I'm currently browsing through DNP and PhD programs. I want a doctorate mostly for personal reasons. I know that it likely won't make me anymore money as a CRNA, but I know I'll never be satisfied if I don't have a terminal degree for my field. I like the accessibility and cost of some DNP programs. I'm currently looking at a DNP program through my employer (academic institution) that would take 2 years and cost 40k with our discount. It's a little pricier than I like, but the school is nationally ranked and a top 10 public school nationwide. Going to a place like this could potentially open up more doors for me if I decide to teach or go into admin later on (which isn't too common for CRNAs).
However, I can't help but yearn for a PhD as I think it holds more clout. Looking at the curriculum of most PhDs, it seems that they're longer, cost more (although funding can be available), and a lot more research is required.
Having said all of this, I was wondering why you chose a PhD program instead of a DNP program or vice versa.
Hi, thanks for your elaborate response on this thread. Kindly pardon me as I have a question. I am currently applying to UCI in Irvine and they require I complete a STAT 7 or STAT 8 course as part of my PHD application. I am an international nurse from Ireland and have absolutely no idea how to register for it. I have also emailed the school but their response was too vague and unhelpful. Any chance you could kindly explain to me please? Thanks
Hi Dinma,
I double checked the UC Irvine website PhD application requirements and here's what I found:
An undergraduate or graduate statistics course that will cover or did cover descriptive and inferential statistics.
This statistics course must have been completed within 5 years of starting the program with a grade of B or higher. Courses must be taken for a letter grade – credit/no credit and pass/not pass courses will not be considered.
If it has been longer than 5 years, this course can be taken online or in-person at a community college, a university/college, or university extension.
If you are on the cusp of the 5 year deadline, we strongly encourage you to retake statistics during the Summer before starting the program.
Applicants are required to upload a signed copy of the Statistics Acknowledgement form in the UC Irvine Graduate Application.
Have you taken a stats course that covers descriptive and inferential statistics within the last 5 years? It sounds like you can still apply if you haven't fulfilled the above requirements, and if that's the case, then here are the instructions I found:
If you have not completed this requirement at the time of applying, please review the information below:
If it has been longer than 5 years, this course can be taken online or in-person at a regionally accredited community college, university/college, or university extension.
You may take this course during the Summer before starting the program; however, you will be required to send a copy of your final course transcript reflecting your final grade to UC Irvine’s Graduate Student Affairs Office by the start of the Fall term.
You are responsible for enrolling in the course by the appropriate deadlines.
If you fail to complete this requirement by the start of the Quarter, you will not be permitted to continue in the program. Exceptions to this policy will not be granted.
So, it sounds like you can find any local or online course as long as you make sure beforehand that they cover descriptive and inferential statistics. Some options for online courses are Southern New Hampshire University, UC Berkeley extension, Arizona State University, University of Phoenix, Kaplan, Purdue Global, and plenty of others out there. Personally, I prefer not for profit universities (Univ of Phoenix, Kaplan, and Purdue Global are for profit; the first 3 I listed are not, as far as I know). They should all have course listings and information on how to register on their websites. I had to take an online health policy prerequisite (which I did through Purdue Global) and it was pretty simple. However, I didn't have a great experience with the class itself -- it was easy (I.e., we didn't learn much) and the professor was unprofessional, inappropriate, and didn't actually teach or lecture -- he just assigned textbook readings and discussion posts and that was it.
Hope this helps! Best of luck with your application.
I double checked the UC Irvine website PhD application requirements and here's what I found:
An undergraduate or graduate statistics course that will cover or did cover descriptive and inferential statistics.
This statistics course must have been completed within 5 years of starting the program with a grade of B or higher. Courses must be taken for a letter grade – credit/no credit and pass/not pass courses will not be considered.
If it has been longer than 5 years, this course can be taken online or in-person at a community college, a university/college, or university extension.
If you are on the cusp of the 5 year deadline, we strongly encourage you to retake statistics during the Summer before starting the program.
