2023 Best Value Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools in Virginia
Highlighting Quality Schools With More Affordable Prices
There are lots of options to pick from today when trying to decide which nursing program is right for you. You're no longer limited to schools in your local area, either, since online programs are becoming more prevalent. Or you may find the programs at a trade school or bootcamp to be a better alternative for you.
The Best Value Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools in Virginia ranking is one of many tools that Nursing Degree Search has developed to help you make your educational decision. This report analyzed 8 schools in Virginia to see which ones offered the best value graduate certificate 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.
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Top Value Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools in Virginia
Learn more about these excellent schools below:
Our 2023 rankings named Liberty University the best value school in Virginia for nursing students working on their graduate certificate. Liberty University is located in Lynchburg, Virginia and has a large student population. In 2020-2021, this school awarded 92 graduate certificates to qualified students.
Out-of-state tuition fees for graduate students at Liberty University are $8,360 per year.
Some students may be able to take online graduate classes at Liberty University. In fact, around 97% of the graduate population registered for at least one online class in 2019-2020.
Liberty University also took the #5 spot in our Best Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools in Virginia rankings.
A rank of #2 on this year’s list means Radford University is a great place for nursing students working on their graduate certificate who want the most bang for their educational buck. Radford University is a medium-sized public school located in Radford, Virginia that handed out 2 graduate certificates in 2020-2021.
Radford graduate students pay an average of $21,508 in tuition and fees each year.
If you are interested in distance education, be sure to check with the school since Radford does offer online graduate classes for certain majors. In fact, around 87% of the graduate population registered for at least one online class in 2019-2020.
You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Virginia Commonwealth University. It ranked #3 on our 2023 Best Value Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools in Virginia list. VCU is a public institution located in Richmond, Virginia. The school has a large population, and it awarded 4 graduate certificates in 2020-2021.
Out-of-state tuition fees for graduate students at VCU are $29,546 per year. On average, graduate certificate students take out $33,341 in loans while pursuing their degree.
Online graduate courses are available at VCU, but you will need to check with the school to see if they are available for your field of interest. During the 2019-2020 year, about 62% of the graduate students at the school took at least one online course.
VCU did well in our overall quality rankings, too. It placed #3 on our Best Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools in Virginia list.
A rank of #4 on this year’s list means University of Virginia - Main Campus is a great place for nursing students working on their graduate certificate who want the most bang for their educational buck. University of Virginia is a public institution located in Charlottesville, Virginia. The school has a large population, and it awarded 7 graduate certificates in 2020-2021.
Out-of-state tuition fees for graduate students at University of Virginia are $33,520 per year.
Depending on your major, you may be able to take online graduate classes at University of Virginia. To give an idea of how popular online courses are at the school, 75% of graduates took at least one course online in 2019-2020.
University of Virginia did well in our overall quality rankings, too. It placed #1 on our Best Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools in Virginia list.
The excellent graduate certificate programs at Old Dominion University helped the school earn the #5 place on this year’s ranking of the best value nursing schools in Virginia. Old Dominion University is a large public school located in Norfolk, Virginia that handed out 4 graduate certificates in 2020-2021.
Out-of-state tuition fees for graduate students at Old Dominion are $33,288 per year.
Online graduate courses are available at Old Dominion, but you will need to check with the school to see if they are available for your field of interest. In 2019-2020 about 82% of the graduate students at the school chose to take one or more online courses.
George Mason University landed the #6 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best value graduate certificate nursing programs. Fairfax, Virginia is the setting for this large institution of higher learning. The public school handed out graduate certificates to 8 students in 2020-2021.
The average tuition and fees for an out-of-state graduate students at GMU are $37,956 a year.
One thing to take note of is that GMU does offer online graduate classes in some areas. In fact, around 87% of the graduate population registered for at least one online class in 2019-2020.
In addition to its best value ranking, and one of the reasons why the school is on the list, GMU is ranked #4 for overall quality in Virginia.
With a ranking of #7, Shenandoah University did quite well on this year’s best value schools for nursing students working on their graduate certificate. Shenandoah is a small private not-for-profit school situated in Winchester, Virginia. It awarded 24 graduate certificates in 2020-2021.
Shenandoah graduate students pay an average of $23,430 in tuition and fees each year.
You may have the opportunity to take online graduate classes at Shenandoah. To give an idea of how popular online courses are at the school, 79% of graduates took at least one course online in 2019-2020.
Shenandoah also took the #2 spot in our Best Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools in Virginia rankings.
Marymount University did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best value places for nursing students to get a graduate certificate. It came in at #8 on the list. Located in Arlington, Virginia, the small private not-for-profit school awarded 2 diplomas to qualifed graduate certificate students in 2020-2021.
Marymount graduate students pay an average of $21,016 in tuition and fees each year.
One thing to take note of is that Marymount does offer online graduate classes in some areas. During the 2019-2020 year, about 68% of the graduate students at the school took at least one online course.
Best Value Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools in the Southeast Region
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Notes and References
Footnotes
*These averages are for the top 8 schools only.
References
- 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 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).
- Information about the national average student loan default rate is from the U.S. Department of Education and refers to data about the 2016 borrower cohort tracking period for which the cohort default rate (CDR) was 10.1%.
More about our data sources and methodologies.
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