Northeastern State Nursing (BSN): Tuition, Graduate Salary, and Debt
- Bachelor's in Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing
- Public university
- Tahlequah, OK
- About 74 graduates a year
College Scorecard June 2026 release · BLS wages May 2025
The short answer
Northeastern State nursing graduates earn more than graduates of most nursing programs nationally, $80,792 in their first year. The typical graduate leaves with $26,542 in federal loans, close to the national median of $27,000. It is one of the higher-paying nursing degrees in Oklahoma.
How it compares
Each figure is the median for graduates of the program. The Oklahoma and national columns are the medians across all nursing bachelor's programs that report the figure.
Five years out, Northeastern State graduates earn more than the national figure and about $24,248 more than the Oklahoma median.
Debt and first-year pay at every Oklahoma nursing program
Programs in the upper left give graduates higher pay for less debt. Dashed lines mark the Oklahoma medians.
Hover over or tap a dot to see the school. Only programs that report both earnings and debt are shown.
Some nursing bachelor's programs are for nurses who are already licensed and working (RN-to-BSN). College Scorecard counts them with programs for new students, and their graduates' pay reflects years of nursing experience, so high pay at a program here may not mean higher starting pay for a new nurse.
What graduates earn over time
Pay rises about 24% between the first and fifth year. Registered nurses in Oklahoma earn a median of $82,920 across all experience levels.
Year 1 and year 5 figures come from different graduating classes, so the growth rate is an estimate. BLS figures cover registered 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 more in their first year than other graduates, but borrowed more: a median of $28,250 against $19,739.
Paying back the loans
On a standard 10-year plan, the median debt means a payment of about $281 a month, or 4.2% 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.
Where graduates work, and what the pay is worth
90% of graduates (113 of 125) were working in Oklahoma one year after graduating. Prices in the parts of Oklahoma outside metro areas are about 16% below the national average, so a $80,792 salary here buys what about $96,669 buys in a typical US city.
The median Oklahoma RN earns $82,920, compared with a national median of $97,550. After adjusting for Oklahoma prices, that pay is worth about $94,396, which puts Oklahoma slightly behind.
Careers this field leads to
These are the jobs that the federal crosswalk from fields of study to occupations links to nursing, largest first. Pay is the median across all experience levels.
Registered Nurses
$82,920Median pay in Oklahoma. 38,270 people work in this job in Oklahoma. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 6% from 2025 to 2035, with about 180,800 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree.
Medical and Health Services Managers
$101,270Median pay in Oklahoma. 6,030 people work in this job in Oklahoma. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 24% from 2025 to 2035, with about 62,300 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree, plus less than 5 years of related work experience.
Nurse Practitioners
$133,390Median pay in Oklahoma. 3,620 people work in this job in Oklahoma. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 41% from 2025 to 2035, with about 29,400 openings a year. Typical education to start: master's degree.
Nurse Anesthetists
$156,830Median pay in Oklahoma. 990 people work in this job in Oklahoma. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 10% from 2025 to 2035, with about 2,400 openings a year. Typical education to start: master's degree.
About Northeastern State
Nursing ranks 1st of 22 bachelor's programs at Northeastern State by first-year earnings. The top three are Nursing ($80,792), Medical Laboratory Science ($62,912), and Management Information Systems ($51,298).
Other nursing bachelor's programs near Tahlequah
Common questions
The median graduate earns $80,792 one year after graduating and $99,835 five years after. Registered nurses in Oklahoma earn a median of $82,920 across all experience levels.
The median federal loan balance is $26,542, which ranks 6th lowest of 17 nursing bachelor's programs in Oklahoma. That works out to about $281 a month over 10 years.
On the numbers, yes for most students. Debt equals 33% of first-year earnings, against a national median of 36%.
Most do. 90% (113 of 125) were working in Oklahoma 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 Oklahoma 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 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