Which Ohio public relations and advertising program has the lowest debt?

Bowling Green State reports the lowest median federal debt, $22,519, with first-year pay of $42,296.

How much do public relations and advertising graduates earn in Ohio?

The median across 12 Ohio public relations and advertising bachelor's programs is $41,132 in the first year after graduating and $55,438 five years after.

Public Relations and Advertising (Bachelor's) Programs in Ohio, Ranked by Graduate Pay and Debt

Q: How many public relations and advertising bachelor's programs are in Ohio?

12 Ohio programs report first-year pay for their graduates, and 11 of them also report federal debt.

12 programs report first-year pay
11 also report federal debt
Bachelor's in Public Relations, Advertising, and Applied Communication

College Scorecard June 2026 release · BLS wages May 2025

The short answer

The median Ohio public relations and advertising bachelor's program pays its graduates $41,132 in their first year, $1,455 more than the national median. Miami University reports the highest first-year pay ($50,700), and Bowling Green State the lowest median debt ($22,519).

Median first-year pay$41,132National $39,677

Median pay after 5 years$55,438National $58,304

Median federal debt$26,515National $24,693

Debt-to-earnings64%National 62%

All 12 programs, ranked

Each figure is the median for the program's graduates. Programs that don't report a figure are listed last when you sort by it.

#	School	Year 1 pay	Year 5 pay	Debt	Debt to pay
1	Miami UniversityOxford · public	$50,700	$79,160	$25,000	49%
2	Franklin UniversityColumbus · private nonprofit	$46,518	$47,326	$42,017	90%
3	Capital UniversityColumbus · private nonprofit	$45,235	$48,600	$27,000	60%
4	Bowling Green StateBowling Green · public	$42,296	$59,879	$22,519	53%
5	Xavier UniversityCincinnati · private nonprofit	$41,958	$58,699	$26,515	63%
6	University of AkronAkron · public	$41,396	$53,071	$27,000	65%
7	Kent StateKent · public	$40,867	$59,496	$25,000	61%
8	Cleveland StateCleveland · public	$38,027	$52,698	$26,750	70%
9	Otterbein UniversityWesterville · private nonprofit	$37,430	$63,902	$23,800	64%
10	Baldwin Wallace UniversityBerea · private nonprofit	$36,620	$55,438	$26,500	72%
11	Ashland UniversityAshland · private nonprofit	$29,437	$53,786	$27,125	92%
12	Youngstown StateYoungstown · public	$27,068	Not reported	Not reported	Not reported

Youngstown State reports pay but not debt, so it is ranked only by pay.

Debt and first-year pay at every Ohio public relations and advertising program

Programs in the upper left give graduates higher pay for less debt. Dashed lines mark the Ohio medians.

Hover over or tap a dot to see the school. Only the 11 programs that report both earnings and debt are shown.

Quick picks

Highest first-year pay

Lowest median debt

Lowest debt for the pay

"Debt for the pay" is median debt divided by first-year pay. Only programs that report both figures are included.

Careers this field leads to

These are the jobs that the federal crosswalk from fields of study to occupations links to public relations and advertising, largest first. Pay is the median across all experience levels.

Training and Development Specialists

$64,780

Median pay in Ohio. 17,690 people work in this job in Ohio. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 11% from 2025 to 2035, with about 46,000 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree, plus less than 5 years of related work experience.

Bottom 10%: $33,450Top 10%: $108,030

Public Relations Specialists

$64,840

Median pay in Ohio. 6,670 people work in this job in Ohio. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 2% from 2025 to 2035, with about 23,000 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree.

Bottom 10%: $41,540Top 10%: $121,460

Human Resources Managers

$130,480

Median pay in Ohio. 8,040 people work in this job in Ohio. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 6% from 2025 to 2035, with about 16,800 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree, plus 5 years or more of related work experience.

Bottom 10%: $81,940Top 10%: $218,740

Fundraisers

$64,080

Median pay in Ohio. 3,460 people work in this job in Ohio. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 6% from 2025 to 2035, with about 10,000 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree.

Bottom 10%: $43,980Top 10%: $104,220

Common questions

Miami University in Oxford reports the highest median first-year pay, $50,700. Its median federal debt is $25,000.

Public Relations and Advertising (Bachelor's) programs in the US, ranked179 programs by pay and debt

About this data

Earnings and debt only include students who received federal financial aid, and earnings only count graduates who were working and not enrolled in more school.
Debt only includes federal loans. Private loans and credit cards are not counted.
Some schools with several campuses report one combined figure for all of them. We count each of those schools once, and leave them out of Ohio rankings when their main campus is in another state.
Medians are across the public relations and advertising bachelor's programs that report each figure, so the counts differ by figure. Scorecard figures describe graduating classes from several years ago. BLS wages are from May 2025.

Sources

U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard, field of study and institution files, June 2026 release
Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025
Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections 2025 to 2035
NCES, CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 crosswalk, and IPEDS institution directory, 2024