Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing at St Luke's College

Starting first-year salaries around $61,500—consistent with what other Iowa nursing programs produce—make this associate degree a practical entry point into healthcare, even if St Luke's graduates trail the top-performing community colleges in the state by a few thousand dollars. The $19,125 in typical debt sits comfortably below Iowa's median for nursing programs and translates to a debt-to-earnings ratio of 0.31, meaning graduates owe roughly a third of their first-year income. That's manageable math for a field with strong regional demand.

What's less clear is why earnings appear to plateau rather than grow between years one and four. Similar programs typically show nurses gaining ground as they accumulate experience and shift into better-paying specialties or roles. The flat trajectory here could reflect local market conditions in Sioux City, where nursing salaries may hit a ceiling faster than in larger Iowa metro areas, or it might simply be an artifact of the small graduate sample that caused the DOE to suppress the initial data. Either way, it suggests limited upward mobility without relocating or pursuing additional credentials.

For families looking at a cost-effective path to nursing, the numbers work—debt stays reasonable and early earnings cover it. Just recognize you're banking on estimated figures from peer programs rather than St Luke's actual track record, and the four-year data hints you may need to look beyond Sioux City to maximize long-term earning potential.