Twelve programs where median debt at completion runs from 152% to 383% of what graduates earn

What the ratio means and why we use it

Two numbers decide whether a degree pays. The first is what the typical graduate borrowed. The second is what the typical graduate earns once they are working. The College Scorecard publishes both at the level of the individual program: median debt at completion, and median earnings four years after completing. Divide the first by the second and you have a ratio that ignores prestige, campus tours and placement language.

A ratio of 28% means the typical borrower finishes owing a bit more than a quarter of a year's earnings. That is where Tech and Development sits, on median earnings of $80,281 four years after completing against median debt of $25,496 — no. Tech's median debt at completion is $22,780. A ratio of 58% means the debt is well over half a year's pay. That is Audio and Music Production: $43,716 in median earnings, $25,496 in median debt.

The six fields we cover fall in a narrow band on debt and a wide one on earnings. Tech and Development: 28%. Marketing and Business: 36%, on $66,349 in earnings against $24,188 in debt. Film and Video: 50%, on $46,553 against $23,250. Design and Digital Art: 51%, on $48,893 against $25,048. Game Design: 54%, on $48,144 against $26,000. Audio and Music Production: 58%.

Debt is the part that barely moves. Earnings move by $36,565 between the best-paid field and the worst. The ratio is an earnings story with a debt figure attached to it.

Field medians rest on the programs that report. Audio and Music Production has 2,256 programs at 1,356 institutions, of which 468 report earnings and 394 report debt — 21% of programs have an earnings figure at all. That reporting base matters for everything below.

The programs at the bottom, by field

Film and video holds the six worst ratios in the data, and all six are master's degrees.

American Film Institute Conservatory in California, a private nonprofit, reports median debt at completion of $164,727 for its master's in Film/Cinema/Media Studies against median earnings of $43,012 four years after completing. That is a ratio of 383%. New York University's master's in Cinematography and Film/Video Production reports $168,162 in debt — the largest figure in the set — against $47,221 in earnings, or 356%. The New York Film Academy in California, a private for-profit that offers the same program online or on campus, reports $127,588 against $38,915: 328%. The University of Southern California reports $167,503 against $51,931, or 323%. Columbia University in the City of New York reports $163,605 against $56,444, or 290%. Chapman University reports $144,710 against $50,895, or 284%.

Audio and music production contributes three. New York University's master's in Music Performance, General reports $103,403 in debt against $52,777 in earnings, or 196%. Manhattan School of Music's master's in Keyboard Instruments reports $69,402 against $40,812, or 170%. The New School's master's in Music Performance, General carries the smallest debt figure on the whole list, $41,000, and still lands at 152%, because median earnings four years after completing are $26,925.

Design and digital art contributes three, and all of them are graduate programs at art schools. Savannah College of Art and Design's fully online master's in Animation, Interactive Technology, Video Graphics, and Special Effects reports $99,295 against $51,962, or 191%. Maryland Institute College of Art's master's in Intermedia/Multimedia reports $98,610 against $51,820, or 190%. Academy of Art University, a private for-profit in California, reports $93,267 against $57,636 for its hybrid master's in Illustration, or 162%.

No program in game design, marketing and business, or tech and development appears anywhere in this set.

Patterns: institution type, credential, delivery

Every one of the twelve is a master's degree. That is not an accident of selection, and it shows up in the field-level data as well. Film and video master's programs have a median debt at completion of $61,500 against median earnings of $59,583 — a ratio of 103%, and the only field-and-credential combination in the six fields where the typical borrower finishes owing more than a full year of earnings. Audio and music master's programs sit at 83%, on $39,837 in debt against $47,885 in earnings. Game design master's programs show 77%, on $67,489 against $87,998, but only 7 of them report earnings; that figure should be held loosely.

The undergraduate credentials look like a different market. Undergraduate certificates in audio and music production show a ratio of 28%, on median debt of $9,500 against median earnings of $33,863. Film and video certificates also show 28%. Design certificates show 31%. Tech certificates show 17%. Associate degrees run higher but stay in range: 53% in audio and music, 49% in film and video, 33% in design. The debt that breaks the ratio is almost entirely graduate debt.

Ten of the twelve are private nonprofits. Two are private for-profits. No public institution appears on the list. At the other end of the table, publics dominate: the University of California-Berkeley's business administration bachelor's shows 8%, on $11,300 in debt against $144,599 in earnings; De Anza College's associate degree shows 9%, on $6,500 against $75,297; Del Mar College in Texas, fully online, shows 9% on $4,700 against $49,598; Georgia Northwestern Technical College shows 9% on $4,448 against $49,385.

Online delivery is not a discount. Savannah College of Art and Design's program at 191% is fully online. Academy of Art University's at 162% is hybrid. The New York Film Academy's at 328% is offered online or on campus. Across audio and music production, only 5% of programs are available online at all, against 21% in marketing and business — the option is rare, and where it exists it has not brought the price down.

What it doesn't mean

These figures cover students who received federal aid and completed the program. They do not see people who left before finishing, people whose families paid without borrowing, or people who never enrolled. They do not see bootcamps, apprenticeships or self-taught routes, and they see freelance income only where it reaches a tax return. That is a real limit on the data, and it is the only time it will be mentioned here. It is not a reason to discount a debt figure that is already recorded.

Medians are medians. Half of the borrowers leaving American Film Institute Conservatory earn more than $43,012 four years after completing, and some of them earn a great deal more. A ratio describes the middle of a cohort, not a ceiling.

Earnings are measured at four years. Cinematography, scoring and post-production have long apprenticeship curves, and a cohort that looks poor at four years may look different at ten. That is an argument for patience about the earnings, not for the size of the loan, which is fixed on the day it is signed and accrues interest on its own schedule.

Coverage is thin in these fields. Only 21% of audio and music programs report earnings, 24% in film and video, 25% in design, against 51% in marketing and business. Programs with small completer counts are suppressed to protect privacy. Everything above is drawn from programs large enough to be measured, which tends to mean the well-known ones. There are almost certainly worse ratios inside programs too small to report.

What to do with this before you sign

Ask for the number that applies to the program, not the institution. A university's overall debt and earnings figures average a film master's together with an engineering bachelor's, and they will flatter the film master's every time. The Scorecard publishes at the level of the program and credential, and so do we, on the program finder and on the cost pages.

Check whether the credential is doing the work. The gap between a certificate at 28% and a master's at 83% in the same field is the largest single lever available. If the goal is a specific skill and a portfolio, the shorter credential often reaches it with a fraction of the debt.

Compare the offer against the field median before you compare it against other offers. Audio and music production sits at 58%, and any program materially above that is asking you to accept a worse deal than the field's typical one. The best-value list shows what the other end looks like, and our guide to whether a creative degree is worth it sets out how to weigh the answer for your own situation. You can pull the underlying figures yourself at collegescorecard.ed.gov.

Then ask the school three questions and hold them to specifics: the median debt at completion for this program, the median earnings four years after completing for this program, and how many people completed it last year. Schools that publish these are easy to deal with. Schools that answer with placement anecdotes are telling you something too. We take no fee from any institution for appearing here, and the figures do not change based on who is asking — if you want to put those questions directly, you can ask a school about a program.