Home › Colleges › College for Creative Studies

College profile

College for Creative Studies

MI · Private nonprofit · Large city · 1,132 applicants 2023

93% admit rate $35K–$66K/yr — aid decides
Get your child's odds at College for Creative Studies Free Family Decision Report — Reach / Match / Likely + your real net price. College for Creative Studies starts already on the list. Start →

Parent/student verdict

Accessible

Accessible for most applicants.

Best for

  • Students focused on Visual & Performing Arts (the school's signature program)
  • Families wanting a small liberal-arts experience

Verdict is composed from this college's structured data (admit rate, SAT bands, net price with aid and at full price, Carnegie classification, scholarship grids) using transparent rule thresholds — not a chat-bot's opinion.

What are your child's odds here?

Enter their numbers once — this and every college page shows their verdict, and the UC campus cards on California school pages light up with it too. Free, no email.

Weighted is the higher GPA, with honors/AP credit in it — pick whichever your school reports. PSAT scores work in the SAT box.

Institutional snapshot

What kind of college is this?

Carnegie classification
Associate's: High Transfer-High Trad
Undergraduates
1,230
1,000 - 4,999 including graduate students
TuitionThe published full price before any aid. Families who don't qualify for need-based aid at a given college pay this, minus any merit scholarships — whether you qualify depends on the college's price and policies, not on any fixed income line.
$53,350
flat rate (no in/out-of-state split) · 2023–24 federal figure
Admit rateThe share of applicants a college accepts. Useful context, but your student's odds depend on their own grades and scores, not the average.
92.8%
Accepts the majority
Test policyApplicants choose whether to send SAT/ACT scores. At many such colleges, students who submit strong scores are still admitted at higher rates.
Test-optional
2023
10-yr earningsMedian yearly pay of former students ten years after they STARTED here — not ten years after graduating — all majors combined. The broadest single outcome number a college reports.
$44,860
median, after entry

Source: federal IPEDS Admissions 2023 for scores + admit rate; federal College Scorecard (20260606 vintage) for earnings + outcomes. SAT/ACT bands are the 25th–75th percentile of enrolled submitters.

Outcomes & cost

What graduates actually earn, finish, and owe.

Federal College Scorecard data. Earnings are median annual income measured years after entering. Debt is for federal-aid borrowers only (cash-pay students aren't counted).

Earnings, 6 yrs after entry
$33,691
Earnings, 10 yrs after entryMedian yearly pay of former students ten years after they STARTED here — not ten years after graduating — all majors combined. The broadest single outcome number a college reports.
$44,860
Graduate within 6 yrsThe share of students who start here and finish a bachelor's within six years — the standard federal measure, and the one College Scorecard publishes. It is not a four-year rate. Read it as the odds of finishing at all: nationally about a third of students who start never do, and an unfinished degree is the most expensive outcome in this decision.
71%
Median debt (completers)The federal-loan balance of the typical graduating borrower. Families who pay cash aren't counted, so read it as "among those who borrowed."
$26,000

The real cost

What College for Creative Studies actually costs

If you qualify for need aidGrant money based on your family's finances (via FAFSA and the college's own forms), not your student's stats.
$34,617/yr
average among aid-receiving families, all incomes — your number depends on your finances
If you don't
$66,014/yr
the full published price

Which side your family lands on isn't set by any national income line — it's set by College for Creative Studies's own aid decision: the gap between its price and your family's finances.

Get your family's number — College for Creative Studies's Net Price Calculator ↗ 10–15 minutes; have a tax return handy. It's still an estimate — but it's this college's own, built from your family's numbers, not anyone's average.
Start your Family Decision Report →

Your odds + estimated cost across your whole college list, side by side.

The payoffTen years of typical graduate pay minus four years of cost — how many dollars ahead a typical graduate runs by year ten. Check both the full-price and with-aid versions to see which applies to you; median pay reflects who a college admits and what they study as much as the college itself., both ways

+$185K ahead at full price +$310K with aid
Full price, no aidThe all-in yearly price — tuition, housing, food, books, fees — before any aid. This is the real "full price," not just the tuition line. (4 yrs)
$264,056
~$66,014/yr all-in
Aid recipients pay (4 yrs)
$138,468
$34,617/yr average
10-yr earnings total
$448,600
$44,860/yr median, 10 yrs out
Years to recoup the cost
5.9 yrs
at full price (3.1 with aid), at the median earnings rate

Source: College Scorecard (average net price among Title IV first-time, full-time undergraduates who received aid) and each college's published cost of attendance. We don't show the federal net-price-by-income brackets: their categories were fixed in 2008 and never adjusted, and none of the averages is your family's own number — the full story. Payoff = (10-yr median earnings × 10) − (4 years of cost), in dollars — how far ahead a typical graduate runs by year ten; medians travel with the students a college admits and the majors they choose as much as with the college itself. Full price is the published cost of attendance; earnings are 10 years after enrollment, all majors combined.

What students study here

Most popular majors at College for Creative Studies

Top 5 fields of study by bachelor's degrees awarded (most recent IPEDS Completions). Use this to see what College for Creative Studies actually graduates — not just what it markets.

