Linguistic, Comparative, at Montana State University

Montana State's linguistics program shows graduates earning $33,415 in their first year—about 22% above the national median for this field and ranking in the 80th percentile nationally. That's solid performance, though the program is tied with the only other linguistics offering in Montana, so there's limited in-state comparison. The debt load of $23,250 sits well below national norms for the field, creating a manageable 0.70 debt-to-earnings ratio that graduates could reasonably pay down within a few years.

The major caveat here is sample size: with fewer than 30 graduates tracked, these numbers could shift considerably year to year. A handful of graduates landing particularly good or poor jobs could dramatically move the averages. That said, the pattern aligns with what you'd expect from MSU Bozeman—a solid state flagship with decent resources but realistic earnings for liberal arts fields.

For a student genuinely committed to linguistics or language study, this represents a relatively low-risk path compared to many programs in the humanities. The debt burden won't be crushing, and the earnings, while modest, exceed what most linguistics grads achieve nationally. Just understand that with such a small cohort, your child's individual outcomes will depend heavily on their own initiative in finding relevant work—these numbers are suggestive, not predictive.