Bachelor’s degree · earnings 4 years after completing
Highest-Paying Colleges for Nursing (Bachelor's)
Graduates who complete a bachelor's degree in Nursing earn a median of $88,910 four years after finishing, and the middle half earn between $67,853 and $114,470. We rank the 736 U.S. colleges whose Nursing programs have at least 25 graduates in the Scorecard earnings sample, 155,019 graduates in all. That puts Nursing at #17 of 131 bachelor's degree fields we rank, among the best-paid fields.
California State University-East Bay, in California, leads at $150,921, 78% above the median ranked school ($85,013). Most schools are tightly bunched: the middle half of ranked schools earn between $79,106 and $92,984, and the lowest earns $45,980, so outside the leaders the choice of school moves earnings less than the choice of major. 273 of the 736 ranked schools (37%) match or beat the national median.
The top 20 mix sectors: 13 public, 7 private nonprofit and 0 for-profit. California places 14 schools in the top 20, ahead of New York (3).
The top 20 schools cost less than most: a median net price of $13,957 a year, against $18,852 across all 736 ranked schools. Their graduates who borrowed carry a median of $15,966 in federal loans, about 13% of one year of earnings. Measured against a typical high-school graduate in the same state, the median top-20 school recovers its net cost in about 0.6 years.
Showing the top 50 of 736 ranked schools. Select a column heading to re-sort the table. † = fewer than 40 graduates in the earnings sample.
| 1 | California State University-East Bay Hayward, CA Public · 4-year | $150,921 | 186 | $14,747 | $9,320 | 0.3 |
| 2 | San Francisco State University San Francisco, CA Public · 4-year | $150,102 | 134 | $15,233 | $12,278 | 0.4 |
| 3 | Dominican University of California San Rafael, CA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $149,622 | 159 | $27,000 | $35,333 | 1.3 |
| 4 | Sonoma State University Rohnert Park, CA Public · 4-year | $143,886 | 90 | $12,500 | $12,885 | 0.5 |
| 5 | University of San Francisco San Francisco, CA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $143,356 | 285 | $25,286 | $41,431 | 1.6 |
| 6 | Pacific Union College Angwin, CA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $140,542 | 63 | $29,833 | $41,008 | 1.6 |
| 7 | California State University-Monterey Bay Seaside, CA Public · 4-year | $134,489 | 101 | $5,500 | $13,663 | 0.6 |
| 8 | Bushnell University Eugene, OR Private nonprofit · 4-year | $131,400 | 27 † | — | $20,789 | 0.9 |
| 9 | California State University-Sacramento Sacramento, CA Public · 4-year | $129,960 | 277 | $13,750 | $9,338 | 0.4 |
| 10 | California State University-Stanislaus Turlock, CA Public · 4-year | $126,959 | 144 | $22,000 | $6,067 | 0.3 |
| 11 | CUNY Medgar Evers College Brooklyn, NY Public · 4-year | $125,792 | 25 † | — | $5,718 | 0.3 |
| 12 | University of Mount Saint Vincent Bronx, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $120,822 | 199 | $25,000 | $21,696 | 1.0 |
| 13 | San Diego State University San Diego, CA Public · 4-year | $120,799 | 203 | $17,375 | $15,364 | 0.7 |
| 14 | University of Hawaii at Manoa Honolulu, HI Public · 4-year | $120,258 | 193 | $12,500 | $15,664 | 0.8 |
| 15 | California State University-San Marcos San Marcos, CA Public · 4-year | $120,196 | 603 | $24,246 | $10,229 | 0.5 |
| 16 | University of California-Irvine Irvine, CA Public · 4-year | $119,502 | 59 | $13,500 | $14,251 | 0.7 |
| 17 | California State University-Fullerton Fullerton, CA Public · 4-year | $119,353 | 313 | $12,500 | $6,555 | 0.3 |
| 18 | University of Providence Great Falls, MT Private nonprofit · 4-year | $119,206 | 105 | $16,698 | $17,649 | 0.8 |
| 19 | CUNY Lehman College Bronx, NY Public · 4-year | $119,115 | 266 | $13,341 | $3,148 | 0.2 |
| 20 | Mount Saint Mary's University Los Angeles, CA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $119,050 | 258 | $25,000 | $21,413 | 1.0 |
| 21 | California State University-Dominguez Hills Carson, CA Public · 4-year | $118,588 | 134 | $10,000 | $8,615 | 0.4 |
| 22 | University of California-Los Angeles Los Angeles, CA Public · 4-year | $118,566 | 52 | $19,420 | $12,548 | 0.6 |
| 23 | Azusa Pacific University Azusa, CA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $118,549 | 260 | $25,000 | $22,212 | 1.1 |
| 24 | New York University New York, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $118,433 | 514 | $18,500 | $37,050 | 1.8 |
| 25 | Long Island University Brookville, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $118,331 | 333 | $25,000 | $33,062 | 1.6 |
| 26 | Mercy University Dobbs Ferry, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $118,232 | 52 | $10,500 | $14,072 | 0.7 |
| 27 | California State University-Chico Chico, CA Public · 4-year | $117,543 | 151 | $16,500 | $14,480 | 0.7 |
| 28 | New York Institute of Technology Old Westbury, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $117,461 | 66 | $31,500 | $22,443 | 1.1 |
| 29 | Molloy University Rockville Centre, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $117,011 | 533 | $28,500 | $24,347 | 1.2 |
| 30 | California State University-Northridge Northridge, CA Public · 4-year | $116,613 | 100 | $15,041 | $7,021 | 0.4 |
| 31 | CUNY Hunter College New York, NY Public · 4-year | $116,361 | 151 | $12,500 | $2,984 | 0.1 |
| 32 | California State University-Los Angeles Los Angeles, CA Public · 4-year | $116,182 | 193 | $12,500 | $3,967 | 0.2 |
