Shortest DHSc Degree Programs, Ranked by Credit Hours
Credits are what you are really buying. These programs are ordered shortest first, from 35 hours to 70.
Last updated
Programs
15
Of all verified
65%
States
9
Fewest credits
35
Shortest DHSc Degree Programs, Ranked by Credit Hours, Compared
#
School
Credits
Ends
Format
Tuition
Score
1
MGH Institute MA
35
Applied project
Online + campus
$85,000
75
2
Chatham PA
36
Applied project
Online
$43,518
92.4
3
MCPHS MA
36
Online
$39,240
90.2
4
Indiana State IN
37
Applied project
Online
$9,978
94.6
5
Radford VA
42
Applied project
Online
$8,528
98.9
6
Old Dominion VA
42
Online
$7,800
96.7
7
Jefferson PA
43
Online
$46,175
81.5
8
New Haven CT
45
Online + campus
$45,644
59.8
9
Nova Southeastern FL
46
Applied project
Online + campus
$37,500
68.5
10
Touro Worldwide CA
48
Applied project
Online
$14,440
88
11
Bay Path MA
48
Applied project
Online
$37,972
83.7
12
Lenoir-Rhyne NC
48
Applied project
Online
$31,000
77.2
13
Campbell NC
54
Applied project
Online
$38,880
64.1
14
Liberty VA
60
Applied project
Online
$15,297
79.3
15
ATSU MO
70
Applied project
Online
57.6
Score is the program's position on the national ranking, shown so you can
see where a program sits overall as well as on this cut. A blank cell means the school does not
publish that figure.
All 15 DHSc Degree Programs Ranked by Credit Hours
#1Score 75
MGH Institute of Health Professions
Doctor of Health Sciences (DHSc) · Boston, MA · Private
Thirty-five credits over five semesters, the fewest of any DHSc we have verified, with 20 months published as the time to complete. The offset is price rather than workload: MGH Institute has the highest published graduate tuition on the site, so the shortest degree here is not the cheapest one. The capstone is an Innovation Project applied at your own workplace.
Doctor of Health Science (DHSc) · Pittsburgh, PA · Private
Thirty-six credits, and licensed healthcare professionals can transfer six of them in and finish on 30, fewer than any other programme here requires. Chatham pairs that with the fastest published completion on the site, 16 to 20 months across four or five part-time terms. The trade is a single fall intake, so the short degree still costs you a year if the deadline slips.
36 30 with up to 6 transfer credits for licensed professionals
Ends
Applied project
Starts
1/year
Tuition
$43,518
Completion
63%
#3Score 90.2
MCPHS University
Doctor of Health Sciences (DHSc) · Boston, MA · Private
Thirty-six credits taken part-time across six semesters, and MCPHS says the count was cut deliberately: the programme was updated to let students finish faster without dropping core competencies. That is a more candid explanation for a short degree than most schools offer. Fall and Spring intakes, aimed at clinicians and educators who intend to keep practising rather than move into research.
Doctor of Health Science in Healthcare Leadership (DHSc) · Terre Haute, IN · Public
Thirty credits of core plus a 7-credit scholarly experience, so 37 before the concentration is added. Short, fully remote with no required campus visits, no dissertation, and public-university tuition is an unusual set of things to find together at this end of the list. Five start dates a year on eight or sixteen week terms means the credits can be taken at whatever pace the year allows.
37 30 core + 7 scholarly experience, plus a concentration
Ends
Applied project
Starts
5/year
Tuition
$9,978
Completion
43%
Conferred
1
#5Score 98.9
Radford University
Doctor of Health Sciences (D.H.Sc.) · Radford, VA · Public
Forty-two credit hours, including a 12-credit concentration and the applied scholarly capstone. Radford spreads them across seven sequential semesters at two courses each rather than compressing them, so the short count buys a lighter term rather than a faster finish, which is the more useful thing for someone already working full time. No GRE, and three to four years of health-sector experience is expected.
Doctor of Health Sciences (DHSc) · Norfolk, VA · Public
Forty-two credit hours as 14 courses of exactly three, spread evenly across three years with nothing front-loaded. Old Dominion publishes the clearest structure of anything on this list, so you can calculate both the cost and the weekly hours three years ahead rather than discovering them a term at a time. Every course is online.
Doctor of Health Science (DHSc) · Philadelphia, PA · Private
Forty-three credits over three to four years. That is a mid-length degree stretched across a long window, which suits someone who wants the credential without a heavy term load and is in no hurry to finish. The elective concentrations, integrative nutrition, digital and telehealth, and mind-body medicine, are what those credits buy that a general degree does not.
Doctor of Health Sciences (DHSc) · West Haven, CT · Private
Forty-five credit hours, but only if you already hold a master's, and New Haven accepts one in any discipline, which is the most open entry rule on this list. The credit count is not the whole cost here: the programme opens with a required two-day on-campus residency in late August that carries course credit, so budget travel alongside tuition.
