Economics at Touro University

At $25,000 in estimated debt against first-year earnings around $50,000, this economics degree appears to strike a workable balance—at least based on what similar New York programs suggest. That 0.50 debt-to-earnings ratio means graduates would need roughly half their first annual salary to cover borrowing, which sits in reasonable territory for a bachelor's degree. The estimated earnings align almost exactly with the state median for economics programs, suggesting this tracks with typical outcomes rather than outperforming or lagging noticeably.

The challenge here is transparency: Touro's graduate sample is too small for the Department of Education to publish actual outcomes, so we're working with estimates drawn from peer programs across New York. That means parents can't see whether Touro specifically produces stronger or weaker results than the $50,000 baseline. Given the school's 1365 average SAT score and 63% admission rate, it enrolls reasonably competitive students, but without program-specific data, there's no way to confirm whether those students translate into better-than-average career placement. The national benchmark sits slightly higher at $51,722, and elite New York programs like Barnard and Cornell produce graduates earning $80,000-plus—a reminder that institutional reputation matters significantly in economics.

For families comfortable with this level of uncertainty, the estimated numbers suggest manageable debt relative to earning potential. But if you're counting on clear evidence that this specific program delivers strong outcomes, that data simply doesn't exist yet.