General Sales, Merchandising at Long Island University

At roughly $25,000 in debt for a business degree that appears to generate around $53,000 in first-year earnings, this program's estimated numbers align closely with national patterns for sales and merchandising bachelor's degrees. The debt-to-earnings ratio of 0.46 suggests graduates would need less than half their first year's salary to cover their borrowing—a manageable threshold by most standards. However, these figures come from comparable programs nationwide rather than Long Island University's actual graduate outcomes, making this more of an educated guess than a guarantee.

The four-year earnings figure of $54,659 provides only modest reassurance, showing minimal income growth between year one and year four. Similar programs at New York schools like RIT and Baruch report first-year earnings in the low-to-mid $40,000s, roughly $10,000 below these national estimates. That gap matters in expensive Long Island, where cost of living can quickly erode salary advantages. If LIU's actual outcomes track closer to New York peers than to national medians, the financial picture becomes tighter.

The practical question is whether you're comfortable betting on estimates when the school hasn't enrolled enough graduates in this major to generate reportable data. The projected debt burden isn't alarming, but without confirmed outcomes specific to LIU's program, you're essentially banking on this program performing like its national counterparts—a reasonable assumption, but one worth weighing carefully given the cost of being wrong in a high-expense market like New York.