you. You can choose a traditional brick and mortar school, or with the growth of online education, you can attend a school half-way across the country without even leaving your house. Also there are many trade schools that offer short-term programs that open up more career options.

The Best Value Nursing Master's Degree Schools in the Far Western US Region ranking is one of many tools that Nursing Degree Search has developed to help you make your educational decision. This report analyzed 56 schools in the Far Western US Region to see which ones offered the best value master's degree programs for nursing students. The goal was to highlight schools with more affordable prices than others offering similar quality experiences.

When determining this ranking, we place a high emphasis on the school's quality as well as its sticker price. Even though a college may be affordable, it may not offer value. 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.

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

2023 Best Value Nursing Master’s Degree Schools in the Far Western US Region

The colleges and universities below are the best value schools for nursing majors pursuing a master's degree.

Top 10 Best Nursing Master's Degree Schools

#1

United States University

San Diego, CA

Our 2023 rankings named United States University the best value school in the Far Western US Region for nursing students working on their master’s degree. USU is a small private for-profit school located in the large city of San Diego.

The average tuition and fees for an out-of-state graduate students at USU are $5,650 a year.

Full Nursing at United States University Report

Out of the 56 schools in the Far Western US Region that were part of this year’s ranking, West Coast University - Orange County landed the # 2 spot on the list. West Coast University - Orange County is a small private for-profit school located in the large city of Anaheim.

Out-of-state tuition fees for graduate students at West Coast University - Orange County are $10,989 per year.

Read More…

The excellent master’s degree programs at Concordia University, Irvine helped the school earn the #3 place on this year’s ranking of the best value nursing schools in the Far Western US Region . Concordia University, Irvine is a small private not-for-profit school located in the large city of Irvine.

Concordia University, Irvine graduate students pay an average of $8,564 in tuition and fees each year.

Read full report on Nursing at Concordia University, Irvine

Out of the 56 schools in the Far Western US Region that were part of this year’s ranking, Vanguard University of Southern California landed the # 4 spot on the list. Vanguard is a small private not-for-profit school located in the medium-sized city of Costa Mesa.

The average tuition and fees for an out-of-state graduate students at Vanguard are $12,376 a year.

Vanguard excels when it comes to quality. It’s ranked in the top 20% of all schools on our Best Nursing Master’s Degree Schools in the Far Western US Region list.

Full Nursing at Vanguard University of Southern California Report

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Point Loma Nazarene University. It ranked #5 on our 2023 Best Value Nursing Master’s Degree Schools in the Far Western US Region list. PLNU is a small private not-for-profit school located in the city of San Diego.

PLNU graduate students pay an average of $11,880 in tuition and fees each year.

Full Nursing at Point Loma Nazarene University Report

#6

Gonzaga University

Spokane, WA

Gonzaga University ranked #6 on this year’s Best Value Nursing Master’s Degree Schools in the Far Western US Region list. Located in the city of Spokane, Gonzaga is a private not-for-profit school with a moderately-sized student population.

Out-of-state tuition fees for graduate students at Gonzaga are $14,878 per year.

Gonzaga did well in our overall quality rankings, too. It placed #2 on our Best Nursing Master’s Degree Schools in the Far Western US Region list.

Read More…

#7

Mount Saint Mary's University

Los Angeles, CA

Mount Saint Mary’s University came in at #7 in this year’s edition of the Best Value Nursing Master’s Degree Schools in the Far Western US Region ranking. Located in the city of Los Angeles, MSMU is a private not-for-profit school with a small student population.

MSMU graduate students pay an average of $13,099 in tuition and fees each year.

On top of its placing in our value ranking, MSMU also did well on our Best Nursing Master’s Degree Schools in the Far Western US Region list. It’s in the top 20% of all schools reviewed in this analysis.

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

Fresno Pacific University did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best places for nursing students to get a master’s degree. It came in at #8 on the list. Located in the large city of Fresno, Fresno Pacific is a private not-for-profit college with a small student population.

Out-of-state tuition fees for graduate students at Fresno Pacific are $15,060 per year.

Full Nursing at Fresno Pacific University Report

Azusa Pacific University landed the #9 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best value master’s degree nursing programs. Azusa Pacific is a moderately-sized private not-for-profit school located in the large suburb of Azusa.

The average tuition and fees for an out-of-state graduate students at Azusa Pacific are $16,696 a year.

Read full report on Nursing at Azusa Pacific University

California State University - Stanislaus did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best places for nursing students to get a master’s degree. It came in at #10 on the list. Stan State is a large public school located in the small suburb of Turlock.

Out-of-state tuition fees for graduate students at Stan State are $18,582 per year.

Stan State did well in our overall quality rankings, too. It placed #4 on our Best Nursing Master’s Degree Schools in the Far Western US Region list.

Read full report on Nursing at California State University - Stanislaus

Best Nursing Colleges by State

Explore the best nursing colleges for a specific state in the Far Western US region.

State Degrees Awarded
Washington 3,851
California 18,329
Nevada 2,015
Alaska 177
Hawaii 535
Oregon 1,502

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

Majors Similar to Nursing

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

Notes and References

*These averages are for the top 26 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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