Pittsburg State Nursing (BSN): Tuition, Graduate Salary, and Debt
- Bachelor's in Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing
- Public university
- Pittsburg, KS
- About 122 graduates a year
College Scorecard June 2026 release · BLS wages May 2025
The short answer
Pittsburg State nursing graduates earn less than graduates of most nursing programs nationally, $66,243 in their first year. Where this program stands out is debt. The typical graduate leaves with $22,791 in federal loans, less than at 82% of nursing programs in the country. Debt is low, but pay is also below the Kansas median of $67,435.
How it compares
Each figure is the median for graduates of the program. The Kansas and national columns are the medians across all nursing bachelor's programs that report the figure.
Five years out, Pittsburg State graduates earn less than the national figure and about the same as the Kansas median.
Debt and first-year pay at every Kansas nursing program
Programs in the upper left give graduates higher pay for less debt. Dashed lines mark the Kansas 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 14% between the first and fifth year. Registered nurses in Kansas earn a median of $79,320 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 about the same in their first year as other graduates. They also borrowed less. 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 $242 a month, or 4.4% 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
58% of graduates (83 of 143) were working in Kansas one year after graduating. Prices in the parts of Kansas outside metro areas are about 14% below the national average, so a $66,243 salary here buys what about $77,098 buys in a typical US city.
The median Kansas RN earns $79,320, compared with a national median of $97,550. After adjusting for Kansas prices, that pay is worth about $88,067, which puts Kansas 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
$79,320Median pay in Kansas. 33,800 people work in this job in Kansas. 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
$111,030Median pay in Kansas. 5,120 people work in this job in Kansas. 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
$126,650Median pay in Kansas. 3,780 people work in this job in Kansas. 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
$212,090Median pay in Kansas. 910 people work in this job in Kansas. 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 Pittsburg State
Nursing ranks 4th of 22 bachelor's programs at Pittsburg State by first-year earnings. The top three are Quality Control and Safety Technology ($69,750), Construction Management ($69,733), and Other Engineering Technology ($66,582).
Other nursing bachelor's programs near Pittsburg
Common questions
The median graduate earns $66,243 one year after graduating and $75,413 five years after. Registered nurses in Kansas earn a median of $79,320 across all experience levels.
The median federal loan balance is $22,791, which ranks 3rd lowest of 15 nursing bachelor's programs in Kansas. That works out to about $242 a month over 10 years.
On the numbers, yes for most students. Debt equals 34% of first-year earnings, against a national median of 36%, and the share of borrowers in default two years into repayment is 10% or less. If the highest possible early salary is the main goal, several Kansas programs report higher pay, usually with more debt.
Most do. 58% (83 of 143) were working in Kansas 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 Kansas 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