-100%
3-year cohort default rate
3-year cohort default rate at Emerson College fell 100% between 2021 and 2024 (1.5% → 0.0%).
Massachusetts · Private nonprofit · Predominantly bachelor's
Emerson College
Boston, Massachusetts. 4,145 undergraduate students. 25 programs in the federal Field-of-Study dataset.
ANOMALY ENGINE · NOTABLE SIGNALS
What the data flags at Emerson College
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.
+47%
Earnings trend · post-entry horizons
Earnings 10 years post-entry at Emerson College are 47% above 6-year earnings ($42.8k → $62.8k).
SECTION 01 · OUTCOMES SNAPSHOT
The numbers, vs. Massachusetts
Each tile compares this institution to the Massachusetts median for the same metric. Sub-line shows the comparison value, not an interpretation. Sparklines trace the federally available history.
$62,832+47% · 6→10y
Massachusetts median $56,022$42,799
Treasury earnings · 6y post-entry79.3%+25% · '97→'24
Massachusetts median 66.5%$19,000+59% · '97→'20
At program completion4,145+27% · '96→'24
latest IPEDS87.8%+2% · '04→'09
first-time, full-time47.5%+9% · '01→'24
latest cohort$55,392+186% · '00→'24
out-of-state $55,392SECTION 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
4.0%Median federal debt $19,000 amortized over 10 years vs. median earnings $62,832 (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.
+25%
Emerson College · completion · 150% rose
61.7% → 77.1%
+30%
Emerson College · completion · 100% rose
54.4% → 70.6%
+27%
Emerson College · undergrad enrollment rose
3,039 → 3,870
+186%
Emerson College · in-state tuition rose
$19,944 → $57,056
+186%
Emerson College · out-of-state tuition rose
$19,944 → $57,056
+59%
Emerson College · median debt rose
$14,500 → $23,000
-70%
Emerson College · cohort default rate fell
1.4% → 0.0%
+38%
Emerson College · earnings_median_8yr rose
$38,400 → $53,113
+34%
Emerson College · earnings_median_6yr rose
$31,900 → $42,799
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.
Marketing.$91,573Communication Disorders Sciences and Services.$74,461Journalism.$73,141Marketing.$72,291Communication and Media Studies.$69,644Public Relations, Advertising, and Applied Communication.$63,073Communication and Media Studies.$62,654Journalism.$61,538Teacher Education and Professional Development, Specific Subject Areas.$59,912Publishing.$57,769Teacher Education and Professional Development, Specific Subject Areas.$56,755Rhetoric and Composition/Writing Studies.$54,374Radio, Television, and Digital Communication.$53,550Film/Video and Photographic Arts.$52,518Rhetoric and Composition/Writing Studies.$49,817Drama/Theatre Arts and Stagecraft.$33,947
SECTION 06 · BY CIP FAMILY
16 programs with earnings, grouped
Programs are grouped by 2-digit CIP family. Programs without reported earnings are hidden to keep the list focused.
EDUCATION · CIP 13
ENGLISH LANGUAGE & LITERATURE · CIP 23
VISUAL & PERFORMING ARTS · CIP 50
HEALTH PROFESSIONS · CIP 51
BUSINESS, MANAGEMENT & MARKETING · CIP 52
FINANCIAL OUTCOME · ILLUSTRATION
Estimate the financial outcome at Emerson College
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
-$45,036
Over 40 years, discounted 5.0%
BREAKEVEN
—
Doesn’t reach breakeven within the horizon
- Cost per year
- $39,297
- HS-only baseline · MA
- $42,600
- 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 Massachusetts
Picked by Carnegie sector × predominant credential level. These are not rankings — just nearest-neighbour surfaces for comparison.
CAUSAL DISCIPLINE
“Emerson College graduates earn $X” — not “Emerson College makes you earn $X”
Median earnings describe what cohorts earned. They do not describe what attending Emerson College 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.