Romance Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics at Oakland University

Oakland University's Romance Languages program sits comfortably in the middle of Michigan's offerings, ranking in the 60th percentile statewide—ahead of larger programs like Grand Valley and Western Michigan, though behind Calvin and Hope. The $35,411 starting salary edges above both the national and state medians, and the program shows modest but steady earnings growth to nearly $40,000 by year four. With debt at $25,428, graduates face less than three-quarters of their first-year salary in loans, a manageable position for a humanities degree.

The real question is whether your child has a clear plan for how to use a Romance Languages degree. These earnings work if they're pursuing education, translation, international business roles, or graduate school—fields where language skills add concrete value. They're less sustainable if the degree is exploratory without a professional direction. The relatively small program size (under 30 graduates in the data) means these numbers could shift with just a few outliers, so they're best viewed as directional rather than definitive.

For families comfortable with a mid-$30,000s starting point and confident their student knows why they're choosing this path, Oakland offers reasonable value at a price point well below Michigan's private colleges. Just make sure the language skills are part of a broader career strategy, not the entire plan.