Compiled by PlainCollege, College outcomes data analysis
120
Schools
Certificate
Credential Level
$31,311
National Avg Earnings
What the IPEDS & College Scorecard Data Shows for Drama/Theatre Arts and Stagecraft
Drama/Theatre Arts and Stagecraft is tracked across 120 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 $31,311, calculated from 7 schools with published earnings data. The earnings distribution stretches from $26,274 at the low end to $35,889 at the top, with a 25th-75th percentile band between $28,809 and $32,905 around a median of $31,701. The top-reporting institution in this program is Portland Actors Conservatory at $35,889. These numbers reflect Treasury-derived wages, deferred compensation, and positive self-employment earnings four years after completion for federally aided completers who were working and not enrolled.
Variation across schools matters more than a single national figure. Completer counts and earnings cohort counts are distinct source fields, so the displayed completer count should not be assumed to be the earnings denominator. PlainCollege's debt-to-earnings ratio divides median federal debt by annual median earnings as a descriptive comparison; it is not the Department's formal gainful-employment test. Use the school-by-school table to compare reported outcomes while accounting for cohort size, suppression, program mix, and location.
American Musical and Dramatic Academy accounts for 70.1% of all Drama/Theatre Arts and Stagecraft certificate credential graduates
American Musical and Dramatic Academy accounts for nearly the entire Drama/Theatre Arts and Stagecraft total — well above the 5% national median for largest-entity share, so a Drama/Theatre Arts and Stagecraft-wide average is effectively a description of American Musical and Dramatic Academy alone, not a genuine cross-entity picture — read every other entity's figures independently, not against this aggregate. That school produced 480 graduates in the most recent cohort, anchoring a meaningful slice of national supply for this field. For practical purposes, American Musical and Dramatic Academy's decisions ARE Drama/Theatre Arts and Stagecraft's decisions for the affected population.
Drama/Theatre Arts and Stagecraft debt-to-earnings ratio is 0.32 — well below typical (typically associated with unusually small scale or exceptionally high per-unit investment)
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 Values this far below typical often correlate with unusually small scale or population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se — worth checking whether the underlying denominator is itself an outlier.
Awards and earnings come from different reference periods, so they are not a count and an
average of the same people. Awards is the number of credentials the school reported for the
latest IPEDS year; median earnings is measured four years after completion, for a separate
pooled cohort of earlier graduates. A school can therefore report zero awards in the latest
year and still have earnings on record. The earnings figure is not the awards figure’s
average, and the awards count is not the earnings sample size. Schools are ranked on the
four-year earnings figure only, so every row is compared on the same basis.
Compare beyond the CIP family
Nationwide peers by school count & four-year earnings
Cross-field programs at the same credential level nearest Drama/Theatre Arts and Stagecraft on school-count breadth
(120 schools) and mean four-year median earnings ($31,311).
Peers exclude the same two-digit CIP family so neighborhoods are not CIP-containment siblings.
School-count peers include Management Information Systems and Services, Veterinary/Animal Health Technologies/Technicians, Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing. Earnings peers include Human Development, Family Studies, and Related Services, Culinary Arts and Related Services, Business Operations Support and Assistant Services.
Neighborhoods are forced disjoint so each axis surfaces a different set of programs.
Similar school count
Nearest programs (≥50 schools) by absolute school-count breadth, outside this CIP family.
How much do Drama/Theatre Arts and Stagecraft graduates earn? ▼
Drama/Theatre Arts and Stagecraft graduates earn $31,311 on average four years after completion, across the 7 of 120 schools that report earnings for this program. Earnings range from $26,274 to $35,889 depending on the institution.
Which school's Drama/Theatre Arts and Stagecraft graduates earn the most? ▼
Portland Actors Conservatory has the highest reported median earnings for Drama/Theatre Arts and Stagecraft graduates at $35,889, measured four years after completion in College Scorecard data. This reflects what graduates went on to earn, which depends heavily on who the school admits and which employers recruit there. It is not a figure the school pays.
What credential do you get in Drama/Theatre Arts and Stagecraft? ▼
Drama/Theatre Arts and Stagecraft programs typically award a Certificate credential. Earnings vary by school and credential level.
Top Schools for Drama/Theatre Arts and Stagecraft
Closest schools offering this program – compare earnings side by side
Earnings data comes from the U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard Field of Study file retrieved in March 2026. The program metric displayed here represents federally aided completers who were working and not enrolled four years after credential completion, using Treasury-derived records published through the Scorecard. Completer counts and debt figures come from the same field-of-study snapshot; the Department refreshes components on schedules documented in its changelog, not one fixed annual date.