Lananh La, a high school senior from the Dallas suburbs, had her sights set on the University of Texas at Austin long before she even started sending out college applications.

“I entered high school with full confidence that I would attend UT Austin,” the 18-year-old tells CNBC Make It. “Everything was UT. My closet was filled with UT merch. I participated in a week-long sports medicine program at UT, and I never worried about where I was going to end up, because that was the one school that I had in mind.”

La got her acceptance letter to UT in January. But another college caught her attention and offered her a spot in its incoming class: Dallas Baptist University. Her final decision came as a bit of a surprise.

“I turned down my prestigious dream school for a university that nobody has heard of,” La says.

Plenty of locals, alumni and other curious students have no doubt heard of DBU, but with an undergraduate enrollment of just over 2,800 in 2024, the private college is dwarfed in size by UT Austin, which enrolls over 42,000 undergrads as of the fall 2023 semester.

The flagship Texas university has recently gained national prominence: It was named a “New Ivy” by Forbes in 2024 and 2025 to indicate that it was on par with Ivy League universities like Harvard and Princeton in terms of academic rigor and post-graduate job prospects. UT Austin’s undergraduate business program, which La was interested in, is ranked No. 6 in the country by U.S. News. 

Though DBU may not have those distinctions, it offers a solid education that helps most (72%) of its graduates out-earn their peers with only a high school diploma, according to the Department of Education’s College Scorecard. The return on investment from DBU is estimated to be $115,000 after 10 years, according to research from Georgetown University.

UT has a lower sticker price, though. In-state tuition at UT Austin’s business school, where La would have studied, cost $13,676 for the 2024-25 school year, compared with $38,340 a year at DBU.

Here’s why she chose DBU anyway.

When she started considering colleges, La knew she would be staying in her home state of Texas to get a more affordable education. With UT at the top of her list, she “had really high expectations” for her tour, she says.

“But admittedly, I just didn’t love it the way that I had hoped,” she says. “I realized that I more so loved Austin as a city, rather than the school itself.”

On a whim, she decided to take a tour of DBU’s campus in October when she had a day off from school.

“Prior to that tour, I had absolutely zero intentions on applying, and I did not care for it at all whatsoever,” La says. “But as soon as I walked on campus, I felt that amplified connection that I desperately wanted to feel at UT. … [DBU] started checking off all the boxes that I wanted in a university.”

La realized the Christian faith-based affiliation and the campus community were important aspects of her potential college experience. She was surprised after that tour that she felt conflicted over which school to choose.

“I knew how valuable the academic prestige at UT was, but I realized that having that fruitful, faith-centered community was what I prioritized more, and that’s exactly what DBU offers,” she says.

In January, La received admissions offers from both schools and knew she had to make a decision soon. 

DBU felt like a better fit when she was on campus. And the private school wound up offering her grants and scholarships that cut her tuition costs in half and brought her total cost of attendance significantly lower than what she would be paying at UT Austin, she says. She didn’t qualify for federal financial aid, so outside of private or other scholarships, the money she could get for school was dependent on each institution. 

Though La initially wanted to study marketing and business, she has since realized she’s more interested in pursuing physical therapy. She plans to work toward her doctorate in the subject and knows grad school could be even more expensive. That made an affordable bachelor’s degree even more of a priority. 

Ultimately, DBU made more sense for La. 

“UT Austin’s [business school] looked perfect on paper, but once it came down to it, it didn’t align with who I am now, it didn’t resonate with what I wanted,” she says. “I didn’t want to just go to a college to flaunt a prestigious name. I wanted to actually thrive. And I realized that [with UT Austin] I was chasing a brand, not a future.”

Her parents fully supported her decision, but La admits she was a little nervous at first to share her choice with others.

“I’m someone who really loves that academic prestige, being known as smart and high-achieving, so in the beginning, it was almost embarrassing to say that I turned down the one of the top schools in the nation for this local university,” she says.

But that feeling quickly wore off. She’s confident in her decision at this point, knowing she’s going to a good school that will give her the education she wants in a place where she can feel at home.

“I realized that if I want to exude myself as a high-achieving student, then I will be able to do that at DBU regardless, and the name of the university essentially doesn’t mean a lot,” she says.

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With tariffs creating economic uncertainty, many Americans are rethinking their emergency savings — and whether to keep some physical cash at home.

Not every financial planner thinks physical cash is essential, but some say it’s wise to keep a small amount on hand in case of power outages, natural disasters or payment disruptions.

