Concorde Career College-Aurora Practical Nursing (Certificate): Tuition, Graduate Salary, and Debt
- Certificate in Practical Nursing, Vocational Nursing and Nursing Assistants
- Private for-profit college
- Aurora, CO
- About 112 graduates a year
College Scorecard June 2026 release · BLS wages May 2025
The short answer
Concorde Career College-Aurora practical nursing graduates earn more than graduates of most practical nursing programs nationally, $57,339 in their first year. The typical graduate leaves with $17,268 in federal loans, close to the national median of $14,730. Two other Colorado programs report higher pay.
How it compares
Each figure is the median for graduates of the program. The Colorado and national columns are the medians across all practical nursing certificate programs that report the figure.
Five years out, Concorde Career College-Aurora graduates earn more than the national figure and about the same as the Colorado median.
Debt and first-year pay at every Colorado practical nursing program
Programs in the upper left give graduates higher pay for less debt. Dashed lines mark the Colorado medians.
Hover over or tap a dot to see the school. Only programs that report both earnings and debt are shown.
What graduates earn over time
Pay rises about 6% between the first and fifth year. Licensed practical and vocational nurses in Colorado earn a median of $73,880 across all experience levels, which shows how much room there is to grow after the first few years.
Year 1 and year 5 figures come from different graduating classes, so the growth rate is an estimate. BLS figures cover licensed practical and vocational nurses at every experience level.
Does family income change the outcome?
Graduates who received Pell Grants, which go to students from lower-income families, earned about the same in their first year as other graduates, but borrowed more: a median of $18,411 against $13,458.
Paying back the loans
On a standard 10-year plan, the median debt means a payment of about $183 a month, or 3.8% of a graduate's typical monthly pay in the first year.
The government publishes these as ranges to protect privacy. They were measured in 2018 to 2020, partly during the pandemic pause on federal loan payments, so the forbearance share may be higher than usual. Separately, 21 parents took out Parent PLUS loans for these students, with a median of $16,280.
Where graduates work, and what the pay is worth
92% of graduates (161 of 175) were working in Colorado one year after graduating. Prices in the Denver area are about 6% above the national average, so a $57,339 salary here buys what about $54,205 buys in a typical US city.
The median Colorado LPN or LVN earns $73,880, compared with a national median of $64,400. After adjusting for Colorado prices, that pay is worth about $71,692, which puts Colorado ahead.
Careers this field leads to
These are the jobs that the federal crosswalk from fields of study to occupations links to practical nursing, largest first. Pay is the median across all experience levels.
Nursing Assistants
$47,380Median pay in Colorado. 22,240 people work in this job in Colorado. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 3% from 2025 to 2035, with about 196,200 openings a year. Typical education to start: postsecondary nondegree award.
Licensed Practical and Licensed Vocational Nurses
$73,880Median pay in Colorado. 4,920 people work in this job in Colorado. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 3% from 2025 to 2035, with about 51,800 openings a year. Typical education to start: postsecondary nondegree award.
About Concorde Career College-Aurora
Practical Nursing ranks 1st of 4 certificate programs at Concorde Career College-Aurora by first-year earnings. The top three are Practical Nursing ($57,339), Allied Health and Medical Assisting ($30,907), and Health and Medical Administration ($29,536).
Other practical nursing certificate programs near Aurora
Common questions
The median graduate earns $57,339 one year after graduating and $60,760 five years after. Licensed practical and vocational nurses in the Denver metro area earn a median of $75,810 across all experience levels.
The median federal loan balance is $17,268, which ranks 9th lowest of 11 practical nursing certificate programs in Colorado. That works out to about $183 a month over 10 years.
On the numbers, yes for most students. Debt equals 30% of first-year earnings, against a national median of 34%, and the share of borrowers in default two years into repayment is 10% or less.
Most do. 92% (161 of 175) were working in Colorado one year after graduating.
About this data
- Earnings and debt only include students who received federal financial aid (grants or loans).
- Earnings only count graduates who were working and not enrolled in more school. Graduates who went straight to further study are not included.
- Debt only includes federal loans. Private loans and credit cards are not counted.
- Some schools with several campuses report one combined figure for all of them. We count each of those schools once, and leave them out of Colorado comparisons when their main campus is in another state.
- Scorecard figures describe graduating classes from several years ago. BLS wages are from May 2025.
- School-level numbers like tuition, admission rate, and graduation rate are for the whole school, not the practical nursing program.
Sources
- U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard, field of study and institution files, June 2026 release
- Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025
- Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections 2025 to 2035
- Bureau of Economic Analysis, Regional Price Parities, 2024
- NCES, CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 crosswalk, and IPEDS institution directory, 2024