Registered Nursing: Earnings and Debt by College
Across 952 bachelor's programmes in Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing that report both earnings and debt in the field-of-study file.
Choosing a field changes your likely earnings and debt more than choosing between two similar colleges usually does — and this page shows why, using only programmes that report both figures together. In Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing, the median programme-level median earnings at the four-year measurement point in the College Scorecard field-of-study file is $86,426, and the median programme debt is $27,000. Half of reporting programmes sit above those figures and half below, and the spread is wide: the middle half of programmes run from about $79,428 to $92,710 in earnings, before you have considered a single college's name, city or sports team.
Top colleges for Registered Nursing by earnings
The table ranks bachelor's programmes in this field by median earnings at the four-year point, restricted to programmes with at least fifteen graduates counted, so that a tiny cohort with two lucky graduates cannot top the list. Debt is shown in the next column for a reason: the highest-earning programme is not automatically the best value, and several programmes below pair slightly lower earnings with debt thousands of dollars smaller. Among these top programmes, the lowest-debt examples are California State University-Monterey Bay ($15,125 debt, $134,489 earnings); San Francisco State University ($16,485 debt, $150,102 earnings); California State University-East Bay ($22,991 debt, $150,921 earnings). That comparison — earnings and debt for the same programme, at the same college — is the unit of decision this whole site is built around.
| College | Median earnings | Median debt | Graduates counted |
|---|---|---|---|
| California State University-East Bay | $150,921 | $22,991 | 107 |
| San Francisco State University | $150,102 | $16,485 | 196 |
| Dominican University of California | $149,622 | $27,000 | 121 |
| Samuel Merritt University | $148,193 | $25,937 | 511 |
| Sonoma State University | $143,886 | $24,985 | 54 |
| University of San Francisco | $143,356 | $25,250 | 227 |
| Pacific Union College | $140,542 | $33,334 | 41 |
| California State University-Monterey Bay | $134,489 | $15,125 | 59 |
| Pacific College | $132,148 | $37,232 | 34 |
| Bushnell University | $131,400 | $29,042 | 19 |
What completion data does — and does not — exist for this field
Completion is not published by field of study. The College Scorecard field-of-study file reports earnings and debt by programme, but it does not publish a completion or graduation rate for individual majors. Any site that quotes a precise completion rate for Registered Nursing at a specific college is estimating or inventing it. The honest substitute is the institution-level completion rate on each college's profile on this site: it tells you how reliably that college gets its students — across all majors — to a credential, which is the environment a Registered Nursing student will actually be studying in. Read the programme earnings and debt here, then check completion on the college profile before you shortlist it.
How to read the spread
A spread from $79,428 to $92,710 within one field usually reflects three things. First, where graduates work: the same degree commands different wages in different labour markets, and nationally known programmes place graduates nationally while regional programmes place locally. Second, what the programme actually contains: titles are standardised by federal CIP code, but emphasis, accreditation, clinical or studio requirements and employer links vary in ways a code cannot capture. Third, who the graduates are: earnings in the field-of-study file, like the institution file, are built from students who received federal financial aid, so a programme serving mostly full-pay students is represented by a subset of its class. None of that makes the figures useless — it makes them a starting point for questions rather than a verdict.
Debt in this field
Median programme debt of $27,000 against median earnings of $86,426 gives a debt-to-earnings ratio of 0.31. As a screen, that tells you the typical borrowing load is roughly 31 cents per dollar of median annual earnings at the four-year point — a heavier or lighter burden than fields you are comparing it with, which you can check on their pages here. It is not a monthly payment: interest, repayment plan, graduate school and whether a graduate actually works in the field all move the real burden. It is, however, the right first comparison, because a field whose typical debt is close to a full year's typical earnings deserves much harder questions about cost and completion than one where debt is a fraction of earnings.
Before you choose this field
Confirm the programme is the one you think it is — read the college's own curriculum, not just the federal title — then compare two or three colleges on this page on earnings, debt and institution-level completion together, and finally price your specific offer, because net price for your family can reverse a ranking built on medians. If a college you are considering does not appear in the table, its programme may be small, new or privacy-suppressed in this release; absence from a federal table is information about reporting, not proof about quality, and it should prompt a direct question to the college rather than an assumption in either direction.
Frequently asked questions
How much do Registered Nursing graduates earn?
Across 952 reporting bachelor's programmes, the median programme median earnings at the four-year point is $86,426, with the middle half of programmes between $79,428 and $92,710.
How much debt do Registered Nursing graduates have?
The median programme debt is $27,000 among programmes reporting both earnings and debt in this release.
Is there a completion rate for Registered Nursing majors?
No. The Scorecard field-of-study file does not publish completion by major. Use the institution-level completion rate on each college profile instead, and treat any major-specific completion figure quoted elsewhere with caution.
Note on this data: Figures on this page come from the U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard release retrieved in October 2026. Earnings cover students who received federal financial aid and were working and not enrolled at the measurement point; they are medians for a defined past cohort, not a promise of what any individual graduate will earn. Check the college and the Scorecard for the most current figures before you decide.