“I would be comfortable with $500 to $1,000 in cash for unforeseen issues” like a hurricane, says Matthew Saneholtz, a certified financial planner at Tobias Financial Advisors in Florida.

Keeping $300 to $500 at home for emergencies or unexpected cash-only expenses is reasonable, says Crystal McKeon, CFP at TSA Wealth Management.

Keeping cash at home is “a personal choice,” says Melissa Caro, CFP and founder of My Retirement Network. While she says it can be “useful” in some situations, she cautions against relying too heavily on it.

“I wouldn’t go overboard with physical cash, since it’s not FDIC-insured and doesn’t earn interest,” Caro says. FDIC insurance covers up to $250,000 per person, per bank, across all accounts, if the FDIC-insured bank fails.

There are other downsides, too. “It can be subject to loss, theft, destruction or even impulse,” says Nicole Sullivan, CFP and co-founder of Prism Planning Partners. “If you have a significant amount of physical bills on hand, you may be more tempted to spend on ‘extras’ that you otherwise would avoid.”

If you do keep cash at home, be discreet about it, says McKeon: “Even if you think these items are safely stored in a safe, spreading this information is likely to make you a target for thieves.”

Beyond a small stash of cash at home, now is a good time to revisit your emergency fund. Financial planners typically recommend saving three to six months’ worth of essential expenses in a checking or high-yield savings account — someplace accessible, but separate from your day-to-day spending.

But with greater economic uncertainty, you might want to extend those savings to as much as a year’s worth of expenses. “If you are in an industry with layoffs likely ahead … shoot for more like nine to 12 months,” Saneholtz says.

Still, many Americans fall short when it comes to emergency savings. About 42% have no emergency savings, and 40% couldn’t cover a $1,000 expense, according to a 2025 survey from U.S. News & World Report.

If you’re starting from zero, remember that having any sort of financial cushion is better than none. “If you start at $50, it’s more than you had last month,” McKeon says. From there, try to increase your savings as your budget allows, especially by trimming non-essential spending, she says.

For an initial goal, savings of $1,000 is useful “to have on hand to fix your car, to cover small repairs on the house and minor medical situations,” says McKeon.

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Americans are on high alert for a potential recession, and they’re doing what they can to shore up finances and job security for uncertain times ahead.

As consumers and businesses shift their spending priorities, it also means workers in some jobs may be shielded from a downturn more than others.

When it comes to “recession-proof jobs,” the strongest one will be “closest to essential goods and services” like health care and groceries, says Cory Stahle, an economist at the jobs site Indeed.

Within health care, some of the more stable and in-demand jobs will be for nurses, doctors, physicians, surgeons and therapists, which saw a surge patient demand during the pandemic and has yet to slow down, Stahle tells CNBC Make It.

Meanwhile, retail workers will be needed at supermarkets and other places that sell staple goods, including cashiers, grocery stockers, people who load and unload trucks, and supply chain and logistics workers, he says.

If new tariffs from the Trump administration raise prices, Stahle says, consumers may adjust by budgeting for only the essentials: “You might have to change the type of food you’re eating, but you’re still going to have basic needs.”

Meanwhile, some “less solid jobs” in today’s market are in more white-collar knowledge worker roles, including software development and marketing, Stahle says.

That said, the type of industry you’re working in makes a big difference, he adds. A software developer working for a tech company may feel more job-insecure than a software developer who works at a hospital, for example, he says.

Across the U.S., jobs are stronger in the Southern region, where postings are up 20% compared to pre-pandemic levels, according to Indeed data; hiring is weaker in the West and Northeast, where tech jobs in particular have been pulled back, Stahle says.

Overall, 75% of new jobs added in 2024 came from health care and social assistance, government, and leisure and hospitality, according to an Indeed analysis of Labor Department data.

Software development jobs, on the other hand, are down 33% compared to pre-pandemic numbers, Stahle adds. And notably, federal government jobs have been on the chopping block under the Trump administration. The once-considered “bastion of safety” may no longer be a safe career option for the foreseeable future, Stahle says.

The concentration of opportunities in certain sectors is leading to a “bifurcation” in the job market, he says, where solid numbers around average job growth in the labor economy, boosted by just a few sectors, don’t match up with many people’s experience of a lousy job search.

“A lot of the growth has been coming from just a couple industries,” Stahle says, “and so anybody outside of those industries has really felt iced out by this job market.”

Put another way: “If you average out the temperature of freezing cold water and boiling water, you get something in the middle. But there’s obviously a big difference between freezing water and boiling water.”

