Palm Beach State College Nursing (ADN): Tuition, Graduate Salary, and Debt
- Associate's in Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing
- Public college
- Lake Worth, FL
- About 228 graduates a year
College Scorecard June 2026 release · BLS wages May 2025
The short answer
Palm Beach State College nursing graduates earn about what nursing graduates earn nationally, $67,495 in their first year. Where this program stands out is debt. The typical graduate leaves with $14,837 in federal loans, less than at 80% of nursing programs in the country. Strong value, but not one of the highest-paying nursing degrees in Florida.
How it compares
Each figure is the median for graduates of the program. The Florida and national columns are the medians across all nursing associate's programs that report the figure.
Five years out, Palm Beach State College graduates earn about the national figure and about the same as the Florida median.
Debt and first-year pay at every Florida nursing program
Programs in the upper left give graduates higher pay for less debt. Dashed lines mark the Florida 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 13% between the first and fifth year. Registered nurses in Florida earn a median of $84,190 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 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 slightly more in their first year than other graduates. At this program, the outcome does not look worse for students with less money.
Paying back the loans
On a standard 10-year plan, the median debt means a payment of about $157 a month, or 2.8% 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, 20 parents took out Parent PLUS loans for these students, with a median of $10,400.
Where graduates work, and what the pay is worth
93% of graduates (184 of 197) were working in Florida one year after graduating. Prices in the Miami area are about 14% above the national average, so a $67,495 salary here buys what about $59,126 buys in a typical US city.
The median Florida RN earns $84,190, compared with a national median of $97,550. After adjusting for Florida prices, that pay is worth about $81,411, which puts Florida 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
$84,190Median pay in Florida. 229,940 people work in this job in Florida. 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
$120,360Median pay in Florida. 42,700 people work in this job in Florida. 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
$129,510Median pay in Florida. 21,790 people work in this job in Florida. 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
$210,570Median pay in Florida. 4,600 people work in this job in Florida. 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 Palm Beach State College
Nursing ranks 1st of 10 associate's programs at Palm Beach State College by first-year earnings. The top three are Nursing ($67,495), Dental Hygiene and Assisting ($63,723), and Diagnostic and Treatment Professions ($56,594).
Other nursing associate's programs near Lake Worth
Common questions
The median graduate earns $67,495 one year after graduating and $76,092 five years after. Registered nurses in the Miami metro area earn a median of $91,380 across all experience levels.
The median federal loan balance is $14,837, which ranks 14th lowest of 46 nursing associate's programs in Florida. That works out to about $157 a month over 10 years.
On the numbers, yes for most students. Debt equals 22% of first-year earnings, against a national median of 29%, and the share of borrowers in default two years into repayment is 20% or less. If the highest possible early salary is the main goal, several Florida programs report higher pay, usually with more debt.
Most do. 93% (184 of 197) were working in Florida 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 Florida 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