Business Administration, Management and Operations at Columbia University in the City of New York

Columbia's ultra-selective admissions (4% acceptance rate, 1547 average SAT) create an expectation problem when looking at peer program outcomes for business majors. Similar programs across New York typically produce first-year earnings around $42,000—exactly what the state median suggests—but several peer institutions report dramatically higher figures, with Manhattan University business graduates earning $114,000 and Syracuse grads starting at $65,000. That gap matters when you're considering one of the nation's most competitive schools.

The estimated $25,715 in debt sits right at the state median and creates a manageable 0.61 debt-to-earnings ratio by typical standards. But "manageable" takes on different meaning at an Ivy League institution where the school's reputation and alumni network should theoretically command premium outcomes. Without actual graduate data for Columbia's business program specifically, you're left wondering whether the school's considerable brand advantage translates into the kind of earning power that justifies its selectivity—or whether this program simply doesn't attract the volume of traditional business majors that larger programs do.

The practical question: if your child is talented enough to get into Columbia (a significant "if"), does the business program leverage that selectivity into outcomes that match the school's reputation? The missing data makes that impossible to answer definitively, which is precisely the information you'd want before committing to this path over documented high performers in the state.