What the IPEDS & College Scorecard Data Shows for Design and Applied Arts
Design and Applied Arts is tracked across 476 U.S. postsecondary institutions in the College Scorecard field-of-study file, which links CIP code classifications from IPEDS to Treasury earnings records. This profile covers the certificate credential level specifically, because the Department of Education reports program-level outcomes separately for associate, bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral awards. The CIP (Classification of Instructional Programs) taxonomy lets analysts roll up specialties into broader families, which is why earnings medians across schools can be compared on a common basis.
Across all reporting institutions, the mean of school-level medians is $42,576, calculated from 32 schools with published earnings data. The earnings distribution stretches from $18,193 at the low end to $104,151 at the top, with a 25th-75th percentile band between $25,670 and $50,687 around a median of $37,727. The top-reporting institution in this program is Gnomon at $104,151. These numbers reflect earnings measured roughly a year after completion, using Social Security Administration tax records linked to federal financial aid applicants.
Variation across schools matters more than a single national figure. Completers counts reported per school indicate how many graduates’ earnings feed the median, which means small programs produce more volatile numbers. Median debt at the program level, when paired with earnings, yields a debt-to-earnings ratio that is the College Scorecard’s standard affordability signal — ratios under 1.0 indicate earnings exceed cumulative debt. Use the school-by-school table to spot institutions where Design and Applied Arts graduates out-earn peers at comparable cost, and to surface gainful-employment patterns that only become visible at the CIP-code level.
Wake Technical Community College accounts for 21.9% of all Design and Applied Arts certificate credential graduates
That concentration — well above the 5% national median for largest-entity share — means Design and Applied Arts-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the dominant entity. That school produced 391 graduates in the most recent cohort, anchoring a meaningful slice of national supply for this field. When one entity dominates a region's footprint, its programmatic and budget decisions effectively set policy for a majority of the affected population.
Design and Applied Arts certificate credential median earnings varies 5.7× across entities
Design and Applied Arts certificate credential median earnings ranges from $18,193 (lowest) to $104,151 (highest), a spread of $85,958. That ratio is among the widest observed and reflects extreme earnings stratification across institutions — graduates of the same field can earn dramatically different starting salaries depending on the school’s reputation, regional employer mix, and selectivity. Earnings are measured roughly one year after completion using IRS records linked to federal aid recipients (see https://www.irs.gov/) — not all completers are captured, but the school-level medians correlate strongly with longer-term earnings trajectories.
Design and Applied Arts certificate credential median debt varies 3.4× across entities
Design and Applied Arts certificate credential median debt ranges from $10,084 (lowest) to $34,416 (highest), a spread of $24,332. That spread reflects typical institutional cost differences — public in-state, public out-of-state, and private school financing models produce predictable spreads. Median debt counts only those students who borrowed federal loans — students who paid out-of-pocket or received institutional grants are excluded from the borrower median, which can flatter low-debt schools.
Design and Applied Arts debt-to-earnings ratio is 0.32 — low (typically associated with graduates earn substantially more than they borrowed, which is the College Scorecard standard signal for affordability — a ratio under 0.5 means a year of post-completion earnings would clear half the federal-loan principal)
debt-to-earnings ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: this ratio uses federal loan principal, not all education debt — private loans, parent PLUS loans not in the borrower’s name, and institutional debt are excluded Lower values often correlate with smaller scale and population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se.
Earnings data comes from the U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard Field of Study file. Median earnings represent graduates who received federal financial aid, drawn from U.S. Treasury tax records linked to federal student aid applicants. Completers count and debt figures reflect program-level data reported through IPEDS. Data is updated annually.