Practical Nursing, Vocational Nursing and Nursing Assistants at Dalton State College

Dalton State's nursing assistant program comes with two significant red flags that deserve your attention. First, earnings actually *decline* from $41,595 at year one to $39,211 by year four—a pattern that suggests graduates may be hitting career ceilings earlier than they'd hope. Second, while the $9,007 debt load is manageable, graduates are earning roughly $3,000 below typical Georgia nursing assistants and about $10,000 less than those from top-performing technical colleges in the state like Augusta Tech or Georgia Piedmont.

The small sample size here (under 30 graduates) is important context—these numbers could shift considerably with more data. But what we can see positions this program at the 40th percentile among Georgia nursing programs, meaning six out of ten similar programs deliver better earnings outcomes. For a family where half of students qualify for Pell grants, that performance gap matters. The debt-to-earnings ratio of 0.22 is solid, meaning graduates should be able to manage payments. However, the downward earnings trajectory suggests limited advancement opportunities for many graduates.

If nursing is the goal, Georgia's technical college system offers multiple alternatives with stronger earnings tracks and similar credential timeframes. Those $6,000-$10,000 annual earnings differences compound significantly over a career, making this worth shopping around rather than enrolling based on proximity alone.