Practical Nursing, Vocational Nursing and Nursing Assistants at Great Basin College

In Nevada's nursing assistant market, earning potential varies dramatically—some programs report first-year earnings under $27,000, while national benchmarks for similar programs suggest outcomes closer to $44,000. Great Basin College's program lacks reported data due to small graduating classes, making it difficult to know where their graduates fall on this spectrum.

The estimated debt of roughly $13,700 appears manageable at face value, creating a debt-to-earnings ratio of 0.31 based on national comparables. However, if this program's actual outcomes track closer to Nevada's median of $26,000 rather than the national benchmark, that same debt load becomes considerably harder to manage. The difference matters: at $44,000 annually, you're looking at about 3-4 months of gross pay to cover educational debt; at $26,000, it stretches to more than six months.

The challenge here is uncertainty. Without reported outcomes from Great Basin's specific program, you're essentially betting on which end of Nevada's wide earnings range their graduates achieve. Before committing, contact the school directly for their graduate employment statistics and typical starting salaries in the Elko area. If they can't provide concrete placement data, that's a red flag—nursing programs with strong outcomes typically track and share this information readily.