School of
Visual Arts
For-profit College in New York, NY. Six-year graduation rate 76%. Median 10-year earnings $46,459.
Ten years after entry, the median School of Visual Arts student earns $46,459 — a solidly middle-of-the-pack result for an undergraduate institution. 76% graduate within six years, so most students who start here finish here. Debt is the pressure point: a median of $27,000 at graduation. Mobility is where this school separates itself: 2.7% of students move from the bottom income quintile to the top.
Earnings: College Scorecard, median ten years after entry across students who received federal aid — completers and non-completers alike.
- ✓ Graduation rate 76% — well above the national average
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
Admissions
Admission is not the constraint here: 93% of applicants are accepted. 3,140 applications came in, enough to make the rates below reasonably stable year to year. 21% of those admitted enroll, which is unremarkable in either direction. Read the score bands below narrowly: only 7% of enrolled first-years submitted an SAT score, and test-optional applicants are not represented in them.
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 | 610–730 | 42 (7%) |
| SAT Math | 578–760 | |
| ACT Composite | — | 3 |
IPEDS Admissions · 2024
Apply at School of Visual Arts →Academics
76% of students finish within six years, putting completion well above the national norm. Retention is strong at 85%, and first-year attrition is where most degrees are lost. At 9:1, 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. The undergraduate population is 3,442 — big enough for a real range of programs, small enough to navigate.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 3,432 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Students pay $61,337 a year on average after aid, a premium price that the earnings data has to justify. Net price swings hard on family income here, from $50,966 at the $0–30k band to $62,858 at $110k+. Grant aid reaches 60% of students at an average of $17,380. Federal borrowing reaches 26% of students.
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 · 745 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 | $50,966 |
| $30–48k | $51,122 |
| $48–75k | $62,189 |
| $75–110k | $64,863 |
| $110k+ | $62,858 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 884 of these 3,432 students, totalling $6,139,855 — an average of $6,946 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (New York 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)