Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing at Cedarville University

Something unusual happens to Cedarville nursing graduates: their earnings actually drop 15% between years one and four—from $69,047 to $58,879. This isn't typical career progression. While graduates start reasonably close to Ohio's median of $70,327, they fall behind as peers at other programs see their incomes rise. The $25,000 debt load is actually lighter than both state and national medians, which helps, but the backward earnings trajectory raises questions about whether graduates are shifting to lower-paying roles or facing unexpected career obstacles.

Within Ohio's nursing landscape, Cedarville sits at the 40th percentile—solidly middle-of-the-pack but trailing stronger programs like Kettering ($79,505) and Ohio University campuses (around $76,000) by meaningful margins. Nationally, the picture is grimmer: 20th percentile means 80% of nursing programs produce graduates with higher earnings. The relatively favorable debt-to-earnings ratio of 0.36 provides some cushion, but that's based on first-year income that doesn't hold.

For the roughly $100,000 investment (four years of tuition at a private Christian university), you're getting outcomes that lag both your state and the nation. If Cedarville's mission and community matter deeply to your family, the manageable debt makes this workable. But purely from an earnings standpoint, Ohio offers multiple nursing programs with stronger trajectories and similar or lower debt burdens.