Doctor of Health Science (D.H.Sc.) · Fort Lauderdale, FL · Private
Forty-six credit hours split 42 didactic and 4 experiential, so four of them are spent in an internship or practicum rather than in coursework. Nova publishes the pace both ways: one course a term is about three and a half years, two courses just over two. Up to eight doctoral credits can transfer in, and four concentrations decide what the middle of the degree contains.
Doctor of Health Science (DHSc) · Los Alamitos, CA · Private
Forty-eight credits, structured 36 core plus 6 of proposal development and 6 of the doctoral research project itself. A quarter of the degree is therefore the capstone, a larger share than most programmes here allocate, and it ends in an oral defence before a chair and committee. Run in eight-week sessions with six start dates a year, so the credits stack quickly.
Doctor of Health Science (DHSc) · Longmeadow, MA · Private
Forty-eight credits across exactly 16 courses, completable in as little as two years. The unusual part is not the count but what fills it: 14 concentration tracks means two Bay Path graduates can leave having studied substantially different material under the same degree title. Coursework covers healthcare leadership, ethics, theory, research methods and cultural competency before the applied research project.
Doctor of Health Science (DHSc) · Hickory, NC · Private
Forty-eight credit hours, mid-length for this list, ending in an applied research project on a real problem rather than a dissertation. Lenoir-Rhyne publishes the credit count and the 3.0 entry requirement clearly but says little about how those credits sit across terms, which is what decides whether 48 hours is manageable alongside a job. Establish the per-term load before comparing it with the shorter programmes above.
Doctor of Health Sciences (DHSc) · Buies Creek, NC · Private
Fifty-four credit hours, toward the long end here, delivered in accelerated eight-week terms across three years so the calendar moves faster than the number suggests. Campbell frames the degree as interdisciplinary and post-professional, and the extra credits over a 36-credit programme go into breadth across health disciplines rather than depth in one. Entry is a single fall intake with a mid-July deadline.
Doctor of Health Sciences (DHSc) · Lynchburg, VA · Private
Sixty credit hours, the second longest here, which normally argues against a programme on a page ordered by credits. The counterweight is that Liberty transfers in up to half the degree total, so a candidate arriving with a recent relevant master's may fund and study far fewer than 60. Eight-week courses, a 3.0 entry requirement, and a practicum alongside the applied research project.
Doctor of Health Sciences (DHSc) · Kirksville, MO · Private
Seventy credit hours, the longest DHSc here, dropping to 65 on the Research Methods concentration, across three to four years. ATSU also sells its specialty concentrations as standalone 12-credit certificates that transfer into the full degree, so the seventy can be approached in stages. If you want the most substantial version of this qualification rather than the quickest, start at this end.
What You Need to Know About DHSc Degree Programs With the Fewest Credit Hours
Credits are the honest measure of what a doctorate costs you, because they set both the bill and the number of terms you are enrolled. The range on this page runs from 35 to 70, which is a factor of two for the same three letters after your name, and it is the widest spread of anything we track.
The uncomfortable finding is that short and cheap are not the same thing. The shortest program here is attached to the highest published graduate tuition on the site, and one of the longest is attached to among the lowest. If you are optimising for money, credits alone will mislead you; if you are optimising for finishing, credits are the number that matters most.
The bottom of this list is not a shortcut. A 36 credit doctorate covers less ground than a 70 credit one, and that is a real difference in what you will have read and written by the end, not a pricing artefact. The right question is not which is shortest but which is long enough for what you want the degree to do, and for a reader who wants a credential to unlock a director post the answer is usually the short one.
The short credit counts here belong to programs that end in an applied project, and a scoping review of doctoral programmes in nursing draws the same line between the two kinds of doctorate: research programs end in a dissertation, while practice programs end in quality improvement projects and the translation of evidence into care.
You can't read these credit counts against a PhD's either, because the National Science Foundation's Survey of Earned Doctorates counts research doctorates only and leaves professional doctorates such as the MD, JD and PsyD out of its census.
Frequently Asked Questions About DHSc Degree Programs and Credit Hours
How many DHSc programs publish a credit count?
15 of the 23 enrolling programs we verified, across 9 states. The other 8 either do not qualify or do not publish enough for us to say, and we do not guess either way.
Is a shorter DHSc worth less?
Fewer credits means less coursework, which is cheaper and faster and is not the same as easier or better. If you want the depth, the longer programs are on the national list and the credits column tells you which they are.
How is this list ordered?
By the column this page is about, fewest credit hours first, rather than by our overall score. Each card still shows the score it earned on the national ranking so you can see where it sits overall.
Compare DHSc Degree Programs by Tuition, Format and Dissertation