Information Science/Studies at Suffolk University

Suffolk's Information Science program starts graduates at a respectable $56,780, but here's the concern: that initial salary trails the Massachusetts median by nearly $12,000, landing in just the 25th percentile among Bay State schools. When you're paying Boston-area living costs, that gap matters. The program sits squarely in the middle nationally, but Massachusetts employers clearly value graduates from competing programs like BC, Wentworth, and UMass-Lowell more highly.

The silver lining is strong earnings growth—graduates see their income jump 39% to roughly $79,000 by year four, eventually surpassing the state median. The $27,000 debt load is manageable at less than half the first-year salary, so graduates aren't facing a financial crisis. But they're essentially paying to catch up to where peers at other Massachusetts schools start.

For families paying Suffolk's private university tuition, this creates a value question. Your child will likely do fine long-term, but they'll spend those first few years climbing to a salary level that graduates from UMass-Lowell—a more affordable public option—achieve immediately. Unless Suffolk offers specific advantages like location preference or smaller class sizes that justify the cost difference, the state's public universities deliver stronger initial ROI for this particular field.