Quick answer:81 colleges within 100 miles of Shelby, North Carolina award a health care degree, the nearest about 3 miles away (IPEDS Completions, 2024).
Compare health care programs you can start from Shelby:
Health Care Program Access Near Shelby, North Carolina
Distance from Shelby
Colleges awarding this degree
Within 25 miles
5
Within 50 miles
27
Within 100 miles
81
Within 250 miles
299
Source: IPEDS Completions, 2024, counting institutions that reported awarding this degree, joined to IPEDS institution coordinates. Distances are straight-line.
Shelby sits inside a dense cluster: 5 colleges within 25 miles award this degree, and 81 within 100 miles. Commuting to class is realistic here, which matters if you want the campus lab time rather than a fully online program.
Choosing a Health Care Program From Shelby
The subject matter does not change by location: anatomy and physiology, patient care, pharmacology, medical terminology, and the supervised clinical hours every licensed credential requires. What changes is how you take it. Ask each college whether the program holds accreditation from the programmatic accreditor for the specific credential you are pursuing, such as CCNE or ACEN for nursing and ARC-PA for physician assistant programs, how much of the coursework is delivered online, and which components require you on campus. Credit transfer is decided by the receiving institution and genuinely varies, so request a written transfer evaluation before you enroll.
Colleges Near Shelby
How we rank schools – graduation rate, graduate earnings, cost and retention.
Advertising plays no part.
This page lists 10 schools
within 35 miles, closest group first, then ordered by
BOC Score with the highest at the top.
10 of them carry a score.
LOCAL RANK
Location / proximity to this page
Defines the local group
Graduation rate how often students finish
30%
Median earnings, 10 years after entry whether it paid off
25%
Average net price what students actually pay after aid; lower ranks higher
20%
Retention rate how many come back for year two
15%
Fully online availability whether you can study while working
10%
Scores come from IPEDS (2024) and the U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard.
Earnings are for all graduates of a school, not one program, so treat them as a signal
about the institution rather than about this subject.
Sponsored listings are paid placements and are labelled as such; they are separate from
this ranking and never change it. Read the full methodology.
Registered Nurses in North Carolina earn a median $84,350 per year against $97,550 nationally (BLS OEWS, May 2025).
The North Carolina median for registered nurses is $84,350 per year, below the national median of $97,550, on state employment of 111,120 (BLS OEWS, May 2025).
These are statewide figures. The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish wages at city level, so no page can tell you what this job pays in Shelby specifically. For the metro-level picture where it is published, and the full percentile spread, see the North Carolina page.
U.S. Department of Education, IPEDS Completions, 2024 - institutions awarding this degree, with IPEDS institution coordinates
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025 - Registered Nurses (SOC 29-1141)
About this guide: Researched and written by the TradeCareerPath Editorial Team. Our editorial team researches and sources every trade school and career guide using federal labor and education data, including BLS OEWS and Employment Projections, DOL apprenticeship records, IPEDS, College Scorecard, and state licensing boards. We follow the editorial standards documented at /editorial-policy/.
