Minneapolis College
of Art and Design
Private College in Minneapolis, MN. Six-year graduation rate 51%. Median 10-year earnings $40,873.
Ten-year median earnings of $40,873 are on the low side, which raises the bar for what this degree needs to cost. Six-year completion sits at 51%, near the national average for undergraduate institutions. Graduates leave owing a median of $27,000 — a substantial load to service on these earnings.
Earnings: College Scorecard, median ten years after entry across students who received federal aid — completers and non-completers alike.
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
- ! Debt-to-income ratio 0.66 — elevated (above 0.60)
Admissions
Minneapolis College of Art and Design admits 48% of applicants and is genuinely selective — roughly one in two applicants are turned away. The applicant pool is small at 854, which makes year-over-year comparisons unreliable. About 39% of admitted students enroll, a yield in the normal range. 4% of enrolled first-years submitted an SAT score. The bands below describe the middle half of that group, not of the class.
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 | 600–710 | 6 (4%) |
| SAT Math | 530–630 | |
| ACT Composite | 21–29 | 34 (21%) |
IPEDS Admissions · 2024
Apply at Minneapolis College of Art and Design →Academics
Completion is middling: 51% finish inside six years. Retention of 75% means a meaningful slice of each entering class does not return. The two rates sit near each other: few students who return for a second year are missing from the six-year completion figure. Transfer-out runs to 29% — common enough at this school that the completion rate is measuring a smaller group than the entering class. At 12:1, students get materially more instructor contact than at a typical public university.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 703 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Average net price — what students actually pay after grant aid — is $30,305 a year, at the high end of undergraduate cost. Aid is steeply need-based: families in the $0–30k band pay $23,662 while those at $110k+ pay $34,345. Grant aid is widespread — 99% of students receive it, averaging $27,086. Borrowing is widespread: 75% take federal loans.
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 · 169 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 | $23,662 |
| $30–48k | $23,905 |
| $48–75k | $26,550 |
| $75–110k | $33,038 |
| $110k+ | $34,345 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 525 of these 703 students, totalling $3,521,181 — an average of $6,707 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Hennepin 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)