-32%
Private nonprofit bachelor's-predominant peer
10-year earnings at School of the Art Institute of Chicago are 32% below the private nonprofit bachelor's-predominant peer median ($40.2k vs $58.7k).
Illinois · Private nonprofit · Predominantly bachelor's
SAIC
Chicago, Illinois. 2,762 undergraduate students. 19 programs in the federal Field-of-Study dataset.
ANOMALY ENGINE · NOTABLE SIGNALS
What the data flags at SAIC
Short-arc shifts (recent 3-year window), peer outliers, earnings trend breaks, completion drops, enrollment cliffs, and debt-to-earnings warnings — surfaced deterministically from the federal record. Multi-decade shifts are reported separately in the Long Arc section, since 25-year tuition drift isn't really an anomaly.
-100%
3-year cohort default rate
3-year cohort default rate at School of the Art Institute of Chicago fell 100% between 2021 and 2024 (0.8% → 0.0%).
-14%
100%-time completion
100%-time completion at School of the Art Institute of Chicago fell 13% between 2021 and 2024 (43.0% → 37.2%).
+50%
Earnings trend · post-entry horizons
Earnings 10 years post-entry at School of the Art Institute of Chicago are 50% above 6-year earnings ($26.7k → $40.2k).
SECTION 01 · OUTCOMES SNAPSHOT
The numbers, vs. Illinois
Each tile compares this institution to the Illinois median for the same metric. Sub-line shows the comparison value, not an interpretation. Sparklines trace the federally available history.
$40,151+50% · 6→10y
Illinois median $40,810$26,742
Treasury earnings · 6y post-entry64.0%+65% · '97→'24
Illinois median 53.3%$19,000+157% · '97→'20
At program completion2,762+89% · '96→'24
latest IPEDS82.4%+2% · '04→'24
first-time, full-time76.4%-4% · '02→'24
latest cohort$54,530+179% · '00→'24
out-of-state $54,530SECTION 02 · EARNINGS HORIZONS
How earnings spread, 4 to 10 years after entry
Treasury tax-record earnings for federally aided students who first enrolled at this institution. Each point is a horizon from the most-recent vintage. Single median per horizon (no p25/p75 publishing).
Earnings widen with time post-entry. Selection: federal-aid recipients only — not all graduates.Methodology →
SECTION 03 · DEBT-TO-EARNINGS
What loans cost relative to earnings
Annual debt service as a share of median earnings 10 years after entry, computed under federal Direct loan terms (10-year fixed at 6%). The 8% line is the gainful-employment threshold from federal regulation; above 12% has historically been considered “failing” under prior rule cycles.
Institution-wide
6.3%Median federal debt $19,000 amortized over 10 years vs. median earnings $40,151 (10y after entry).
SECTION 04 · LONG ARC
Ten-plus year arc
Federally available history. Coverage varies by metric — IPEDS publishes some series only after 2009 and others only before.
Undergraduate enrollment.
150%-time completion rate.
Median federal student debt at exit.
+65%
SAIC · completion · 150% rose
40.5% → 67.0%
+89%
SAIC · undergrad enrollment rose
1,485 → 2,805
+179%
SAIC · in-state tuition rose
$20,220 → $56,420
+179%
SAIC · out-of-state tuition rose
$20,220 → $56,420
+157%
SAIC · median debt rose
$10,500 → $27,000
-100%
SAIC · cohort default rate fell
9.5% → 0.0%
SECTION 05 · PROGRAMS
Ranked by 5-year earnings
Each row is one (CIP × credential) program reported by the institution in College Scorecard's Field-of-Study data. Cohort floor is 30 students; below this, federal data is suppressed.
SECTION 06 · BY CIP FAMILY
2 programs with earnings, grouped
Programs are grouped by 2-digit CIP family. Programs without reported earnings are hidden to keep the list focused.
VISUAL & PERFORMING ARTS · CIP 50
FINANCIAL OUTCOME · ILLUSTRATION
Estimate the financial outcome at SAIC
Pick a program. Cost from Scorecard net price by family income; earnings from Treasury 5-year-post-completion median, projected forward with a Mincer age-earnings curve. The selection-bias toggle applies the Dale-Krueger shrinkage. Outcomes illustration, not a forecast — see methodology.
Shrinks the earnings premium toward the matched-applicant mean. STEM <15%, business ~40%, arts & education ~60%.
NET PRESENT VALUE
-$261,118
Over 40 years, discounted 5.0%
BREAKEVEN
—
Doesn’t reach breakeven within the horizon
- Cost per year
- $48,571
- HS-only baseline · IL
- $38,300
- Years to complete
- 4
- CIP family
- 50
Outcomes illustration · not a forecast. Projects observed Scorecard earnings forward with a Mincer age-earnings curve under your assumptions. See methodology for the math.
SECTION 07 · SIMILAR INSTITUTIONS
Same sector and degree mix in Illinois
Picked by Carnegie sector × predominant credential level. These are not rankings — just nearest-neighbour surfaces for comparison.
CAUSAL DISCIPLINE
“SAIC graduates earn $X” — not “SAIC makes you earn $X”
Median earnings describe what cohorts earned. They do not describe what attending SAIC caused. Selection effects (who admits, who enrolls, who completes) are real. We publish federal data with strict descriptive phrasing — and link the methodology where you can read about the limitations directly.