Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing at The College of the Florida Keys

Florida's nursing market is fiercely competitive, and while comparable BSN programs across the state suggest first-year earnings around $76,500, the real story here is what you're *not* seeing. The College of the Florida Keys has too few nursing graduates for the Department of Education to publish actual outcomes, which means there's no track record to evaluate. Meanwhile, established Florida programs like Miami Dade College and Valencia College are producing nurses earning well over $90,000 in their first year—nearly $15,000 more than what peer programs suggest you might expect here.

The estimated debt of roughly $20,000 looks reasonable compared to Florida's median of $23,000 for similar programs, and that 0.26 debt-to-earnings ratio would typically signal solid value. But these are projections based on other schools' results, not this program's actual performance. For a small program in Key West—geographically isolated from Florida's major healthcare markets in Miami, Tampa, and Orlando—there's genuine uncertainty about whether graduates achieve outcomes comparable to programs in those metro areas where nursing jobs are plentiful.

If your child has strong ties to the Keys or specific reasons for staying in that market, this could work. But if job placement and earnings potential are priorities, larger Florida nursing programs with proven graduate outcomes offer far less guesswork. You're essentially betting on an unproven program when established alternatives exist across the state.