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 and non-Pell students graduate at nearly identical rates — a notably small equity gap.
Program outcomes
Federal Program Performance Data: how each program's graduate earnings and debt measure up under Financial Value Transparency and Gainful Employment.
Of 14 Title IV programs, 2 pass the federal Gainful Employment test and 3 fail. 9 have graduate earnings too small to publish, so they carry no pass/fail verdict.
Pass / fail distribution
- Passing2 · 14.3%
- No Data9 · 64.3%
- Failing3 · 21.4%
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.
Near the line (±5%)
Programs within five points of the pass line, one cohort year from flipping.
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.
National Association of Schools of Art and Design, Commission on Accreditation
Higher Learning Commission
Programmatic accreditations · 1
Action history · 6
- Jan 2024Renewal of AccreditationHigher Learning Commission
- Jun 2021Voluntary Withdrawal ReceivedNational Association of Schools of Art and Design, Commission on Accreditation
- Nov 2020Renewal of AccreditationNational Association of Schools of Art and Design, Commission on Accreditation
- May 2020Renewal of AccreditationNational Association of Schools of Art and Design, Commission on Accreditation
- 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, 707 students received $4.2M in Pell grants, alongside $34.5M 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 615 borrowers who entered repayment, 5 (0.8%) 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 SAIC
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
- On campus3
- Public property16
VAWA offenses
Hate crimes by bias
- Religion2
Arrests vs disciplinary referrals
Residence-hall fires
- The Buckingham1 fireCookingDamage $0-$99
Student-faculty ratio
Student-to-faculty ratio and instructional staff counts.
SAIC vs Peer comparison
The peer institutions SAIC 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 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
SubjectSchool of the Art Institute of Chicago | 67% | — | 3,394 | $49,822 | — |
College for Creative Studies | 71% | 91.9% | 1,433 | $33,342 | — |
Columbus College of Art & Design | 56% | 67.7% | 916 | $30,139 | — |
Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design | 67% | 60.5% | 838 | $27,514 | — |
Cleveland Institute of Art | 58% | 61.3% | 545 | $41,480 | — |
Mid-America College of Funeral Service | — | — | 279 | $25,456 | — |
| Peer group median | 67% | 64.5% | 877 | $31,741 |
Frequently asked questions about School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Quick answers to the questions most often asked about SAIC.
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