About
Laguna College of Art and Design (LCAD) is a private college in Laguna Beach, California. With an enrollment of more than 700 students, the college offers Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees in 11 majors and three Master of Fine Arts degree programs as well as a post-baccalaureate certificate program in Drawing and Painting.
Admissions & acceptance rate
First-time freshman admissions: how selective the college is, and how many admitted students choose to enroll.
Graduation rate & outcomes
Completion, retention, and the equity gap between Pell and non-Pell students.
Pell equity
Pell recipients graduate at a higher rate than non-Pell students here — unusual and worth investigating.
Program outcomes
Federal Program Performance Data: how each program's graduate earnings and debt measure up under Financial Value Transparency and Gainful Employment.
Of 8 Title IV programs, 2 pass the federal Gainful Employment test and 1 fails. 5 have graduate earnings too small to publish, so they carry no pass/fail verdict.
Pass / fail distribution
- Passing2 · 25.0%
- No Data5 · 62.5%
- Failing1 · 12.5%
Severity spectrum
Tiers band programs by how far graduate earnings sit above or below the benchmark, from Critical (below −15%) through Safe (above +25%). No data means earnings were privacy-suppressed.
Earnings premium gap
Graduate earnings versus the federal benchmark, worst gaps first.
Debt vs earnings
Median completer debt against median graduate earnings, highest burden first.
Accreditation status & history
Who accredits the institution, current standing, and any past actions.
WASC Senior College and University Commission
WASC Senior College and University Commission
National Association of Schools of Art and Design, Commission on Accreditation
Programmatic accreditations · 1
Action history · 5
- Jun 2022Renewal of AccreditationWASC Senior College and University Commission
- Oct 2019Renewal of AccreditationNational Association of Schools of Art and Design, Commission on Accreditation
- Jun 2017Renewal of AccreditationWASC Senior College and University Commission
- Jun 2017Renewal of AccreditationWASC Senior College and University Commission
- Aug 2014Change in Agency recognitionNational Association of Schools of Art and Design, Commission on Accreditation · Art and Design (ART) - Degree-granting schools and departments and non-degree-granting programs
Tuition & cost
What families actually pay, broken down by family income.
Net price by family income
Negative values mean aid exceeds the published cost of attendance for that income band.
Federal aid volume & trends
Pell grants and federal Direct Loan volume disbursed to students, and how they've trended.
In AY 2024–25, 245 students received $1.4M in Pell grants, alongside $7.2M in federal Direct Loans.
Pell recipients · 5-year trend
Loan volume by type · AY 2024–25
Loan awards count each loan type a student holds, not unique borrowers; one student may carry several (e.g. subsidized and unsubsidized), so the per-type figures are the reliable detail.
Student loan default rate
The share of student borrowers who default on federal loans within three years, against the national benchmark.
Of 147 borrowers who entered repayment, 2 (1.3%) defaulted within three years — below the 2.3% national rate.
Default rate vs national, by cohort
* Cohorts 2020 and later read near 0% because the federal COVID-19 payment pause (CARES Act) suspended defaults nationwide. These years reflect a national policy, not institutional performance; the 2019 cohort is the last measured under normal repayment.
Academic programs at LCAD
Top program areas ranked by completions.
Top program families by completions
Enrollment trends & demographics
Fall headcount, 12-month unduplicated enrollment, and student body composition.
Gender split
Race / ethnicity composition
Campus safety & crime statistics
Reported on-campus crimes over the last three years, including violence and hate crimes.
3-year trend
Criminal offenses by type
By location
VAWA offenses
Hate crimes by bias
No hate crimes reported.
Arrests vs disciplinary referrals
Residence-hall fires
Student-faculty ratio
Student-to-faculty ratio and instructional staff counts.
LCAD vs Peer comparison
The peer institutions LCAD selected for federal comparison reporting.
