Crafts/Craft Design, Folk Art and Artisanry at College for Creative Studies

Starting at under $29,000 might sound discouraging for a Bachelor's degree, but this craft design program significantly outperforms its peers nationally—ranking in the 95th percentile among craft programs. That puts College for Creative Studies' graduates roughly $4,000 ahead of the typical craft school graduate and well above the 75th percentile benchmark. The catch? This is the only Bachelor's-level craft program tracked in Michigan, so that 60th percentile state ranking is meaningless for comparison purposes.

The debt picture looks reasonable at first glance—$30,620 versus nearly $29,000 in first-year earnings gives you a 1.06 ratio, slightly better than the national median debt for these programs. More encouraging is the 21% earnings growth to nearly $35,000 by year four, suggesting graduates are building sustainable careers rather than hitting an immediate ceiling. For a creative field where portfolio work and client relationships take time to develop, this trajectory makes sense.

The major caveat: fewer than 30 graduates were tracked, so individual circumstances heavily influence these numbers. If your child is committed to a craft-based career and understands they're choosing passion over financial security, CCS appears to provide stronger preparation than most alternatives. Just recognize that even the top performers in this field aren't reaching typical college graduate salaries—this is about making a creative career viable, not lucrative.