Business Administration, Management and Operations at Herzing University-Atlanta

Herzing University-Atlanta charges nearly double Georgia's typical debt load for a business administration associate's degree—$38,807 versus the state median of $22,932—while delivering earnings that barely exceed the state average. Your child would start around $30,500 annually, which puts them in the 60th percentile among Georgia business programs but below the national median. That's a debt burden requiring 1.27 years of full salary to repay, roughly three times the standard benchmark for manageable student loans.

The concerning part isn't the starting salary—it's competitive for Georgia—but rather the cost structure. Georgia's technical colleges like West Georgia Tech and Chattahoochee Tech produce graduates earning $37,000-$45,000 with significantly less debt. The 22% earnings growth to $37,295 by year four helps, but graduates will spend their early career years managing debt payments that could otherwise fund retirement savings or major purchases.

For a family considering this program, the math is straightforward: you're paying private school prices (the debt ranks in just the 5th percentile nationally) for middle-of-the-pack outcomes in Georgia. Unless your child has compelling reasons to attend Herzing specifically—location constraints, adult learner support services, or scheduling flexibility that technical colleges can't match—Georgia's public technical college system offers substantially better value for the same credential and comparable career outcomes.