Allied Health and Medical Assisting Services at Tidewater Community College

The real story here is the dramatic earnings trajectory: graduates start at just under $30,000 but see their income jump 64% to nearly $49,000 by year four. That kind of growth suggests graduates are quickly moving into more specialized or supervisory roles, making the modest $17,600 in debt far more manageable than it initially appears.

However, that first year is genuinely tight—earning below the 25th percentile among Virginia's allied health programs means most classmates at competing schools are doing better right out of the gate. Programs like Radford and Eastern Virginia Career College place graduates at substantially higher starting salaries. The good news is that Tidewater's debt burden sits well below Virginia's median for this field ($23,350), which matters during those lean early months.

The key question is whether your child can weather that challenging first year financially. If they're living at home or have other support, the strong mid-career earnings make this program workable—the debt becomes manageable once income nearly doubles. But if they need to be financially independent immediately, those early earnings could strain the budget. This is a program that rewards patience rather than delivering immediate returns.