Practical Nursing, Vocational Nursing and Nursing Assistants at Florida Career College-Lauderdale Lakes

Graduates of this nursing program earn roughly half what their peers make at comparable Florida schools—$22,247 versus the state median of $40,922. That places this program in the bottom 10% statewide, and those earnings actually decline slightly by year four rather than growing. When top Florida programs like Florida State College at Jacksonville produce graduates earning $57,579, the nearly $35,000 gap is difficult to justify.

The debt load of $9,861 appears manageable in isolation, but context matters: it represents about 44% of first-year earnings when the debt-to-earnings ratio for nursing programs should typically be far lower given the field's earning potential. You're essentially paying similar tuition costs for dramatically inferior outcomes. Three-quarters of students here receive Pell grants, suggesting many families are taking on this debt without the financial cushion to absorb underwhelming returns.

Florida has 110 nursing programs, and numerous public technical colleges deliver substantially better results at comparable or lower cost. Unless there are exceptional geographic or scheduling constraints making this the only viable option, this program represents poor value. The robust sample size confirms these aren't statistical flukes—this is the actual earning reality for recent graduates.