Rhetoric and Composition/Writing Studies at Franklin and Marshall College

Franklin & Marshall's writing program graduates start at $33,476—better than 70% of similar programs nationally, but here's the complication: that figure trails the Pennsylvania median by over $1,000 and sits well below the state's top-performing programs at Pitt and Shippensburg, which clock in around $36,000. For a selective liberal arts college (32% admission rate, 1394 SAT average) where only 17% of students receive Pell grants, these outcomes raise questions about whether the premium tuition delivers commensurate salary advantages within Pennsylvania's competitive market for writing graduates.

The debt picture offers some relief—at $23,083, graduates carry about $2,400 less than the state median and nearly $2,000 below the national average. That translates to a manageable debt-to-earnings ratio of 0.69, meaning graduates should theoretically repay loans within a year's salary. However, the small sample size (under 30 graduates) means a few outliers could significantly skew these figures in either direction, making it difficult to gauge what a typical graduate actually experiences.

If your child is passionate about writing and committed to Franklin & Marshall's environment, the debt load won't be crushing. But Pennsylvania families should recognize they're not buying measurably better first-year outcomes than they'd find at far less expensive state universities—and might actually see lower starting salaries than Pitt system graduates.