Art Center
College of Design
Private College in Pasadena, CA. Six-year graduation rate 79%. Median 10-year earnings $71,958.
A decade after enrolling, the median Art Center College of Design student earns $71,958 — comfortably above what the typical bachelor's-granting institution returns. Completion is a strength: 79% of students finish within six years. Graduates leave owing a median of $31,000 — a substantial load to service on these earnings. It also moves people — 4.6% of students climb from the bottom fifth of the income distribution to the top.
Earnings: College Scorecard, median ten years after entry across students who received federal aid — completers and non-completers alike.
- ✓ Graduation rate 79% — well above the national average
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
Admissions
An acceptance rate of 75% puts Art Center College of Design on the accessible end — a realistic target for a broad range of applicants. Only 1,461 students applied, so treat these rates as directional — small pools swing sharply between cycles. Yield sits at 32% — the remainder of admitted students enroll elsewhere or not at all.
Test score bands (middle 50% of submitters)
These bands describe the enrolled first-years who submitted a score, not the entering class. Where most students apply test-optional the submitters are a self-selected, higher-scoring group.
| Test | 25th–75th percentile | Submitted |
|---|---|---|
| SAT Evidence-Based Reading | — | — |
| SAT Math | — | |
| ACT Composite | — | — |
IPEDS Admissions · 2024
Apply at Art Center College of Design →Academics
Six-year completion runs to 79% — students who start here overwhelmingly finish here. First-year retention of 86% shows the cohort holds together through the hardest year. At 9:1, students get materially more instructor contact than at a typical public university. As a private nonprofit four-year college, the relevant comparison is other four-year schools rather than the national average across all institutions. 2,079 undergraduates makes this a mid-sized institution.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 2,054 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Students pay $53,271 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 $39,645 while those at $110k+ pay $61,144. Grant aid reaches 63% of students at an average of $18,773. 33% of students take federal loans, a middling borrowing rate.
Entering first-year students
A different, smaller group than the rates above: full-time students in their first year of college anywhere. The grant series here also excludes the "other sources" counted in the all-undergraduate figure, so the two are not comparable.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · 319 students
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 | $39,645 |
| $30–48k | $42,161 |
| $48–75k | $44,738 |
| $75–110k | $45,677 |
| $110k+ | $61,144 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 685 of these 2,054 students, totalling $4,655,823 — an average of $6,797 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Los Angeles County) — budget these against any cost-of-attendance housing estimate.
HUD Fair Market Rents (40th-percentile gross rent incl. utilities) · FY2026
Veterans & GI Bill
VA GI Bill Comparison Tool (Veterans Affairs GIDS)