Is Moberly Area Community College Worth It?

Moberly Area Community College gives you a low-cost path with one clear financial winner and a lot of weak options around it. At under $7,000 a year and roughly $10,000 in median debt, your downside is limited. But the median graduate earning around $37,500 a decade out tells you the typical outcome here is modest, and a 39.5% graduation rate means finishing is not guaranteed.

Nursing is the reason to come here. The associate degree in registered nursing pays over $53,000, more than double what the general liberal arts associate returns. If you enroll planning to become an RN and you finish, the math works cleanly: the nursing debt of about $13,600 is small against those earnings. Allied health and medical assisting also clear $45,000, so the health-care track carries this school.

The practical nursing certificate and criminal justice certificate land in the mid-$30,000s. Those aren't disasters given the cost, but they're close to the school's overall median, so the credential doesn't buy you much lift. The general studies associate is the trap: about $22,500 in earnings for a degree that still carries debt. Use that path only as a cheap transfer step toward a four-year school, not as an endpoint.

Your net price barely moves with income until you cross $75,000, where it jumps past $10,000. Below $48,000, you pay in the low-$6,000s or less, making this an affordable option for lower-income families. Higher earners pay more here than middle-income families do.

Come here if you want nursing or allied health, or a low-cost year or two before transferring. Look elsewhere if you plan to stop at a general studies degree and expect it to pay.