Nursing (ADN) Programs in Wisconsin, Ranked by Graduate Pay and Debt
- 17 programs report first-year pay
- 17 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 Wisconsin nursing associate's program pays its graduates $64,716 in their first year, $3,805 less than the national median. Herzing University-Madison reports the highest first-year pay ($73,342), and Northcentral Technical College the lowest median debt ($13,750).
All 17 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.
Debt and first-year pay at every Wisconsin nursing program
Programs in the upper left give graduates higher pay for less debt. Dashed lines mark the Wisconsin medians.
Hover over or tap a dot to see the school. Only the 17 programs that report both earnings and debt are shown.
Quick picks
Highest first-year pay
Lowest median debt
"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 Wisconsin
Pay for registered nurses in Wisconsin, across all experience levels, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Registered Nurses
$95,530Median pay in Wisconsin. 68,060 people work in this job in Wisconsin. 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.
Common questions
Herzing University-Madison in Madison reports the highest median first-year pay, $73,342. Its median federal debt is $31,509.
Northcentral Technical College reports the lowest median federal debt, $13,750, with first-year pay of $63,958.
The median across 17 Wisconsin nursing associate's programs is $64,716 in the first year after graduating and $68,876 five years after. Registered nurses in Wisconsin earn a median of $95,530 across all experience levels.
17 Wisconsin programs report first-year pay for their graduates, and 17 of them also report federal debt.
Related pages
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 Wisconsin 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