Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing at College of the Albemarle

The early earnings number looks impressive at first glance—$72,750 puts College of the Albemarle in the 71st percentile nationally and 60th percentile among North Carolina's 59 nursing programs. But here's the puzzle: by year four, earnings drop sharply to $54,614, a 25% decline that's unusual for nursing. With only a small sample of graduates in this data, this pattern could reflect specific career paths (perhaps some graduates moving to part-time work or lower-paying specialty roles) rather than a systemic program issue. The good news is that debt loads are manageable at $13,000—well below both the state median of $14,725 and the national median of $20,751.

Looking at the bigger picture, North Carolina has strong community college nursing programs, and College of the Albemarle lands solidly in the middle of the pack. The top programs like Robeson and Stanly show first-year earnings around $76,000-77,000, so there's a modest gap but nothing dramatic. The critical question is whether that earnings decline is real. If your child maintains steady employment in nursing, this program offers solid preparation at a reasonable cost. The 0.18 debt-to-earnings ratio suggests excellent affordability in that first year, but the uncertainty around longer-term earnings makes this harder to judge definitively. Given the small sample size, talking directly with program alumni about their career trajectories would be particularly valuable here.