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LPN SCHOOLS IN ARIZONA — Federal Data, September 2026

LPN Schools in Arizona, Ranked On What Graduates Owe And Earn

10 accredited institutions in Arizona report enough federal data on this program to be compared. They are ranked here on a single measure: how many months of gross pay it takes a graduate to cover the median debt.

See The Ranking

U.S. Department of Education data. No school paid to be listed.


Across the 10 ranked programs in Arizona, the median graduate needs 3.3 months of gross pay to cover a median federal debt of $9,531, against median earnings of $33,048 one year after completion.

That is faster than the national median of 4.3 months for this field, measured across the 650 institutions in our national LPN schools ranking. The best performer in the state is Pima Community College in Tucson, at 2.4 months.

Every figure on this page is recalculated on Arizona institutions only. Nothing is carried over from the national page.

At A Glance

What the federal data says about LPN schools in Arizona

3.3 mo
state median to cover the debt
$9,531
median debt at completion
$33,048
median earnings, one year out
50%
median completion rate

The Ranking

10 LPN schools in Arizona, ranked by months of gross pay to cover the debt

Lower is better.

#SchoolTypeAwardMonthsDebtEarningsCompletion
1Pima Community CollegeTucson, AZPublicCertificate2.4$9,562$47,20528%
2GateWay Community CollegePhoenix, AZPublicCertificate2.6$12,898$60,62029%
3GateWay Community College-Central CityPhoenix, AZPublicCertificate2.6$12,898$60,62055%
4East Valley Institute of TechnologyMesa, AZPublicCertificate3.1$14,076$53,91868%
5Pima Medical Institute-TucsonTucson, AZfor-profitCertificate3.3$8,000$28,83472%
6Pima Medical Institute-East ValleyMesa, AZfor-profitCertificate3.3$8,000$28,83476%
7Brookline College-PhoenixPhoenix, AZfor-profitCertificate3.9$9,500$29,37653%
8Brookline College-TempeTempe, AZfor-profitCertificate3.9$9,500$29,37640%
9Brookline College-TucsonTucson, AZfor-profitCertificate3.9$9,500$29,37648%
10Coconino Community CollegeFlagstaff, AZPublicAssociate4.7$14,487$36,71924%

Source: U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard, Most Recent Cohorts by Field of Study and by Institution (published 9 June 2026). Debt is the median federal Stafford and Grad PLUS loan debt of completers in this program; earnings are median earnings one year after completion. Where a school offers the program at both certificate and associate level, the shorter payback is shown. Completion is the institution’s published rate, not the program’s.

The Top Five, In Detail

The five fastest payback programs in Arizona, one by one

Pima Community College

Tucson, AZ

Pima Community College is a public institution in Tucson. Its practical nursing graduates leave with a median federal debt of $9,562 and report median earnings of $47,205 a year after completing, so the debt is covered by 2.4 months of gross pay: the fastest payback in the state, and 0.9 months faster than the Arizona state median of 3.3. The award measured here is a certificate. The institution reports a 28% completion rate.

GateWay Community College

Phoenix, AZ

GateWay Community College is a public institution in Phoenix. Its practical nursing graduates leave with a median federal debt of $12,898 and report median earnings of $60,620 a year after completing, so the debt is covered by 2.6 months of gross pay: the second fastest in the state, and 0.7 months faster than the Arizona state median of 3.3. The award measured here is a certificate. The institution reports a 29% completion rate.

GateWay Community College-Central City

Phoenix, AZ

GateWay Community College-Central City is a public institution in Phoenix. Its practical nursing graduates leave with a median federal debt of $12,898 and report median earnings of $60,620 a year after completing, so the debt is covered by 2.6 months of gross pay: the third fastest in the state, and 0.7 months faster than the Arizona state median of 3.3. The award measured here is a certificate. The institution reports a 55% completion rate.

East Valley Institute of Technology

Mesa, AZ

East Valley Institute of Technology is a public institution in Mesa. Its practical nursing graduates leave with a median federal debt of $14,076 and report median earnings of $53,918 a year after completing, so the debt is covered by 3.1 months of gross pay: fourth in the state, and right on the Arizona state median of 3.3. The award measured here is a certificate. The institution reports a 68% completion rate.

Pima Medical Institute-Tucson

Tucson, AZ

Pima Medical Institute-Tucson is a private for-profit institution in Tucson. Its practical nursing graduates leave with a median federal debt of $8,000 and report median earnings of $28,834 a year after completing, so the debt is covered by 3.3 months of gross pay: fifth in the state, and right on the Arizona state median of 3.3. The award measured here is a certificate. The institution reports a 72% completion rate.

Read It Carefully

What this ranking does not measure

Absence from this page is not a verdict. The Department of Education suppresses figures for programs with small cohorts, so a small, excellent school will often have no publishable data at all. Schools that enroll no students on federal aid are outside this dataset entirely.

The measure is a ratio, not a repayment plan, and it counts federal loan debt only. Cash payments, private loans and employer sponsorship are invisible here. Local wages shape earnings as much as the school does, which is exactly why comparing inside one state, as this page does, is more informative than comparing across the country.

For ARIZONA School Operators

Want to know how your program ranks against these?

We run this analysis for individual schools against their own federal data and show them where they sit against both the Arizona median and the national one. Where the answer is good, it is the strongest recruitment argument a school owns.

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