1. Visual & Performing Arts
109 degrees · 43.4%
Highly variable. Steady-pay roles cluster in design, illustration, production. Performance careers have very wide income distributions.
2. Engineering Technologies
62 degrees · 24.7%
Technician-track engineering roles. Strong wages, faster ramp than full engineer path.
3. Communications Technologies
53 degrees · 21.1%
Broadcast tech, sound engineering, AV production.
4. Computer & Information Sciences
27 degrees · 10.8%
High-paying tech roles dominate. Median software roles cluster in the $90k-$130k range.

What those majors earn here

Median earnings 4 years after entry, by major — College for Creative Studies's own graduates, not national averages.

Major (CIP) Credential Cohort 1-yr earnings 4-yr earnings
Design and Applied Arts. Bachelor's Degree 86 $32,665 $61,222
Crafts/Craft Design, Folk Art and Artisanry. Bachelor's Degree 9 $28,817 $41,739
Film/Video and Photographic Arts. Bachelor's Degree 13 $24,350 $35,797
Graphic Communications. Bachelor's Degree 72 $20,720 $34,003

Sources: IPEDS Completions (C2023_a; bachelor's-level first majors, 2-digit CIP family — share is of the top 5 only) · College Scorecard program-level outcomes (PP-FOS). Full college-vs-major comparison: /college-outcomes →

Student body & economic mobility

Who attends here — and what the campus adds.

Opportunity Insights data. It measures two things at once: how many lower-income students a college enrols, and how many of them reach the top earnings quintile later. A high rate says the college does both — it does not establish that the campus caused the earnings, because the students it admits differ from the students it doesn't. Read it as a signal about access and destination, not as proof of value added.

Top-1% access
2.2%
from top-1% households
Mobility rateThe share of ALL students who arrived from the bottom 20% of family incomes AND reached the top 20% themselves by their early 30s — access and lift in one number, and a sign the campus itself adds earnings power.
1.1%
bottom 20% → top 20% by age 32
Upward rate
18.1%
of lower-income students who reach the top 20%
Pell recipientsStudents receiving federal Pell grants, which go to lower- and middle-income families — the standard shorthand for a college's economic mix.
30%
on federal need grants — context for these numbers

Full leaderboards: /college-mobility →

Alternatives to College for Creative Studies

Matched not just by selectivity, but by strategic goal — what a family actually decides on.

Better merit-aid options
These similar-selectivity schools publish merit scholarships your family can plan around — your kid’s stats could unlock real scholarship dollars.
University of Alabama at Birmingham
AL · Public
17 stats-based + 2 competitive scholarships
University of Mississippi
MS · Public
14 stats-based + 1 competitive scholarships
University of Kentucky
KY · Public
8 stats-based + 5 competitive scholarships
Lower full price
Similar selectivity, but a meaningfully lower full sticker price — the comparison that matters most for families who won't qualify for much need-based aid.
Indiana University-Kokomo
IN · Public
$11,837/yr full price (in-state) · $54,177 less before aid for IN residents
Gordon State College
GA · Public
$14,771/yr full price (in-state) · $51,243 less before aid for GA residents
CUNY Medgar Evers College
NY · Public
$14,771/yr full price (in-state) · $51,243 less before aid for NY residents
More students move up here
Per Opportunity Insights, a larger share of these campuses' lower-income students reach the top earnings quintile than at College for Creative Studies. That reflects who they admit as well as what they do, so read it as a destination signal rather than proof of value added.
California State University-Los Angeles
CA · Public
9.9% mobility rate (vs 1.1% here)
MCPHS University
MA · Private nonprofit
9.3% mobility rate (vs 1.1% here)
The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
TX · Public
7.7% mobility rate (vs 1.1% here)

Or compare any college side-by-side

Deciding on College for Creative Studies?

Get the full picture in one free report — your child's Reach / Match / Likely odds and your real net price, for College for Creative Studies and every other college on your list.

Get your child's odds at College for Creative Studies →

Score-odds calculator · Improve the score first · Find merit aid

For Parents

Get alerts when College for Creative Studies's numbers change

New admit rates, costs, and outcomes — a few alerts a year, no spam. Your email also saves your list across devices.

Objective, government-grade data — no school pays us for placement.

At a glance

JSON · Using this page with an AI assistant

College for Creative Studies is a private nonprofit four-year college in MI. It admitted 93% of applicants (1,132 applied, 2023). Test policy: Test-optional.

Cost: about $34,617 a year on average with aid, $66,014 a year at full price.

Median earnings ten years after entry: $44,860 a year. Payoff, meaning ten years of that pay minus four years of cost: $310,132 ahead with aid, $184,544 ahead at full price.

Highest median earnings four years after the degree, by program: Design and Applied Arts ($61,222); Crafts/Craft Design, Folk Art and Artisanry ($41,739); Film/Video and Photographic Arts ($35,797).

Economic mobility (Opportunity Insights): 6% of students came from families in the bottom fifth of income, and 18% of those reached the top fifth as adults.

Machine-readable version of this page: https://highschoolreach.com/colleges/college-for-creative-studies.json

By major: Design (graphic, interior, industrial)Film and Television
Get your child's odds →

What families ask next

Can my kid get in? Score odds calculator → See how a higher SAT or ACT changes admit odds — college by college. What will it cost — and pay back? Earnings by major → What graduates actually earn, program by program. What do we do next? Free Family Decision Report Reach / Match / Likely for every college on their list, plus the real cost. Start with a 10-second odds check — no email needed. Check odds →