Romance Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics at Charleston Southern University

Charleston Southern's Romance Languages program faces a fundamental challenge that similar programs across South Carolina share: first-year earnings around $36,000 that make the estimated $25,500 in student debt feel substantial. With a debt-to-earnings ratio of 0.71, graduates would need to dedicate roughly nine months of their first year's salary just to clear the principal—and that's before accounting for interest or living expenses. For context, the national median for this major is $34,500, so the South Carolina estimate isn't unusually low, but it does reflect the reality that foreign language degrees rarely command strong immediate returns.

What complicates the picture here is that we're working with estimates based on peer programs, not Charleston Southern's actual graduate outcomes. The small sample size that triggered data suppression could mean anything—perhaps the program is tiny, or perhaps graduates are pursuing paths (graduate school, teaching abroad, missions work at a Christian university) that don't show up in these wage records. Comparable programs in South Carolina show wide variation, from University of South Carolina-Columbia's $21,400 to Wofford's $39,500, suggesting that institutional fit and individual career choices matter enormously.

If your child is passionate about language study and has a clear plan—teaching certification, graduate school, or bilingual career path—this could work. But banking on these estimated figures alone as evidence of strong employment outcomes would be a mistake when the actual data simply isn't there.