Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing at Denver College of Nursing

With only a handful of graduates tracked, these numbers come with significant uncertainty, but Denver College of Nursing's associate nursing program sits squarely in the middle of Colorado's nursing landscape. At $70,197 starting, it lags slightly behind the state median of $71,592 and trails several community colleges—Morgan and Front Range grads earn about $6,000 more right out of the gate. You're looking at 40th percentile performance in a state where nursing programs generally deliver strong outcomes.

The debt picture tells a different story. At $30,750, graduates carry about $8,000 more than the typical Colorado nursing grad and $10,000 above the national benchmark. However, the 0.44 debt-to-earnings ratio remains manageable—graduates earn enough to service this debt without major strain. The real question is whether the premium tuition buys meaningful advantages in education quality or job placement that justify the extra borrowing when compared to nearby community college alternatives.

If your child can access one of Colorado's community college nursing programs, those deliver comparable or better starting salaries with substantially less debt. Denver College of Nursing might make sense for students who need scheduling flexibility or struggled to get accepted elsewhere, but it's not the cost-effective default choice for Colorado nursing education.