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2025 Best Critical Care Nursing Schools

19 Colleges in the United States
747 Critical Care Nursing Degrees Awarded
If you plan on majoring in critical care nursing, you won't be alone since the degree program is ranked #529 in the country in terms of popularity. As a result, there are many college that offer the degree, making your choice of school a hard one.

College Factual looked at 19 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Critical Care Nursing Schools ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 747 degrees in critical care nursing to qualified students.

Jump to one of the following sections: * Degree-Level Rankings

Choosing a Great Critical Care Nursing School

Best Critical Care Nursing Schools The critical care nursing program you select can have a big impact on your future. That's why we developed our collection of Best Schools for Critical Care Nursing rankings. We derive our Best Overall Critical Care Nursing School rankings by rolling up our degree-level rankings after weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each school.

You may want to choose one of the degree levels below to find the schools of most interest to you.

Pick Your Critical Care Nursing Degree Level

Master's Degrees in Critical Care Nursing
Doctor's Degrees in Critical Care Nursing

Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Critical Care Nursing Schools list, to help you choose the best school for you. If you'd like to restrict your choices to just one part of the country, you can filter this list by location.

In addition to our rankings, you can take two colleges and compare them based on the criteria that matters most to you in our unique tool, College Combat. Test it out when you get a chance! You may also want to bookmark the link and share it with others who are trying to make the college decision.

If you want to learn more about how we derive our rankings, see College Factual's Methodology.

Best Schools for Critical Care Nursing in the United States

The schools below may not offer all types of critical care nursing degrees so you may want to filter by degree level first. However, they are great for the degree levels they do offer.

10 Top Schools in Critical Care Nursing

1
NYU crest
New York University
New York, NY
Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type
1st Most Popular In NY
61 Critical Care Nursing Degrees Awarded

New York University is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a degree in critical care nursing. Located in the large city of New York, NYU is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #16 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means NYU is a great university overall.

There were about 61 critical care nursing students who graduated with this degree at NYU in the most recent year we have data available.

More information about a degree in critical care nursing from New York University

2
Master's Degree Highest Degree Type
1st Most Popular In OH

Case Western Reserve University is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a degree in critical care nursing. Case Western is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Cleveland. A Best Colleges rank of #116 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means Case Western is a great university overall.

There were approximately 11 critical care nursing students who graduated with this degree at Case Western in the most recent data year.

More information about a degree in critical care nursing from Case Western Reserve University

3
Master's Degree Highest Degree Type
1st Most Popular In SC

University of South Carolina - Columbia is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a degree in critical care nursing. UofSC is a fairly large public university located in the medium-sized city of Columbia. A Best Colleges rank of #99 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means UofSC is a great university overall.

There were approximately 17 critical care nursing students who graduated with this degree at UofSC in the most recent data year.

More information about a degree in critical care nursing from University of South Carolina - Columbia

4
Master's Degree Highest Degree Type
2nd Most Popular In NY

University of Rochester is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a degree in critical care nursing. Located in the medium-sized city of Rochester, University of Rochester is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #82 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means University of Rochester is a great university overall.

There were approximately 13 critical care nursing students who graduated with this degree at University of Rochester in the most recent data year.

More information about a degree in critical care nursing from University of Rochester

5
Master's Degree Highest Degree Type
1st Most Popular In AZ
121 Critical Care Nursing Degrees Awarded

Located in the city of Phoenix, Grand Canyon University is a private for-profit university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #144 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means Grand Canyon University is a great university overall.

There were about 121 critical care nursing students who graduated with this degree at Grand Canyon University in the most recent data year.

More information about a degree in critical care nursing from Grand Canyon University

6
Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type
1st Most Popular In MN
50.0% Growth in Graduates

Winona State is a moderately-sized public university located in the distant town of Winona. This university ranks 7th out of 52 schools for overall quality in the state of Minnesota.

There were approximately 20 critical care nursing students who graduated with this degree at Winona State in the most recent year we have data available.

More information about a degree in critical care nursing from Winona State University

7
Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type
1st Most Popular In MO
144 Critical Care Nursing Degrees Awarded

Located in the large suburb of Saint Louis, Maryville U is a private not-for-profit university with a moderately-sized student population. This university ranks 7th out of 48 schools for overall quality in the state of Missouri.

There were roughly 144 critical care nursing students who graduated with this degree at Maryville U in the most recent data year.

More information about a degree in critical care nursing from Maryville University of Saint Louis

8
Master's Degree Highest Degree Type
1st Most Popular In IL
26.7% Growth in Graduates

Located in the large city of Chicago, Loyola Chicago is a private not-for-profit university with a large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #100 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means Loyola Chicago is a great university overall.

There were roughly 15 critical care nursing students who graduated with this degree at Loyola Chicago in the most recent year we have data available.

More information about a degree in critical care nursing from Loyola University Chicago

9
DeSales crest
DeSales University
Center Valley, PA
Master's Degree Highest Degree Type
1st Most Popular In PA

DeSales is a small private not-for-profit university located in the suburb of Center Valley. This university ranks 34th out of 103 schools for overall quality in the state of Pennsylvania.

There were approximately 10 critical care nursing students who graduated with this degree at DeSales in the most recent year we have data available.

More information about a degree in critical care nursing from DeSales University

10
Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type
1st Most Popular In OR

OHSU is a small public university located in the city of Portland.

There were roughly 3 critical care nursing students who graduated with this degree at OHSU in the most recent year we have data available.

More information about a degree in critical care nursing from Oregon Health & Science University

Critical Care Nursing by Region

View the Best Critical Care Nursing Schools for a specific region near you.

Region
Southeast
New England
Rocky Mountains
Plains States
Middle Atlantic
Far Western US
Southwest
Other U.S. Territories
Great Lakes

View All Rankings >

One of 23 majors within the Nursing area of study, Critical Care Nursing has other similar majors worth exploring.

Related Major Annual Graduates
Registered Nursing 262,974
Family Practice Nurse/Nursing 16,647
Nursing Practice 8,862
Nursing Administration 8,663
Other Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing 4,717
Nursing Science 4,701
Psychiatric/Mental Health Nurse/Nursing 2,895
Adult Health Nurse/Nursing 2,075
Public Health/Community Nurse/Nursing 2,011
Nurse Anesthetist 1,768

View All Critical Care Nursing Related Majors >

Notes and References

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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