A larger shape on any axis means this institution outperforms its peers on that dimension. For acceptance rate and net price, lower raw values are inverted so "more selective" and "more affordable" appear larger.
| Carnegie | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
SubjectLaguna College of Art and Design | 52% | — | 775 | $42,354 | — |
American Film Institute Conservatory | — | — | 379 | — | — |
Art Academy of Cincinnati | 41% | 34.5% | 213 | $38,041 | — |
Boston Architectural College | 32% | — | 853 | $37,891 | — |
California College of ASU | 37% | 49.5% | 71 | $30,320 | — |
California College of the Arts | 61% | 91.1% | 1,308 | $42,168 | — |
California Jazz Conservatory | 100% | 66.7% | 6 | — | — |
Cincinnati College of Mortuary Science | — | — | 107 | — | — |
Cleveland Institute of Art | 58% | 61.3% | 545 | $41,480 | — |
Cleveland Institute of Music | 72% | 47.3% | 293 | $32,623 | — |
College for Creative Studies | 71% | 91.9% | 1,433 | $33,342 | — |
Columbus College of Art & Design | 56% | 67.7% | 916 | $30,139 | — |
Cornish College of the Arts | 56% | 62.2% | 505 | $39,060 | — |
Cranbrook Academy of Art | — | — | 113 | — | — |
Curtis Institute of Music | 100% | 4.6% | 161 | — | — |
Kansas City Art Institute | 58% | 54.8% | 813 | $29,555 | — |
Longy School of Music of Bard College | — | 84.4% | 317 | $43,291 | — |
Maine College of Art & Design | 52% | 76.1% | 475 | $36,443 | — |
Maine Media College | — | — | 42 | — | — |
Manhattan School of Music | 78% | 40.8% | 1,084 | $47,599 | — |
Maryland Institute College of Art | 72% | 76.8% | 1,687 | $38,429 | — |
Massachusetts College of Art and Design | 69% | 76.3% | 1,989 | $23,764 | — |
Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design | 67% | 60.5% | 838 | $27,514 | — |
Minneapolis College of Art and Design | 51% | 48.5% | 831 | $25,935 | — |
Moore College of Art and Design | 57% | 56.5% | 549 | $43,369 | — |
New York Academy of Art | — | — | 106 | — | — |
New York School of Interior Design | 71% | 62.9% | 573 | $41,358 | — |
Otis College of Art and Design | 66% | 81.8% | 1,267 | $45,864 | — |
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts | 58% | — | 41 | $45,022 | — |
Pennsylvania College of Art and Design | 69% | 99.2% | 414 | $29,266 | — |
Pratt Institute-Main | 74% | 73.3% | 5,356 | $50,647 | — |
Ringling College of Art and Design | 72% | 69.7% | 1,666 | $55,390 | — |
San Francisco Conservatory of Music | 74% | 54.9% | 439 | $42,448 | — |
School of the Art Institute of Chicago | 67% | 77.5% | 3,394 | $49,822 | — |
The Juilliard School | 91% | 9.2% | 1,073 | $37,903 | — |
The New England Conservatory of Music | 73% | 41.1% | 853 | $42,556 | — |
University of North Carolina School of the Arts | 78% | 30.0% | 1,111 | $12,372 | — |
University of the Arts | 69% | 78.2% | — | $44,154 | — |
| Peer group median | 68% | 62.6% | 573 | $39,060 |
LCAD Institutional Research office
The IR team responsible for the institution's federal reporting.
The Office of the Registrar and Institutional Research page at Laguna College of Art and Design provides various resources, including campus tour scheduling and portfolio reviews. The page contains contact information such as phone numbers and a physical address, along with links to general college resources and departments.
Visit IR office page- Laura PatrickRegistrar + Director of Institutional Research
Reports & documents (2)
Dashboards, factbooks, data dictionaries, and other reference material published by the IR office.
- DFR reportIPEDS Data Feedback Report 20242024nces.ed.gov
- Strategic planLaguna College of Art and Design Strategic Plan 2020-20252019Laguna College of Art and Design's Strategic Plan for 2020-2025 aims to drive organizational sustainability and advance the college's mission of preparing creative professionals. Approved in January 2020, the plan focuses on maintaining academic excellence, enhancing the student experience, and ensuring financial strength over a five-year period. Through inclusive community engagement, LCAD identified key themes such as excellence, care, and support, and integrated them into clear objectives for growth and development.lcad.edu
Frequently asked questions about Laguna College of Art and Design
Quick answers to the questions most often asked about LCAD.
What is the graduation rate at Laguna College of Art and Design?
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Who runs Institutional Research at Laguna College of Art and Design?
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