A parent's read

  • Top feeder high schools: Gould Academy (0.2), Oregon Episcopal School (0.2), The Seven Hills School (0.2). Graduates per class year, from each high school's own published list. 3 high schools' lists name College for Creative Studies; every one is ranked below.
  • Your price depends enormously on whether you qualify for aid. Families who receive aid average about $34,617/yr here; without aid it's the full ~$66,014/yr. There's no income cutoff for aid — qualifying depends on the gap between this college's price and your finances, which is why the college's own net-price calculator — not any average — is the estimate to trust.

Composed from this page's data — every claim is backed by a number in the sections below.

Get your child's odds at College for Creative Studies Free Family Decision Report — Reach / Competitive / Match / Likely + your real net price. College for Creative Studies starts already on the list. Start →

Feeder high schools

Which high schools send graduates to College for Creative Studies?

The high schools sending the most graduates per class year to College for Creative Studies, from each school's own published list: Gould Academy (0.2), Oregon Episcopal School (0.2), The Seven Hills School (0.2). 3 high schools' lists name College for Creative Studies.

Enrolled — from the schools' matriculation lists

The ten largest, per class year Enrolled per class year
1 Gould AcademyBethel, ME 0.2
2 Oregon Episcopal SchoolPortland, OR 0.2
3 The Seven Hills SchoolCincinnati, OH 0.2
All 3 schools, with the class years each list covers
Gould Academy · Matches made by Gould students from 2020 to 2025 0.2 · 1 over 6 class years
Oregon Episcopal School · Classes of 2022-26 0.2 · 1 over 5 class years
The Seven Hills School · 2021-2025 0.2 · 1 over 5 class years
How this is counted

3 high schools publish a numbered matriculation list — where their graduates actually enrolled, counted, in the school's own School Profile — and name College for Creative Studies on it. Between them they printed 3 enrolled graduates. Ranked by graduates per class year enrolling at College for Creative Studies, from each school's own published list: the number that school printed, divided by the class years its list covers. The published total and the school's own years label are shown beside every school, so a one-year list and a five-year list can sit on the same page. A list whose class years we cannot read is not divided by a guess — it is listed below with its total instead.

Is my high school on this list?

Admitted — from the schools' acceptance lists

The ten largest, per class year Admitted per class year
All 1 schools, with the class years each list covers
Mt Vernon Presbyterian School · 2014-2025 · counted column: Number of Acceptances 0.1 · 1 over 12 class years
How this is counted

1 high schools publish a numbered list of college acceptances — where their graduates were admitted, not where they enrolled — and name College for Creative Studies on it. Between them they printed 1 admissions. Ranked by admissions per class year to College for Creative Studies, from each school's own published acceptances list: the number that school printed, divided by the class years its list covers. Admits are counted at each college a student was admitted to, the same way the UC Reach Score counts a student admitted to three UC campuses three times — so this is a count of admissions, not of students. The published total and the school's own years label are shown beside every school, and a list whose class years we cannot read is listed below with its total rather than divided by a guess.

All 4 feeder schools, ranked →

Counted from each school's own published document, linked on that school's page. A high school that is not here does not publish a numbered list we could read — that is all absence means, and it says nothing about its graduates. Where a school publishes both, the two lists are shown separately: an acceptances list is not a list of enrollments, and the two are never added together.

Odds at College for Creative Studies

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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?

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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

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At a glance

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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.

High schools that publish a numbered matriculation list and name College for Creative Studies: 3, 3 enrolled students between them — ranked by graduates per class year, most often Gould Academy (0.2 per class year, 1 over 6 class years, Matches made by Gould students from 2020 to 2025); Oregon Episcopal School (0.2 per class year, 1 over 5 class years, Classes of 2022-26); The Seven Hills School (0.2 per class year, 1 over 5 class years, 2021-2025). Each figure is the number that school printed divided by the class years its own list covers; the totals and years are shown. These are the schools that publish such a list, not every school that sends students; full list: https://highschoolreach.com/leaderboards/feeder-schools/college-for-creative-studies.

High schools that publish a numbered list of college acceptances naming College for Creative Studies: 1, 1 admissions between them — ranked by admissions per class year, most often Mt Vernon Presbyterian School (0.1 per class year, 1 over 12 class years, 2014-2025, counted column "Number of Acceptances"). Admits are counted at each college, so this counts admissions, not students. These are a different set of documents from the matriculation lists above and the two are never added together; full list: https://highschoolreach.com/leaderboards/feeder-schools/college-for-creative-studies.

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

By major: Art (Studio)Design (graphic, interior, industrial)Film and TelevisionAnimation and Visual EffectsPhotography

Analysis: Test Prep Gurus (High School Reach, highschoolreach.com). These figures may be quoted with attribution to Test Prep Gurus.

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