| 33 | Pace University New York, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $115,695 | 238 | $21,500 | $30,892 | 1.5 |
| 34 | Point Loma Nazarene University San Diego, CA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $114,919 | 255 | $24,784 | $38,729 | 2.0 |
| 35 | National University San Diego, CA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $114,413 | 487 | $33,928 | $22,878 | 1.2 |
| 36 | Wagner College Staten Island, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $113,728 | 143 | $25,000 | $28,241 | 1.4 |
| 37 | College of Staten Island CUNY Staten Island, NY Public · 4-year | $113,631 | 92 | $20,084 | $5,579 | 0.3 |
| 38 | Simpson University Redding, CA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $113,623 | 42 | $28,010 | $27,817 | 1.5 |
| 39 | Adelphi University Garden City, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $112,945 | 516 | $25,375 | $30,783 | 1.6 |
| 40 | California State University-Channel Islands Camarillo, CA Public · 4-year | $112,691 | 119 | $15,238 | $9,849 | 0.5 |
| 41 | St. Francis College Brooklyn, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $112,171 | 46 | $29,295 | $18,129 | 0.9 |
| 42 | CUNY York College Jamaica, NY Public · 4-year | $112,147 | 52 | $13,380 | $4,456 | 0.2 |
| 43 | Stony Brook University Stony Brook, NY Public · 4-year | $111,898 | 272 | $15,000 | $18,784 | 1.0 |
| 44 | California State University-Long Beach Long Beach, CA Public · 4-year | $111,681 | 271 | $16,743 | $10,440 | 0.6 |
| 45 | West Coast University-Texas Richardson, TX For-profit · 4-year | $111,455 | 2,655 | $34,145 | $53,020 | 2.8 |
| 46 | California State University-Fresno Fresno, CA Public · 4-year | $111,278 | 158 | $17,966 | $7,000 | 0.4 |
| 47 | Dominican University New York Orangeburg, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $111,206 | 132 | $24,998 | $41,832 | 2.2 |
| 48 | Biola University La Mirada, CA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $111,200 | 51 | $29,000 | $31,495 | 1.7 |
| 49 | University of Hawaii at Hilo Hilo, HI Public · 4-year | $111,027 | 88 | $18,000 | $11,856 | 0.6 |
| 50 | University of Phoenix-Arizona Phoenix, AZ For-profit · 4-year | $109,844 | 1,169 | $15,273 | $13,520 | 0.7 |
How this ranking is built
A school appears here only if it meets every condition below.
- Which programs count
- Main campuses only, one entry per institution. Scorecard reports program outcomes for the whole six-digit federal ID (OPEID6), so branch campuses share their parent’s numbers and are not listed twice.
- Only bachelor's degree programs in Nursing (CIP 5138, the four-digit code Scorecard uses to group related programs).
- At least 25 graduates in the earnings sample. Smaller samples are left out because their medians swing too much and the counts carry a little privacy noise.
- A major gets a page only when at least 20 schools qualify. This one has 736.
- Ranked by median earnings 4 years after completing, highest first. Ties go to the larger sample, then to the school name.
- Schools missing earnings or a sample size are left out rather than estimated.
- What the numbers mean
- Earnings: median annual earnings of graduates four years after completing. The cohort completed in academic years 2017-18 and 2018-19 and was measured in calendar years 2022 and 2023, in 2024 dollars.
- Who is counted: graduates who received federal student aid (Title IV grants or loans), and only those who were working and not enrolled in more school that year. Graduates without federal aid, those who went on to further study and those with no earnings are not in the median.
- Scorecard adds privacy noise to counts and medians and hides values it cannot protect, so a gap of a few percent between two schools is not meaningful.
- Graduates: the number of graduates in that earnings sample. A † marks fewer than 40, where the figure is less precise.
- Debt: median federal loan debt (Stafford and Grad PLUS loans disbursed at that school) of graduates who borrowed, from the 2018-19 and 2019-20 completers. Parent PLUS and private loans are not included.
- Net price: average yearly cost after grants and scholarships for the whole institution, not this major, academic year 2023-24.
- Payback: 4 years of net price divided by how much these earnings exceed a high-school graduate’s in the school’s state. Shown only when that gap is at least $2,000, the same formula as the rest of the site.
- Source: U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard field-of-study data, June 2026 release.
Top states for Nursing earnings
Median of the school medians for states with at least 3 ranked schools. The best school in each state is shown.
| State | Median earnings | Ranked schools | Top school |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | $118,558 | 32 | California State University-East Bay |
| Hawaii | $111,027 | 3 | University of Hawaii at Manoa |
| New York | $108,014 | 47 | CUNY Medgar Evers College |
| Oregon | $106,599 | 4 | Bushnell University |
| New Jersey | $101,328 | 17 | Saint Elizabeth University |
| Connecticut | $98,756 | 10 | University of Hartford |
| Delaware | $97,666 | 3 | University of Delaware |
| District of Columbia | $96,845 | 4 | Trinity Washington University |
| Nevada | $95,918 | 3 | University of Nevada-Reno |
| Maryland | $93,564 | 10 | University of Maryland Global Campus |
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