Applicants are required to upload a signed copy of the Statistics Acknowledgement form in the UC Irvine Graduate Application.
Have you taken a stats course that covers descriptive and inferential statistics within the last 5 years? It sounds like you can still apply if you haven't fulfilled the above requirements, and if that's the case, then here are the instructions I found:
If you have not completed this requirement at the time of applying, please review the information below:
If it has been longer than 5 years, this course can be taken online or in-person at a regionally accredited community college, university/college, or university extension.
You may take this course during the Summer before starting the program; however, you will be required to send a copy of your final course transcript reflecting your final grade to UC Irvine’s Graduate Student Affairs Office by the start of the Fall term.
You are responsible for enrolling in the course by the appropriate deadlines.
If you fail to complete this requirement by the start of the Quarter, you will not be permitted to continue in the program. Exceptions to this policy will not be granted.
So, it sounds like you can find any local or online course as long as you make sure beforehand that they cover descriptive and inferential statistics. Some options for online courses are Southern New Hampshire University, UC Berkeley extension, Arizona State University, University of Phoenix, Kaplan, Purdue Global, and plenty of others out there. Personally, I prefer not for profit universities (Univ of Phoenix, Kaplan, and Purdue Global are for profit; the first 3 I listed are not, as far as I know). They should all have course listings and information on how to register on their websites. I had to take an online health policy prerequisite (which I did through Purdue Global) and it was pretty simple. However, I didn't have a great experience with the class itself -- it was easy (I.e., we didn't learn much) and the professor was unprofessional, inappropriate, and didn't actually teach or lecture -- he just assigned textbook readings and discussion posts and that was it.
Hope this helps! Best of luck with your application.
Thank you so much. You are such an angel. I honestly appreciate your elaborate response. It’s very helpful
I just finished my Masters and I believe that it is not yet the end of learning. I hav been searching online PhD Nursing/ dnp programs but the tuition fees are very expensive. My current open university does not offer health-related PhD degreed. I hope colleagues holding a PhD or currently taking it can recommend schools/open universities (outside US or within) with affordable tuition/ scholarships. Thanks!
I just finished my Masters and I believe that it is not yet the end of learning. I hav been searching online PhD Nursing/ DNP programs but the tuition fees are very expensive. My current open university does not offer health-related PhD degreed. I hope colleagues holding a PhD or currently taking it can recommend schools/open universities (outside US or within) with affordable tuition/ scholarships. Thanks!
Hi Mikolagarde,
I think your first step is to figure out whether you want a PhD or a DNP -- they are very different degrees and fit different career goals. A PhD's main (or even sole) focus is research, whereas a DNP is focused on practice. DNPs also learn about research, but there is nowhere near as much emphasis on statistics and research methods as in a PhD program, so if you are really focused on research, a DNP is probably a poor fit. A DNP won't prepare you as well for a research career and if your goal is to get a tenure track research faculty position at a top school of nursing pulling in multiple NIH grants and leading research teams and major studies, it might be incompatible (I can't say it's impossible -- I personally just don't know of any nurses in this type of position without a PhD).
On the flip side, a DNP would be a much better fit if you're more passionate about advanced practice nursing and deepening your clinical expertise. A DNP would also enable you to get a clinical faculty position at a top nursing school, and you would likely be able to participate in (maybe even lead) some research, but likely not to the same extent as a PhD nurse in a tenure-track research faculty position. Both degrees would qualify you to teach nursing, although the specific courses you're qualified to teach will likely depend on your specific area(s) of expertise.
In terms of tuition for programs, I do not recommend going into a PhD program unless it's fully funded (I.e., all tuition and program fees are covered AND the school guarantees to pay you a stipend, ideally at least $25,000 annually, and pays for your health insurance, for at least 3-4 years of full time study). There are plenty of PhD programs out there that are fully funded, so it doesn't make much sense to pay for a PhD, especially because a PhD program is so grueling and intensive that it's very difficult to work to support yourself (and many programs restrict students from working more than 10 hours a week), AND salary prospects as a PhD nurse are not necessarily great (you would make much more as a DNP or as an experienced RN than in many nursing faculty positions). I can't really speak to DNP program tuition -- I don't know if there are funded dnp programs out there, but I would imagine that there are some loan repayment programs and your DNP salary will be higher than if you get your PhD, so it might not bear the same financial risk as paying for a PhD.
