Is The College of Saint Rose Worth It?

The College of Saint Rose closed in 2024, but its financial record is a warning worth reading. You paid a net price near $24,000 a year to attend, and ten years out the median graduate earned $56,040. That gap is survivable, but the path there was shaky: barely half of students graduated, and only about seven in ten came back for a second year. Paying for a school you may not finish is the core risk here.

The program-level numbers are worse than the school-wide median suggests. Every top-earning bachelor's field started graduates well below $45,000. Design and Applied Arts led at $43,000 a year, but you borrowed $26,512 to get there,more debt than any other listed major for the lowest payoff-to-cost ratio on the list. Teacher Education paid $38,289 against $27,000 in debt, a rough trade for a career that stays modestly paid in the Albany region. Business Administration matched that salary but kept debt to $21,500, and Clinical Psychology paired the same range with the lightest borrowing at $20,500. If you were choosing among these, Business and Psychology gave you the most breathing room. Design and Teacher Ed left you most exposed.

The net price tiers held one real advantage: if your family earned under $48,000, you paid around $19,000 a year, well below the sticker for higher-income families near $28,000. That discount made Saint Rose reachable for lower-income families, but it did not fix the earnings problem,a $19,000 annual cost still stings against a $38,000 starting salary.

This school worked best for you if you wanted a specific teaching or business credential, paid the lower-income net price, and actually graduated. If you leaned toward the arts or risked leaving early, the numbers did not support the cost.