Which Washington nursing program has the lowest debt?

Clark College reports the lowest median federal debt, $11,446, with first-year pay of $63,543.

How much do nursing graduates earn in Washington?

The median across 23 Washington nursing associate's programs is $79,369 in the first year after graduating and $80,943 five years after. Registered nurses in Washington earn a median of $124,200 across all experience levels.

How many nursing associate's programs are in Washington?

23 Washington programs report first-year pay for their graduates, and 22 of them also report federal debt.

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

23 programs report first-year pay
22 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 Washington nursing associate's program pays its graduates $79,369 in their first year, $10,848 more than the national median. Highline College reports the highest first-year pay ($84,619), and Clark College the lowest median debt ($11,446).

Median first-year pay$79,369National $68,521

Median pay after 5 years$80,943National $74,126

Median federal debt$18,239National $20,423

Debt-to-earnings23%National 29%

All 23 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	Highline CollegeDes Moines · public	$84,619	$87,066	$13,000	15%
2	Olympic CollegeBremerton · public	$84,108	$81,797	$20,000	24%
3	Lake Washington Institute of TechnologyKirkland · public	$83,313	$87,749	$15,000	18%
4	Seattle Central CollegeSeattle · public	$83,117	Not reported	$18,312	22%
5	Whatcom Community CollegeBellingham · public	$82,805	$73,022	$17,726	21%
6	Tacoma Community CollegeTacoma · public	$82,447	$81,839	$19,000	23%
7	Bellevue CollegeBellevue · public	$82,286	$78,748	$17,152	21%
8	Grays Harbor CollegeAberdeen · public	$81,243	$73,851	$18,769	23%
9	Renton Technical CollegeRenton · public	$80,411	$94,790	$18,582	23%
10	Everett Community CollegeEverett · public	$79,945	$91,876	$19,000	24%
11	Big Bend Community CollegeMoses Lake · public	$79,826	$60,622	$19,825	25%
12	Peninsula CollegePort Angeles · public	$79,369	$70,691	$16,746	21%
13	Shoreline CollegeShoreline · public	$78,850	$87,153	$16,334	21%
14	Yakima Valley CollegeYakima · public	$78,316	$81,440	$17,884	23%
15	Spokane Community CollegeSpokane · public	$77,999	$80,308	$25,728	33%
16	Columbia Basin CollegePasco · public	$77,785	$79,073	$12,562	16%
17	Centralia CollegeCentralia · public	$77,740	$75,288	Not reported	Not reported
18	Wenatchee Valley CollegeWenatchee · public	$76,527	$83,466	$17,041	22%
19	Lower Columbia CollegeLongview · public	$75,715	$88,483	$19,103	25%
20	Walla Walla Community CollegeWalla Walla · public	$75,416	$77,492	$20,625	27%
21	Skagit Valley CollegeMount Vernon · public	$71,639	$76,797	$19,325	27%
22	South Puget Sound Community CollegeOlympia · public	$69,107	$64,862	$18,166	26%
23	Clark CollegeVancouver · public	$63,543	$80,943	$11,446	18%

Centralia College reports pay but not debt, so it is ranked only by pay.

Debt and first-year pay at every Washington nursing program

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

Hover over or tap a dot to see the school. Only the 22 programs that report both earnings and debt are shown.

Quick picks

"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 Washington

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

Registered Nurses

$124,200

Median pay in Washington. 69,260 people work in this job in Washington. 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%: $89,630Top 10%: $161,910

Common questions

Highline College in Des Moines reports the highest median first-year pay, $84,619. Its median federal debt is $13,000.

Nursing (ADN) programs in the US, ranked845 programs by pay and debt Nursing (BSN) programs in Washington, ranked15 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 Washington 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