For job-seekers and those in less recession-proof jobs, Stahle notes that it’s important to remember “a career isn’t something that happens over a year or two; we need to be thinking in the longer term of decades.”

To that end, he recommends workers focus on their skills and putting themselves in a good position to be valuable to their employer, no matter what industry they’re in, and “whether there’s a recession or not.”

For example, for all the discussion around using AI at work, many employers are still desperate for workers with basic computer skills, Stahle says, like being able to build and navigate through spreadsheets or communicate effectively over email.

“Layoff-proofing” your job may not be completely possible, Stahle says, but “being able to build out your skills” can minimize the impacts of job market disruptions and help you find another job more quickly if needed.

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If your goal is to make money right after college, majoring in engineering is one of the safest bets.

That’s because many of the highest-paying degrees are in that field, new data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York shows. The rankings line up with previous years’ data, which consistently place engineering fields at the top for median salaries within five years of graduation.

Top-paying majors include computer engineering, chemical engineering and computer science, with graduates earning a median early-career salary of $80,000. All engineering majors in the study have median early-career pay above $70,000.

Here’s a look at the highest-paying majors for workers ages 22 to 27.

Engineering grads are in high demand for their mix of mathematical skills and technical expertise, qualities that are valuable across a wide range of industries. With the growth of tech-driven fields like artificial intelligence and cybersecurity, it’s not surprising that computer engineering majors are among the highest-paid graduates.

Many of the top-paying majors continue to deliver strong returns over time. Among full-time workers ages 35 to 45, engineering majors typically earn six-figure salaries. Here’s a look at the rankings for mid-career graduates.

In contrast, the lowest-paying majors tend to be in liberal arts or education. Among graduates ages 22 to 27, foreign language majors report the lowest median salary at $40,000. For workers between ages 35 and 45, early childhood education majors earn the least with a median salary of $49,000.

The New York Fed’s annual study is based on 2023 U.S. Census data, the most recent available. It excludes currently enrolled students. Median wage data reflects full-time workers with a bachelor’s degree only.

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A new report from WalletHub ranks the U.S. cities with the most affordable rent.

The report, released in April, looked at more than 180 cities and analyzed the median annual gross rent compared to the median household income using data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Each city was then given a score out of 100.

“In the most affordable cities for renters, the median cost of rent is as low as 15% of the median income, compared to more than 33% in the most expensive cities,” Chip Lupo, a writer and analyst at WalletHub, states in the report.

“This gives people in the least expensive cities a clear financial advantage; the money they save on rent could go toward their emergency fund or savings for future home ownership.”

The top 10 cities are all west of the Mississippi River, with the top five all in the Midwest.

“There’s something in the water west of the Mississippi,” Lupo tells CNBC Make It. “We’re talking about states with very few, if any, major cities, and with few of the problems that would drive up rents. It seems that if you’re looking for an affordable place to rent, heading west seems to be the way to go.”

Total score: 100.00

Bismarck, North Dakota, ranked as the U.S. city with the most affordable rent. The median annual gross rent in the city is about 15.3% of the median annual income.

The city also has the 20th-lowest median annual rent and the 73rd-highest median income. The average rent in Bismarck, ND is $1,023 per month as of April 2025.

This, Lupo says, makes Bismarck an attractive place.

Bismarck is the capital of North Dakota and the second-most populous in the state, after Fargo.

The city has a lower unemployment rate, 3.2%, than the national average of 4.2%, according to a March 2025 report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The median household income in Bismarck is $89,020, according to U.S. News and World Report.

1. Bismarck, N.D.
2. Sioux Falls, S.D.
3. Cheyenne, Wyo.
4. Cedar Rapids, Iowa
5. Fargo, N.D.
6. Charleston, W. Va
7. Casper, Wyo.
8. Overland Park, Kan.
9. Juneau, Ala.
10. Anchorage, Ala.

Sioux Falls, South Dakota, ranked as the second-most affordable city for rent, with a score of 96.64 out of 100.

The median annual rent in Sioux Falls is only slightly more expensive than in Bismarck. The average rent for an apartment in Sioux Falls is $1,107.

“Sioux Falls and Bismarck are pretty much in the same boat. Their mean annual rents are reasonable and the median household incomes are about on par with the U.S. averages,” Lupo says.

The city is is one of the cheapest in the country and has the 88th-highest median annual income.

The median income in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, is a bit lower than Bismarck’s at $74,714, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The unemployment rate in the city is 2.1%.

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