Is Atenas College Worth It?

Atenas College in Manati sends you into the workforce earning about $20,231 a year ten years out. That is low by any national standard, and it frames everything else about this school's financial return. The good news is that you are not paying much to get there. Net price sits around $6,544 a year, and median debt at graduation is roughly $6,525, so you leave owing less than one year's earnings. That keeps the downside contained even when the payoff is thin.

The one program with reported earnings data is the bachelor's in Registered Nursing, and it pays worse than the school-wide median, not better, at about $15,288 a year. That is a warning sign for the school's flagship health field. Nursing here also carries the highest debt figure listed, around $8,168. If nursing is your plan, look hard at whether local Puerto Rico wages justify the borrowing, because the earnings data here does not back up the usual nursing payoff.

The financial risk specific to Atenas is completion. With a 42.6% graduation rate, close to six in ten students do not finish, and a degree you never earn returns nothing on the money and time you spent. The 76% retention rate means the first-year dropoff is real.

The net price tiers reward lower-income families. If your family earns under $48k, you pay under $6,743, but that nearly doubles to around $11,231 once you cross $48k. Middle-income families lose the biggest discounts here.

This school fits you if you are low-income, live near Manati, and want to keep costs and debt small. If you need strong post-graduation earnings to justify enrolling, the numbers say look elsewhere.