Status: Current Student, Class of 2014

Major: 3-2 Physics and Engineering

Hometown: Brooklyn, New York

Works: As an RA for $12,000/Year and in the Campus Center 20 Hours/Week

Tuition Assistance: Some Scholarships

Student Debt: $25,000 to $30,000

Anthony Ortiz ’14 works as a resident assistant and an operations manager in the Campus Center. Still, he estimates he will graduate $25,000 to $30,000 in debt.

But the physics major isn’t worried. “I shouldn’t have a problem,” he says. “I’ve done my research, and physics has a 1 percent unemployment rate.”

He’s enrolled in Ithaca’s 3-2 physics and engineering program, where he will attend IC for three years and then go on to an engineering program at another college. He will receive bachelor’s degrees from both institutions. He’s applied to the Rochester Institute of Technology and the State University of New York at Binghamton.

After his grace period is up, he figures his payments will be about $400 to $500 a month.

“Right now I’m putting my entire Campus Center paycheck toward paying off the interest on my loans,” he says.

Read more about the value of an IC education here.