Practical Nursing, Vocational Nursing and Nursing Assistants at Gateway Technical College

Based on comparable nursing programs across Wisconsin, Gateway Technical College's practical nursing certificate comes with an estimated $9,334 in debt—notably lower than both the state median of $12,000 and the national median of $14,803. With projected first-year earnings around $37,000, that translates to a debt-to-earnings ratio of 0.25, meaning graduates would owe roughly three months' salary.

However, the earnings picture reveals a significant gap. While peer programs in Wisconsin typically produce similar first-year outcomes around $37,000, the national median for practical nursing programs sits at $44,000. More concerning, several Wisconsin competitors—particularly Herzing University's campuses and Rasmussen—report actual graduate earnings in the $45,000-$47,000 range, about $10,000 higher than what Gateway's peer programs suggest. This gap matters considerably when you're deciding between a $37,000 and a $47,000 starting salary with similar debt loads.

The lower debt figure is genuinely attractive, but if those higher-earning programs are within reach geographically or financially, they could deliver substantially better returns. Since these are estimates rather than Gateway's actual graduate outcomes, investigate why the school doesn't report its own data (likely small class sizes) and whether its graduates actually place into higher-paying positions than the state average suggests. The debt is manageable either way, but that $10,000 earnings differential compounds over a career.