Is Clarendon College Worth It?

Clarendon College gives you a low-cost entry point with one clear financial winner and a lot of weak outcomes around it. You borrow little, and the 60% graduation rate is solid for a public two-year school. But the median graduate earns under $39,000 ten years out, so the degree that pays off here matters more than the school itself.

Nursing is the reason to come. The registered nursing associate degree clears $61,000, roughly double what most other programs here return. It carries the highest debt on campus at around $17,600, but that debt buys real earnings, so the math works. Precision Metal Working and practical nursing land in the mid-$30,000s, which covers your costs but won't build wealth. Agricultural Business and general Liberal Arts sit at the bottom near $23,000 to $25,000, below the school's own median. If you enroll in liberal arts as a terminal degree, expect to earn less than a nursing grad while still paying to attend. Use it as a cheap transfer step to a four-year school or the numbers don't add up.

The specific risk here is program choice. Pick RN and the return is strong. Pick almost anything else and you're paying for a credential that pays like no credential at all, in a rural Panhandle market with limited high-wage jobs.

The net price tiers reward lower earners: if your family makes under $48,000, you pay less than $8,400 a year, and the $30,000-$48,000 band pays the least of anyone. Above $75,000, your price roughly doubles, so the value case weakens fast unless you're in nursing.

Come here for nursing, or as a low-debt launch into a transfer degree. Look elsewhere if you want ag business or liberal arts as your final stop.