<p>In general, how much debt is "reasonable" for communications and journalism majors? I know the rule of thumb is to not take out more than you can expect to make during your first year.. but I don't know exactly what I want to go into yet. How much debt are you guys going into for your communications degrees?</p>
<p>The reason why I'm asking is because I got into schools w/ great communications programs (Emerson and American U) but I'd have to go into major debt. I'm seriously doubting if the oppurtunities these programs will bring me are worth it.</p>
<p>Thanks for your advice/comments!</p>
<p>Major debt for ANYONE is a bad idea. For a journalist/writer/editor/photographer, it’s doubly bad because you’ll probably be stuck paying off your loans for ages. A good starting salary for a journalist is right around $30k depending on the who/what/where of your job. Go to salary.com and start figuring out what the areas you’re interested in pay to at the bottom of the ladder.</p>
<p>It depends on how ambitious and skilled you are. Starting wages are an average of $30k, but I know people that have gotten jobs at the Post, Times, etc that pay big bank within 5 years of graduation. Because the economics and form of journalism is so fluid right now, young journalists can be really competitive in the marketplace because of the skill sets they bring to the job that older journalists don’t have.</p>