Public Relations, Advertising, and Applied Communication at Saint Mary's University of Minnesota

The debt-to-earnings picture here looks manageable on paper—an estimated $25,832 in debt against first-year earnings around $39,794 puts graduates at roughly 65 cents of debt for every dollar earned. That's a reasonable starting point for a communications degree. However, these figures come from national medians for similar programs, not Saint Mary's actual graduate outcomes, which the DOE couldn't publish due to small sample sizes. Other Minnesota programs with reported data, like University of Northwestern-St Paul, show first-year earnings in the low $40,000s, suggesting Saint Mary's estimates land in a realistic range for the state.

The longer-term picture matters more here. By year four, earnings rise to just over $50,000—a solid but not dramatic increase that's fairly typical for communications fields. Comparable Minnesota programs show debt levels slightly lower than Saint Mary's estimated $25,832, with the state median at $22,312. That gap isn't enormous, but it does mean graduates here might need an extra few months of budgeting to stay comfortable with loan payments.

Given the estimation uncertainty and Saint Mary's high admission rate, parents should verify what career support and internship networks the program actually provides. The numbers suggest this degree won't be financially prohibitive, but communications is a field where who you know and what experience you graduate with often matter as much as the credential itself.