Linguistic, Comparative, at Reed College

Reed's linguistics program produces graduates earning $25,561 their first year—barely above Oregon's state median despite the college's highly selective admissions and $1,420 average SAT scores. While this places the program in the 60th percentile within Oregon, that's less impressive when you realize Oregon's linguistics programs generally underperform the national benchmark. Even University of Oregon, a much larger public institution, sees nearly identical first-year outcomes at $23,615.

The debt burden of $21,250 is manageable at less than a year's earnings, which is reasonable for a humanities degree. However, the program's 37th percentile national ranking reveals the core tension: you're paying private college prices (or getting substantial financial aid at an institution serving few Pell-eligible students) for below-average earnings in an already modest-earning field. The small sample size—fewer than 30 graduates—means these numbers could shift significantly year to year, so this snapshot may not reflect typical outcomes.

For families drawn to Reed's distinctive academic culture and rigorous humanities education, this program isn't necessarily a poor choice if you're planning for graduate school or value the intellectual experience itself. But if first-year earnings matter for loan repayment or financial independence, understand that Reed's selectivity doesn't translate into standout career outcomes here—at least not immediately after graduation.