I hope this helps! Best of luck to you as you make your decision!
Another thing to note is that some nursing PhD programs have a very strong focus on education rather than research (these programs should probably be EdD programs instead of PhD programs, but that's another conversation). This means that they may not offer rigorous preparation in research. That's not a bad thing if you are passionate about education, but it's important to be aware so you can choose a program that fits well with your interests and career goals. If you really want to do research, do some googling to see which nursing schools bring in the most NIH funding. If a school doesn't receive much NIH funding, I would do some digging to make sure they can offer their students rigorous training in research.
It sounds like you might be an international student, since you were interested in international programs (or maybe not). I don't know anything about international programs, but many U.S. schools offer full funding to all students, whether domestic or international (some only offer funding to domestic students). Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania, NYU, and University of Michigan offer full funding for 3-4 years to ALL nursing PhD students (I'm pretty sure -- I would double check before applying though). I believe these programs are all in person, but I think that might start to change due to the influence of the pandemic, and some schools that have traditionally been in person may start to offer online options. There are many, many more schools who also offer full funding. To find a list of nursing PhD programs, U.S. News grad school compass or nursing school compass might be helpful as a starting point, and then you can look up websites for individual programs.
Online PhD programs may also offer full funding, especially if they are state or private schools rather than for profit (e.g., Kaplan, Capella, etc.). I would recommend avoiding for profit schools because they have a reputation for not being rigorous (whether deserved or not) and are not likely to offer the same opportunities, support, mentorship, networking, etc., which could severely limit your job prospects. I would also be concerned about the level of student support and reputability of ANY nursing school that didn't offer full funding for PhD students -- if they won't fund students when many of their peer institutions do, it raises the question of whether they fail to support their students in other areas as well, and it's a clue that they may not be up to the standard of peer institutions (there are, of course, exceptions to this, but even then I don't think it's worth the financial burden when there are fully funded options).
I hope this helps! Best of luck to you as you make your decision! And sorry if this is stuff you already know -- I had no idea what I was getting into when I started applying for PhD programs, so just in case that's your situation too, I thought it was good to err on the side of going overboard.
thank you very much @saheckler, BSN, RN for the insights and recommendation regarding doctorate programs. I got in touch with a prof in my Masters program and she told me that I can submit my application in an affiliate university of our school. I am preparing my proposal and essay as of the moment. if all goes well, I will start my PhD Nursing program this September...all the best!
saheckler, PhD, RN
76 Posts
Hi Dinma,
I double checked the UC Irvine website PhD application requirements and here's what I found:
An undergraduate or graduate statistics course that will cover or did cover descriptive and inferential statistics.
Have you taken a stats course that covers descriptive and inferential statistics within the last 5 years? It sounds like you can still apply if you haven't fulfilled the above requirements, and if that's the case, then here are the instructions I found:
If you have not completed this requirement at the time of applying, please review the information below:
So, it sounds like you can find any local or online course as long as you make sure beforehand that they cover descriptive and inferential statistics. Some options for online courses are Southern New Hampshire University, UC Berkeley extension, Arizona State University, University of Phoenix, Kaplan, Purdue Global, and plenty of others out there. Personally, I prefer not for profit universities (Univ of Phoenix, Kaplan, and Purdue Global are for profit; the first 3 I listed are not, as far as I know). They should all have course listings and information on how to register on their websites. I had to take an online health policy prerequisite (which I did through Purdue Global) and it was pretty simple. However, I didn't have a great experience with the class itself -- it was easy (I.e., we didn't learn much) and the professor was unprofessional, inappropriate, and didn't actually teach or lecture -- he just assigned textbook readings and discussion posts and that was it.
Hope this helps! Best of luck with your application.