Which Texas nursing program has the lowest debt?

Laredo College reports the lowest median federal debt, $6,500, with first-year pay of $78,162.

How much do nursing graduates earn in Texas?

The median across 49 Texas nursing associate's programs is $71,856 in the first year after graduating and $78,498 five years after. Registered nurses in Texas earn a median of $95,970 across all experience levels.

How many nursing associate's programs are in Texas?

49 Texas programs report first-year pay for their graduates, and 49 of them also report federal debt.

Nursing (ADN) Programs in Texas, Ranked by Graduate Pay and Debt

49 programs report first-year pay
49 also report federal debt
Associate's in Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing

College Scorecard June 2026 release · BLS wages May 2025

The short answer

The median Texas nursing associate's program pays its graduates $71,856 in their first year, $3,335 more than the national median. College of Health Care Professions-Northwest reports the highest first-year pay ($91,353), and Laredo College the lowest median debt ($6,500).

Median first-year pay$71,856National $68,521

Median pay after 5 years$78,498National $74,126

Median federal debt$17,682National $20,423

Debt-to-earnings26%National 29%

All 49 programs, ranked

Each figure is the median for the program's graduates. Programs that don't report a figure are listed last when you sort by it.

#	School	Year 1 pay	Year 5 pay	Debt	Debt to pay
1	College of Health Care Professions-NorthwestHouston · private for-profit	$91,353	Not reported	$41,659	46%
2	El Paso Community CollegeEl Paso · public	$79,996	$77,401	$17,500	22%
3	Texas State Technical CollegeWaco · public	$79,324	$81,024	$24,654	31%
4	Weatherford CollegeWeatherford · public	$78,873	$81,875	$17,015	22%
5	Paris Junior CollegeParis · public	$78,821	Not reported	$13,975	18%
6	Wharton County Junior CollegeWharton · public	$78,791	$79,891	$13,346	17%
7	Lamar State College-Port ArthurPort Arthur · public	$78,580	Not reported	$33,385	42%
8	Laredo CollegeLaredo · public	$78,162	$92,707	$6,500	8%
9	Rio Grande Valley CollegePharr · private for-profit	$77,845	Not reported	$27,226	35%
10	Lone Star College SystemThe Woodlands · public	$77,795	$86,053	$15,000	19%
11	South Texas CollegeMcAllen · public	$75,733	$84,408	$10,000	13%
12	Central Texas CollegeKilleen · public	$75,319	$78,335	$15,099	20%
13	Alvin Community CollegeAlvin · public	$75,294	$87,009	$14,231	19%
14	Southwest University at El PasoEl Paso · private for-profit	$74,637	Not reported	$46,551	62%
15	Howard CollegeBig Spring · public	$74,542	$78,014	$17,261	23%
16	College of the MainlandTexas City · public	$74,310	$86,657	$18,000	24%
17	Grayson CollegeDenison · public	$73,793	$82,701	$15,087	20%
18	Blinn College DistrictBrenham · public	$72,895	$84,115	$21,000	29%
19	Collin County Community College DistrictMcKinney · public	$72,584	$81,621	$13,687	19%
20	Temple CollegeTemple · public	$72,579	$83,501	$19,805	27%
21	Clarendon CollegeClarendon · public	$72,350	$70,212	$23,788	33%
22	Lee CollegeBaytown · public	$72,164	$87,527	$14,750	20%
23	Odessa CollegeOdessa · public	$72,138	$65,190	$13,250	18%
24	Tarrant County College DistrictFort Worth · public	$72,069	$78,458	$16,610	23%
25	Vernon CollegeVernon · public	$71,856	$76,595	$20,000	28%
26	San Jacinto Community CollegePasadena · public	$71,118	$90,009	$13,000	18%
27	Del Mar CollegeCorpus Christi · public	$70,673	$76,045	$10,601	15%
28	Dallas CollegeDallas · public	$70,630	$75,704	$17,187	24%
29	Baptist Health System School of Health ProfessionsSan Antonio · private for-profit	$69,994	$82,201	$24,812	35%
30	Ranger CollegeRanger · public	$69,978	Not reported	$18,498	26%
31	Covenant School of Nursing and Allied HealthLubbock · private nonprofit	$69,194	$73,469	$21,698	31%
32	Angelina CollegeLufkin · public	$68,900	$79,911	$7,828	11%
33	St Philip's CollegeSan Antonio · public	$68,521	Not reported	$20,775	30%
34	Austin Community College DistrictAustin · public	$68,125	$75,886	$17,481	26%
35	Lamar State College-OrangeOrange · public	$67,872	$75,819	$26,319	39%
36	San Antonio CollegeSan Antonio · public	$67,684	$80,688	$17,338	26%
37	Northeast Texas Community CollegeMount Pleasant · public	$67,139	$69,713	$19,000	28%
38	Tyler Junior CollegeTyler · public	$66,769	$71,928	$20,000	30%
39	Houston City CollegeHouston · public	$66,743	$101,897	$18,770	28%
40	McLennan Community CollegeWaco · public	$66,556	$78,498	$17,864	27%
41	Kilgore CollegeKilgore · public	$65,971	$79,013	$25,250	38%
42	North Central Texas CollegeGainesville · public	$65,491	$73,223	$21,948	34%
43	Texarkana CollegeTexarkana · public	$65,308	$79,751	$15,200	23%
44	Victoria CollegeVictoria · public	$65,007	$77,456	$14,900	23%
45	Galveston CollegeGalveston · public	$64,806	$89,089	$19,333	30%
46	Amarillo CollegeAmarillo · public	$64,713	$71,151	$18,847	29%
47	Midland CollegeMidland · public	$62,761	$71,716	$12,500	20%
48	Trinity Valley Community CollegeAthens · public	$59,966	$72,338	$16,478	27%
49	Navarro CollegeCorsicana · public	$58,906	$76,098	$18,750	32%

One more program reports debt but not pay, so it isn't listed.

Debt and first-year pay at every Texas nursing program

Programs in the upper left give graduates higher pay for less debt. Dashed lines mark the Texas medians.

Hover over or tap a dot to see the school. Only the 49 programs that report both earnings and debt are shown.

Quick picks

Highest first-year pay

College of Health Care Professions-Northwest$91,353
El Paso Community College$79,996
Texas State Technical College$79,324
Weatherford College$78,873
Paris Junior College$78,821

Lowest median debt

Lowest debt for the pay

"Debt for the pay" is median debt divided by first-year pay. Only programs that report both figures are included.

What registered nurses earn in Texas

Pay for registered nurses in Texas, across all experience levels, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Registered Nurses

$95,970

Median pay in Texas. 271,380 people work in this job in Texas. 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.

Bottom 10%: $67,120Top 10%: $127,950

Common questions

College of Health Care Professions-Northwest in Houston reports the highest median first-year pay, $91,353. Its median federal debt is $41,659.

Nursing (ADN) programs in the US, ranked845 programs by pay and debt Nursing (BSN) programs in Texas, ranked48 programs by pay and debt

About this data

Earnings and debt only include students who received federal financial aid, and earnings only count graduates who were working and not enrolled in more school.
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 Texas rankings when their main campus is in another state.
Medians are across the nursing associate's programs that report each figure, so the counts differ by figure. Scorecard figures describe graduating classes from several years ago. BLS wages are from May 2025.

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
NCES, CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 crosswalk, and IPEDS institution directory, 2024