<p>Emerson sounds like an amazing school to me, for humanities majors obviously. Right in the heart of Boston but with the intimate attention of a LAC...seems like it'd be a really popular college. Is there something I don't know? :p</p>
<p>It’s really expensive and has marginal recruiting.</p>
<p>I regret not applying there</p>
<p>And 6281597, this is the kind of school that doesn’t require recruiting from companies, as most of the kids want to go into the arts for careers.</p>
<p>No campus whatsoever, academically weak outside of arts and communications, heavily hipster student body–it’s great for some, but not everyone’s cup of tea.</p>
<p>Going to Emerson is the equivalent of committing financial suicide for many students.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.emerson.edu/sites/default/files/Files/StudentLife/career-services-post-graduate-survey-summary-undergrad-2010.pdf[/url]”>http://www.emerson.edu/sites/default/files/Files/StudentLife/career-services-post-graduate-survey-summary-undergrad-2010.pdf</a></p>
<p>Look at the jobs that students get (or don’t get if you prefer). 45% of respondents in the class of 2010 reported having found a job. The average salary range for those who do get jobs is 25-35k. Also worrying is the less than 60% response rate. The 40+% who did not respond probably fared even worse. I would not be surprised if less than 35% of the graduating class is employed. These are vomit inducing statistics when you consider the time and money spent by students to attend the school.</p>
<p>It has a niche market for those interested in broadcasting.</p>
<p>Crappy financial aid and over 50k/year!</p>
<p>Oh, okay. I don’t care so much about the marginal recruiting (cuz pretty much all humanities majors will have to deal with that and it’s more about what you as an individual do), but the crappy financial aid…well, there goes my Emerson dream. XD I definitely need a lot of FA. 
Thanks for telling me in advance guys!</p>
<p>Apply there anyways…just see what happens</p>
<p>rocketdog88,</p>
<p>You need to thoroughly investigate the financial aid policies of every college on your list. Some give good aid to everyone. Some give crappy aid to everyone. But some give crappy aid to most applicants, and amazing aid to a few. In that case, the challenge is to determine whether YOU are likely to fall into the “most” category or the “few” category.</p>
<p>Once you know what your family can pay, and your FAFSA EFC (run the calculator at [FinAid</a> | Calculators | Expected Family Contribution (EFC) and Financial Aid](<a href=“Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid”>Expected Family Contribution (EFC) Calculator - Finaid) to get an estimate) you will have a better idea of what is possible and what isn’t. You can always take your questions to the Financial Aid Forum too!</p>
<p>If Emerson was your only college option (in a world where that restriction could be enforced), you would probably be better off not going to college in the long run.</p>
<p>50k/yr over 4 yrs for a 45% chance at getting a job that pays 30k?</p>
<p>Financial Aid Statistics: Emerson College</p>
<p>Full-time freshman enrollment: 825
Number who applied for need-based aid: 537
Number who were judged to have need: 438
Number who were offered aid: 434
Number who had full need met: 339
Average percent of need met: 75%
Average financial aid package: $18,262
Average need-based loan: $3,604
Average need-based scholarship or grant award: $16,775
Average non-need based aid: $13,550
Average indebtedness at graduation: $17,459</p>
<p>So almost half of the students pay full price.</p>
<p>We got great financial aid and as a transfer too! If you really NEED good financial aid Emerson will provide. Most of the people who complain about lack of financial aid have higher incomes and just don’t want (or have the inability) to commit that money to the school.</p>
<p>Emerson indeed sounds like it has a wonderful location, artsy student population, majors that are tailored toward developing real-world skills in the humanities, and small/intimate classes…It sounds amazing to me too. 
The financial aid thing does scare me quite a bit, but it’s great to hear that squeegis was able to get great financial aid as a transfer! </p>
<p>Besides financial aid, perhaps the reason it isn’t more popular is because it is more vocational and is solely dedicated to humanities careers. The majors are pretty specific, and people have to be fairly set on their career goals to apply to Emerson. The specificity of majors knocks out probably about 75% of traditional applicants who want to major in the many fields Emerson doesn’t offer. But for students who already know they want to be authors, journalists, filmmakers, performers, et cetera, Emerson seems like it would be a top choice.</p>
<p>The marginal recruiting is a bit worrisome though. I wonder if it has to do with Emerson itself or just the fact that humanities majors in general a harder time finding jobs. Thoughts, anyone?</p>
<p>It looks like the school has an average cost of a little over 130k (assuming 4 years). </p>
<p>If we assume that those responding to the survey are representative of the entire class (which is very generous) and assume that those without post-graduation plans do as well as those without post-graduation plans (also a generous assumption), we find that 5% of the class is in a post graduation internship and thus likely underemployed. Another 5.5% work outside of their major, which isn’t always bad (i.e, English major working at a bank), but for the average student it means underemployment. </p>
<p>So that leaves us with a lower limit estimate that 10% of the class is underemployed. It is likely much higher. If we assume that those without post-graduation plans end up either unemployed or underemployed (which seems pretty reasonable), we arrive at 40% of the class being unemployed/underemployed. </p>
<p>For an upper limit estimate, we can assume that people who don’t respond to the survey are underemployed (which is definitely not true), we get 70% underemployment/unemployment. </p>
<p>So the actual gainful employment rate is probably around 60% and the average salary is probably less than the listed 25-35k range. That’s not good, and I can’t imagine how long it would take for the average graduate to make up the cost of their education (not just paying off the debt, but making the amount of money that the parent has paid in). </p>
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<p>Nah, humanities majors really need recruiting since the jobs are so competitive.</p>
<p>^Hm, that is pretty troubling. Does anyone have any idea why that is the case for Emerson? It seems like people would be well-trained in their fields at a college with such specific majors, and Boston seems like it would be great for internships in a lot of the fields represented.</p>
<p>Emerson did wonders for Jay Leno!</p>
<p>because nobody has to be smart to get into Emerson.</p>
<p>^Same pretty much goes for BU, Northeastern, Boston College, etc, and yet they are talked about more on here. Probably because they have a wide range of majors, unlike Emerson.</p>