Purdue Nursing (BSN): Tuition, Graduate Salary, and Debt
- Bachelor's in Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing
- Public university
- West Lafayette, IN
- About 162 graduates a year
College Scorecard June 2026 release · BLS wages May 2025
The short answer
Purdue nursing graduates earn about what nursing graduates earn nationally, $71,759 in their first year. Where this program stands out is debt. The typical graduate leaves with $20,455 in federal loans, less than at 88% of nursing programs in the country. Strong value, but not one of the highest-paying nursing degrees in Indiana.
How it compares
Each figure is the median for graduates of the program. The Indiana and national columns are the medians across all nursing bachelor's programs that report the figure.
Five years out, Purdue graduates earn more than the national figure and about $10,398 more than the Indiana median.
Debt and first-year pay at every Indiana nursing program
Programs in the upper left give graduates higher pay for less debt. Dashed lines mark the Indiana 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 22% between the first and fifth year. Registered nurses in Indiana earn a median of $83,500 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 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 $217 a month, or 3.6% 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, 47 parents took out Parent PLUS loans for these students, with a median of $23,000.
Where graduates work, and what the pay is worth
57% of graduates (95 of 166) were working in Indiana one year after graduating. Prices in the Lafayette area are about 7% below the national average, so a $71,759 salary here buys what about $76,805 buys in a typical US city.
The median Indiana RN earns $83,500, compared with a national median of $97,550. After adjusting for Indiana prices, that pay is worth about $89,468, which puts Indiana 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
$83,500Median pay in Indiana. 68,980 people work in this job in Indiana. 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
$104,140Median pay in Indiana. 12,340 people work in this job in Indiana. 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
$128,830Median pay in Indiana. 7,450 people work in this job in Indiana. 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
$236,590Median pay nationwide. 600 people work in this job in Indiana. 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 Purdue
Nursing ranks 20th of 70 bachelor's programs at Purdue by first-year earnings. The top three are Computer Science ($94,786), Computer Engineering ($89,965), and Electrical Engineering ($84,300).
Other nursing bachelor's programs near West Lafayette
Common questions
The median graduate earns $71,759 one year after graduating and $87,224 five years after. Registered nurses in the Lafayette metro area earn a median of $80,790 across all experience levels.
The median federal loan balance is $20,455, which ranks the lowest of 27 nursing bachelor's programs in Indiana. That works out to about $217 a month over 10 years.
On the numbers, yes for most students. Debt equals 29% of first-year earnings, against a national median of 36%, 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 Indiana programs report higher pay, usually with more debt.
Most do. 57% (95 of 166) were working in Indiana 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 Indiana 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