American Academy
of Art College
For-profit College in Chicago, IL. Six-year graduation rate 45%.
Academics
Completion is middling: 45% finish inside six years. Retention is weak: only 50% of full-time first-years return, so roughly one in two leave after one year. Transfer-out runs to 15% — common enough at this school that the completion rate is measuring a smaller group than the entering class. At 6:1, students get materially more instructor contact than at a typical public university. This is a for-profit four-year institution. That is not disqualifying, but it does mean verifying accreditation, transferability of credits, and job-placement claims directly rather than trusting the category.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Students pay $32,872 a year on average after aid, a premium price that the earnings data has to justify. Aid is steeply need-based: families in the $0–30k band pay $31,011 while those at $110k+ pay $43,705. 86% of students get grant aid averaging $12,000, so the published price is a poor guide to what most pay. Borrowing is widespread: 84% take federal loans.
Net price by family income
The same students as the headline above, limited to those who received Title IV federal aid — a narrower group, with a lower overall average. IPEDS publishes no combined figure across these bands, so they should not be averaged into one.
| Family income band | Average net price |
|---|---|
| $0–30k | $31,011 |
| $30–48k | $31,834 |
| $48–75k | $33,296 |
| $75–110k | $34,820 |
| $110k+ | $43,705 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Cook County) — budget these against any cost-of-attendance housing estimate.
HUD Fair Market Rents (40th-percentile gross rent incl. utilities) · FY2026