THE ART OF A
COLLEGE EDUCATION
manage their debts after college.
The Academy of Art performed
fairly well on tests of students’ debt
when compared to other for-profit
arts schools. But on average, only
a little more than 50 percent of its
students were repaying at least a
portion of their debt within a year,
according to the data, and less than
a third of students in the school’s
undergraduate cinematography
program were repaying loans.
By comparison, at the Art Institute of Philadelphia and the
International Academy of Design
and Technology in Tampa, Fla.,
only about 20 percent of students
in some arts programs were able
to repay at least a portion of their
student loan debt after graduating
or dropping out.
“The issue is: Where is the tipping point?” says Stephen Rose,
a research professor and senior
economist at Georgetown’s education and the workforce center.
“People are going to school somewhere that they might enjoy, and
there are some successes. So what
has to be the balance between
success and failure that you say is
a good investment? What number
is the right number?”
Academy of Art is not the most
expensive of the nation’s arts
HUFFINGTON
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schools, but, at $18,050 in tuition
and fees per year, it is among
the top ten percent of the priciest four-year, for-profit college
programs, according to Department of Education data. The cost
of living in San Francisco drives
up the total price tag to more than
$36,000 per year, according to
the government figures.
Opinions of past and present
students vary widely on the cost
of the programs, and the motiva [ۜ