Design and Applied Arts at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

At a tech-focused school like RPI, you might not expect a design program to hold its own—but this one shows surprising staying power. Starting at $36,191, graduates see their earnings nearly double to $71,567 by year four, outpacing both the national and New York medians for design programs. Among New York's 40 design programs, this sits comfortably in the 60th percentile, trailing powerhouses like Syracuse and Pratt but ahead of most alternatives. The debt load of $25,000 is reasonable, slightly below both state and national averages.

The caveat here matters: with fewer than 30 graduates in the sample, these numbers could shift significantly in either direction. That 98% earnings jump is impressive, but small cohorts can produce outlier results. What's encouraging is that RPI's engineering and tech-focused environment may give design graduates an edge in product design, UX, or other tech-adjacent roles—fields that typically pay better than traditional graphic design positions.

For families comfortable with some statistical uncertainty, this program offers a plausible path to middle-class earnings without excessive debt. The real question is whether your student wants to be one of the few design majors at an engineering school, which could mean either unique opportunities or limited resources compared to dedicated art schools.