Practical Nursing, Vocational Nursing and Nursing Assistants at H W Brewster Technical College

H W Brewster's nursing program sits in the middle tier among Florida's 110 similar programs, with graduates earning slightly below the state median at $39,485. The 40th percentile ranking means this isn't a standout performer—compare this to Florida State College at Jacksonville's $57,579 or even Pinellas Technical College nearby in the Tampa Bay area at $47,306. That's a significant earnings gap right in the same regional job market.

The program does keep costs extremely low at $8,228 in median debt, though this still lands in the 95th percentile nationally because nursing certificate programs typically run even cheaper elsewhere. The debt load itself is manageable—you'd pay roughly one-fifth of first-year earnings—but when combined with below-average earning potential, this creates a longer payback timeline than stronger Florida programs offer.

With fewer than 30 graduates in this dataset and only 5% receiving Pell grants, these numbers may not tell the full story. For a Tampa-area family, the calculation is straightforward: Pinellas Technical College produces graduates earning $7,800 more annually while likely maintaining similarly low costs. Unless location constraints make H W Brewster the only viable option, other nearby programs deliver better returns on the same credential.