Arts & design

Visual and Performing Arts, General

School of the Art Institute of Chicago · Chicago, IL

Medium evidenceMatched peers12 institutions · related subjectsSee the evidence

The degree in numbers

Cost & earnings.

Annual tuition$54,530Institution-level tuition; programme fees may differ · before aid
Annual credentials awarded9Average of available recent award years; not the earnings sample size.

Earnings context

One career stage.
A clearer comparison.

USD · Master's · 2 years after completion
Same source release. National references exclude this degree.

Selected degree estimate$38,668
Same subject · national$35,785
Arts & design · national$36,678

Behind the number

Your comparison group.

Medium evidence

Related subjects at 12 matched peer institutions · master's

Grouped estimate. Middle half of comparison values: $33,103–$44,876.

Historical earnings archive. College Scorecard legacy FOS archive (file dated 2022-01-19; cohorts vary). Do not interpret this as today's graduate salary. Further study and career changes are not modelled by this early-career figure.

Master's outcomes · 2 years after completion
Institution & subjectReported earnings
Azusa Pacific UniversityFine and Studio Arts$42,682
Rider UniversityMusic$33,687
Shenandoah UniversityMusic$32,569
Pace UniversityDrama/Theatre Arts and Stagecraft$26,353
Saint Edward's UniversityLiberal Arts and Sciences, General Studies and Humanities$41,565
Maryland Institute College of ArtDesign and Applied Arts, Fine and Studio Arts$44,602
Oklahoma City UniversityMusic$28,212
William Woods UniversityEducational/Instructional Media Design$35,772
Messiah UniversityMusic$55,693
California College of the ArtsDesign and Applied Arts, Fine and Studio Arts$60,298
Canisius UniversityEducational/Instructional Media Design$45,696
Columbus College of Art & DesignVisual and Performing Arts, General$33,281
How matching & uncertainty work

We first look for the same subject code (or exact subject name), qualification, country, currency, source release and earnings horizon. Peer institutions are matched using admissions selectivity, completion rates, undergraduate size and institution type, with a small preference for the same region. These are institutional proxies, not a ranking of programme quality.

If subject-matched peers are sparse, we try related subjects at closely matched universities, related degrees at this university, then an explicitly labelled national reference. We never multiply a salary by a university prestige score.

Peer and national estimates give each reporting institution one vote, after taking the median of its related programmes. Shared branch-campus outcomes count once. The middle-half range describes variation between reporting institutions. It is not an individual salary range or a statistical confidence interval.

Evidence labels describe match quality and coverage, not validated prediction accuracy. Admissions and size are undergraduate institutional measures, so graduate-degree comparisons are especially approximate.

Historical cohort outcomes are not promised salaries or a causal effect of attending this programme. College Scorecard earnings cover eligible federal-aid recipients, not every graduate or international student. Source definitions ↗