Is it worth it to go in 150k student loan for NYU communciation major?

I am an immigrant to the U.S., but I do qualify for fafsa. My parents said the most they can offer me is 40k a year including tuition and housing and food and all the other things. I know NYC is a really expensive place to live in and I heard that student loan is a really good thing for students in the U.S.

No, it’s not worth it.

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There’s almost nothing in undergrad it’s worth going in for $150k in loans imo.

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A. No, it’s not worth it

B. You couldn’t get $150K in student loans anyway

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For a communication major, and depends on the discipline but very tough to find jobs and they typically pay little. Zero loans is the only proper thing.

Given your other thread and the $40k budget, there are several schools that can get you there that are excellent. You might not like the names - an Alabama, Kansas, Michigan State, Mizzou, Ohio U, Oklahoma, etc - but they are strong in communication and either will in some cases or likely will hit cost.

Given the major, an entry salary may be $30-60k. Whether journalism - many are now contract. Or advertising/PR/Film - the supply of potential employees dwarfs the amount of jobs - so it’s hard to obtain a position and when you do, like at an ad agency, entry pay is peanuts.

No loans for this major!!!

Ps - NYU, BU - from your other thread - and other high end privates use CSS profile to determine need. FAFSA is just to acquire the govt loan. If you are eligible, the Parent Plus loan is now capped at $20k per year and $65k total over four years.

Good luck

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I am very strongly in agreement with other answers. $150,000 in student loan debt for a communications major would be a disaster.

One big problem is that after graduation this much debt would be a huge burden that could hurt your future for years if not decades.

Another problem that might be even worse is that you could be very likely to get part way through your degree and then find that you cannot borrow enough money to finish the degree. You could end up with most of the debt but no degree.

I would not let either daughter take any debt for their bachelor’s degrees. One daughter was frustrated by this. Then four years later she graduated university with no debt and got a “dream job” that paid badly. They could pay badly because the job was otherwise that attractive. This dream job led to a second job, which led to a very good graduate program. She has more recently thanked me (at least twice) for not letting her take on any debt for her bachelor’s degree.

I would suggest that you similarly try very hard to avoid debt for a bachelor’s degree, and certainly do not take on $150,000 in debt.

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There are approximately three high paying communications tracks. One is Investor Relations- usually requires an MBA. One is “executive communications” i.e. speechwriting, but for a corporation, not a political candidate, and for those roles, Econ, History or English is the way to go. And the third is lobbyist, where Poli Sci OR some content type degree (Agriculture, International Relations, regional studies and foreign language fluency).

BUT- nobody is landing one of the high paying comms roles right out of undergrad. You’ve got at least ten years of “dues paying”, either a low paying job on the Hill, working as a journalist, etc. before you would be considered even minimally qualified.

So– how you would pay back heavy loans earning $40K as a “stringer” for a news website or similar?

I have hired dozens of Comm’s professionals over the years (corporate roles) and don’t think a single person majored in “communications”. Some have had regional expertise (Asia, Russia, Brazil, depending on what the business needed at the time), some have had sector expertise (a standout hire was a CS major and we were hiring for our DC/Government Relations operation and needed someone strong on Tech regulation and Tech IP) etc. But everyone pays their dues in low paying jobs where you work insane hours and learn the ropes. And learn a specific area- a food company will want someone who has covered agriculture, consumer safety, sustainability. An aerospace company will want expertise on defense, IP and commercial aviation
 etc.

Why NYU, why Communications, what type of comm’s do you hope to study?

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Will you qualify for need based financial aid? Run the NPC of each school on your list with your parents. If you don’t qualify for need based aid and your budget is $40K per year (?), that will impact/change your college list on your other thread. Here’s NYU’s NPC: Net Price Calculator

I agree with the others that $150K in loans for an undergrad degree doesn’t make sense.

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I would like to know who is telling you that a student loan is a really good thing? If the US government limits you to $27,000, as a maximum, they are trying to tell you something. This is the maximum amount of money that you should be taking out as a loan. And this is from the US Federal government.

So I don’t know who is giving you such awful and poor advice!

Do you hope to one day pay for your own vehicle, or a have a small home or apartment? Do you hope to help your parents out as they age? You will not be able to do any of those things if you take out $150,000 in loans. As previously mentioned, your major begins as a very low paying career and this is if you can find a job after you graduate.

You know you have to pay it back, right? Did you also know that some of those loans get sold and resold? And some loans, require to pay as you go. So you could be in your junior year of college and your parents are required to make $4000 a month payments on those loans while you’re still in school.

I want you to understand how SERIOUS this is. Every person, who has responded to you, has said this is not a good idea because you will be in debt for DECADES!

