Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing at State Fair Community College

State Fair Community College's nursing program starts graduates at a respectable $61,389, but here's what matters for Missouri families: you'd be paying similar tuition to community college competitors while your child would earn $6,000 to $7,000 less annually than graduates from St. Charles Community College or Saint Louis Community College. At the 40th percentile statewide, this program sits below the middle of the pack in a state with 24 nursing options.

The debt load of $19,525 is manageable—slightly better than Missouri's median for nursing programs—and the ratio means your child would owe less than a third of their first year's salary. That's solid financial footing for a new nurse. However, earnings actually slip slightly by year four rather than growing, which is unusual in a profession where experience typically commands higher pay. With a moderate sample size, these numbers reflect enough graduates to be meaningful, but individual outcomes will vary.

The bottom line: This program will get your child licensed and working as an RN without crushing debt, but if they can access one of Missouri's higher-performing community college nursing programs—several of which are also community colleges with similar cost structures—those extra thousands per year add up significantly over a nursing career. If State Fair is the local option and relocation isn't feasible, the debt-to-earnings ratio makes it workable, just not the strongest value in the state.