Art Center College of Design

What the IPEDS & College Scorecard Data Shows for Art Center College of Design

Art Center College of Design operates as a private nonprofit institution located in Pasadena, California (city: midsize), with a total reported enrollment of 2,017 students of which 2,582 are undergraduates. Institution-level records in the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) classify each school by Carnegie category, ownership sector, and urban/rural locale, which is how this profile’s peer group and cost cohort are determined. Art Center College of Design is categorized as “20” under the Carnegie classification system, a meaningful signal when comparing like-to-like institutions.

Selectivity and financial signals give context to what applicants can expect. The reported admission rate is 74.5%, drawn from the most recent IPEDS Fall enrollment survey. The average net price after grants and scholarships is $48,661, with published in-state tuition of $54,170 and a Pell grant recipient share of 21.6%. Median federal student debt at graduation is $31,000, drawn from the U.S. Treasury-matched College Scorecard file.

Outcomes reveal whether the investment pays back. The 4-year completion rate is 80.8%, and the first-year retention rate is 85.9%. Graduates earn a median of $71,958 ten years after enrolling, compared with $53,562 six years post-enrollment. Within three years of entering repayment, 71000.0% of borrowers are making progress on their federal loans, and 65.2% of graduates earn above the high-school threshold. Treating these numbers as a single snapshot alongside the cost cohort is the standard approach for evaluating ROI under the College Scorecard methodology.