If you and your immigrant parents are thrilled that NYU has accepted you, and the “prestige” that they can tell the relatives about back home, isn’t worth it because you are going to be suffering for years and years paying back a lot of money.

You won’t be able to file for bankruptcy because the student loan NEVER goes away.

I worked with a colleague who has at least $350,000 in loans and those loans have interest payments.

She has to live with her parents; she married her husband (who had kids). They live in her childhood bedroom. She works in social services and makes very little money.

She has very bad credit because she can’t afford to repay her loans. She can’t afford to buy a home, She can’t afford to buy a car; she drives her dad‘s old truck.

No matter how much your parents want to brag, please don’t take out these types of loans. You will regret it indefinitely.

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Aunt Bea has good advice on this. I’ll only add that many of the loans you get beyond the federal loans of $27,000 ($31,000 with interest) are predatory loans and are to be avoided at all cost.

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No, not worth it. 15K yes, not 150K.

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Like I said in your other thread - nope. For reference, I have a degree in communications from a NY State University with a strong comm/broadcasting program.

Sounds like you’re looking for someone to tell you yes.

Granted, I graduated in 1989 but I struggled to find a job related to my degree that paid enough for me to live on and had health benefits. I grew up right outside of NYC (could have commuted by train), so that’s where I initially targeted my job search - interviewed for several “assistant” type jobs in broadcasting - really low pay which didn’t justify an hour train commute each way and then a 20-minute drive home.

Moved to the state capital with friends and moved on to interviews working in PR for elected officials at the capital. No benefits - very low pay (basically, I would only be getting paid for written press releases that were published). Tried that field again when I moved farther upstate with my future husband - no luck.

Ended up going back to college and pivoting to work in the legal field, which ended up being my career.

Not trying to discourage you from a communications degree (although I would have discouraged my own kids), especially since we’re still not sure exactly what field you want to enter - just sharing my experience with that degree.

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Even if someone says yes - who is going to grant them $150k in loans for undergrad?

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OP should absolutely not take this much in loans.

But for students who need more than the $27K in federal direct loans, typically their parents have taken parent plus loans (which previously had been unlimited (up to kid’s COA) but starting in July 2026 will be limited to $20K per year/$65K total undergrad per child.) I expect the market in the US will step in with offerings that replicate how parent plus loans used to work.

There are also some companies that will loan money to students without a co-signer, but interest rates tend to be high, like 12%+. Ascent Funding, a CC partner, is one of these companies.

It would serve them well to use a loan amortization calculator to see what those actually mean in terms of repayments.

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Absolutely.

Here is a decent loan calculator. I recommend doing this analysis even for students who are taking out the $27K in federal direct loans. Understanding personal finance is important for all college students.

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That’s a great calculator to figure out affordability- though also assumes you know what you’ll be earning when you graduate!

I don’t know what the normal terms of a student loan are but as an example, 15 years to repay a $150k loan at 12% works out at around $21k a year, so by the end of it you’ve paid more than double the original loan amount. Many people just don’t realize how compound interest works against them in loan repayment. A shorter term means you don’t end up paying as much interest in total but you’re paying more each year, say 10 years is around $25k a year. And those are assuming repayments start immediately- if they don’t, the interest just builds until you do and those numbers get even bigger. These numbers seem big for a family that can only pay around $40k a year for college, and they seem big compared to what most new graduates will have left after tax, rent, food and other non-discretionary expenses.

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@throwaway468 again I ask
what do you hope to do with a communications major? There are many options. Please clarify.

Regardless
NO undergrad degree is worth $150,000 a year in loans.

  1. Your loan limit in your own name via the Direct Loan is limited to $5500 for your freshman year. Where is the other rest in loans going to come from?
  2. As noted, if your parents were considering the Parent Plus Loan, it is limited to $20,000 a year now. So that won’t fund your $150,000 in loans either.
  3. If you go the private loan route, your parents will need to be qualified borrowers, and will need to co-sign. Will they do this? And will they be qualified borrowers for all four years, because the more you borrow, the more risky you become.

Short answer
NYU is not worth $150,000 in loans. IMHO, no undergrad program is worth that much.

If your parents can absolutely contribute $40,000 a year, start looking for colleges that will meet that price point. Not colleges that require $40,000 a year or so in loans.

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Where did you hear this? Really minimizing student loans is a good thing for students in the U.S.

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No one, obviously. It seems like OP is looking for an endorsement from anyone on here that this is a good idea - just because it’s NYU.

ETA- If OP would give additional info on their desired career path, we could likely offer more affordable suggestions.

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