Practical Nursing, Vocational Nursing and Nursing Assistants at Central Oregon Community College

A debt-to-earnings ratio of 0.35 is solid for an associate degree in nursing—nationwide, peer programs suggest first-year earnings around $52,000 against roughly $18,000 in borrowing. That's manageable debt for entry into a stable healthcare field, especially in Oregon where demand for licensed practical nurses remains strong. The challenge here is that we're working entirely with national estimates since Central Oregon's specific graduate outcomes aren't available, which means families can't see how this particular program performs compared to the three other nursing programs scattered across the state.

What makes this harder to evaluate is Oregon's small number of LPN programs and the lack of published outcomes data from any of them. Nationally, the top quarter of similar programs push first-year earnings above $61,000, but we can't tell if Central Oregon's clinical partnerships and rural location work for or against graduates. The estimated $18,000 debt sits slightly below the national median of $19,400, which is encouraging if accurate—though again, this is based on the college's overall borrowing patterns, not nursing students specifically.

For an anxious parent, this means proceeding with incomplete information. The fundamentals look reasonable based on what comparable programs deliver nationwide, but you'd want to speak directly with Central Oregon's nursing faculty about job placement rates and where their graduates actually land. Without program-specific data, you're essentially betting that this college's outcomes mirror the national average rather than trail it.