Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing at Cabarrus College of Health Sciences

Cabarrus College's nursing program lands squarely in the middle tier of North Carolina's nursing schools—outperforming the state median by about $3,000 but trailing the top programs by $7,000 to $9,000. For a specialized health sciences college, this positioning raises questions about whether students are getting the advantage they might expect from a focused institution. The 60th percentile ranking among NC programs means you're doing better than average in-state, but graduates from schools like University of Mount Olive and even some larger universities are earning notably more right out of the gate.

The debt load of $26,186 translates to a manageable 0.35 debt-to-earnings ratio, meaning graduates owe roughly four months of their first-year salary. That's reasonable for nursing, where starting salaries generally support loan repayment. However, the minimal earnings growth—just 2% over four years—is underwhelming. Most nursing graduates see bigger gains as they accumulate experience and specialization.

The small sample size here is a real limitation. With fewer than 30 graduates in the dataset, one or two outliers could skew these numbers significantly. For parents, this suggests looking beyond the statistics: talk to recent alumni directly, ask about job placement rates at specific hospitals, and understand why earnings stay so flat. If your child is set on this college's approach, it can work financially, but they shouldn't expect it to provide a meaningful earnings advantage over larger, less expensive public options.