What the IPEDS & College Scorecard Data Shows for Public Relations, Advertising, and Applied Communication

Public Relations, Advertising, and Applied Communication is tracked across 142 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 master's 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 $70,153, calculated from 51 schools with published earnings data. The earnings distribution stretches from $41,937 at the low end to $126,448 at the top, with a 25th-75th percentile band between $52,014 and $85,300 around a median of $70,574. The top-reporting institution in this program is School of Visual Arts at $126,448. 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 Public Relations, Advertising, and Applied Communication graduates out-earn peers at comparable cost, and to surface gainful-employment patterns that only become visible at the CIP-code level.