Rhetoric and Composition/Writing Studies at Cornell College

Cornell College's Writing Studies graduates start at $18,241—less than two-thirds the national median for this major. While that sounds alarming, there's a critical detail: this program actually performs right at the state median for Iowa, ranking in the 60th percentile among the dozen Iowa schools offering this degree. The real story here isn't Cornell underperforming—it's that Iowa writing graduates broadly earn far less than their national peers.

The debt picture compounds the challenge. Borrowers leave with $27,000, creating a debt-to-earnings ratio of 1.48 that will make repayment difficult on an $18,000 starting salary. Even if earnings grow substantially (which writing careers often do as graduates move into editing, communications, or management roles), these first years will be financially tight. The extremely small sample size—fewer than 30 graduates—means a single graduate's circumstances could significantly skew these numbers up or down.

For an Iowa family committed to keeping their student in-state for a writing degree, Cornell isn't an outlier. But parents should recognize they're investing $27,000 in debt for a degree that historically produces poverty-level starting wages in this region. If your student is passionate about writing and plans to leverage the degree into higher-paying communications work, that's one thing. If they're uncertain about career direction, choosing a major with stronger baseline earnings would provide more financial breathing room after graduation.