Top No GRE Online Nurse Practitioner Programs (2026)
Find NP Schools
For the latest academic year, we have over 180 NP schools in our database and those that advertise with us are labeled “sponsor”. When you click on a sponsoring school or program, or fill out a form to request information from a sponsoring school, we may earn a commission. View our advertising disclosure for more details.
There’s never been a better time to become a nurse practitioner. As the healthcare industry expands to meet the needs of a large aging population and provides care to increasingly more insured Americans, the demand for advanced practice registered nursing (APRN) careers is rising.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projects that 128,400 new nurse practitioner (NP) positions will be created nationally between 2024 and 2034, adding to the 320,400 current positions. This 40 percent increase makes nurse practitioner the third fastest growing occupation in the United States.
Registered nurses (RNs) looking to advance to clinical roles with more autonomy are well-positioned to pursue NP degree programs, many of which do not require the GRE for admission.
Why do so many nurse practitioner programs not require the submission of Graduate Record Examination (GRE) scores? First, incoming RN applicants may have completed a degree several years prior to pursuing an advanced degree and may not have GRE test scores. In this case, the GRE may not be an accurate assessment of how much an RN has learned from work experience earned since completing a bachelor’s degree.
Second, GRE test scores do not accurately reflect an RN’s ability to complete an NP program or succeed in an NP position after graduation. According to Educational Testing Service (ETS), the organization that authors and administers the GRE, the skills measured in the GRE include verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, critical thinking, and analytical writing skills.
Although these can be indicators of potential intelligence and academic success in an NP applicant, placing a strong emphasis on standardized test scores is an outdated way to select a diverse cohort of students who must be prepared to meet the challenges faced by today’s nursing teams.
To this point, Robert J. Sternberg, a cognitive psychologist and professor of human development at Cornell University, suggests in The Atlantic that “the GRE is like taking a cancer test that was invented in the 1940s […] most of us wouldn’t have confidence in the results from a cancer test developed then. We have more knowledge and a far better understanding of intelligence and ability now.”
Claims like these call into question the predictive validity of standardized tests as a primary measurement of students’ abilities to succeed academically and professionally.
Finally, earning a top score on the GRE requires months of studying. To earn competitive scores, test-takers with the means to invest in expensive study programs and coaching to prepare for the exam properly. These expenses are not included in the actual exam fee, which in 2025 is $220 in the United States.
Considering the factors above, many reputable and accredited online nurse practitioner programs do not require the GRE for admission. RNs with work experience and a verifiable track record of being capable, intelligent, and analytical problem-solvers are encouraged to apply to these top no-GRE nurse practitioner programs to pursue APRN roles and lead teams of nurses and clinical staff with compassionate efficiency.
No GRE Online NP Program Rankings (2025-2026)
Enter the comprehensive NPSchools.com ranking of no GRE online nurse practitioner programs, which lists the top programs ranked by cost, admissions flexibility, and program variety. This comprehensive database comprises 1,305 online NP programs at the MSN, DNP, and post-master’s certificate levels, all actively accepting new students at the outset of the 2025-2026 school year.
Generally, for online nurse practitioner programs, students are required to complete most or all coursework online with a limited number of campus intensives. Some programs do not require any campus visits. In addition, students are required to complete clinical preceptorships at approved facilities local to the student. To qualify as “online” for the purposes of our database, each program must require less than ten campus visits in total.
At NPSchools.com, we have done our utmost to ensure the accuracy and comprehensiveness of the data on our website. But nursing is a dynamic field, and the trend is towards more nurse practitioner programs moving online each year. Please contact us if we have missed any programs or published erroneous information that needs to be corrected.
The tuition numbers in the table below represent total tuition cost for the entire program, and not cost per semester or year.
Nurse Practitioner Career and Salary Data
With the outlook for growth between 2024 and 2034 at 40 percent for nurse practitioners, compared to 3 percent across all occupations, studying to become a nurse practitioner can be a solid career advancement option for interested RNs (BLS 2025). Additionally, with a median annual wage of $129,210, the return on investment for NP schooling looks attractive (BLS 2024).
According to the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (2022), of the nurses practicing as nurse practitioners, 70.3 percent hold primary certifications as family NPs (FNPs), 15 percent are adult, gerontology, or adult-gerontology NPs (AGNPs), 6.5 percent are psychiatric-mental health NPs (PMHNPs), 6.1 are acute care NPs (a field now focused on either pediatric or adult-gerontological populations), 3 percent are pediatric NPs (PNPs), 2.2 percent are women’s health NPs (WHNPs), and 0.5 percent are neonatal NPs (NNPs).
In addition, some nurse practitioners become certified in more than one specialty area, increasing their marketability in the health care sector.