Kent State Theatre (Bachelor's): Tuition, Graduate Salary, and Debt
- Bachelor's in Drama/Theatre Arts and Stagecraft
- Public university
- Kent, OH
- About 55 graduates a year
College Scorecard June 2026 release · BLS wages May 2025
The short answer
Kent State theatre graduates earn more than graduates of most theatre programs nationally, $24,565 in their first year. The typical graduate leaves with $26,000 in federal loans, close to the national median of $25,000. It is one of the higher-paying theatre degrees in Ohio.
How it compares
Each figure is the median for graduates of the program. The Ohio and national columns are the medians across all theatre bachelor's programs that report the figure.
Five years out, Kent State graduates earn less than the national figure and about $3,496 less than the Ohio median.
Debt and first-year pay at every Ohio theatre program
Programs in the upper left give graduates higher pay for less debt. Dashed lines mark the Ohio medians.
Hover over or tap a dot to see the school. Only programs that report both earnings and debt are shown.
What graduates earn over time
Pay rises about 24% between the first and fifth year.
Year 1 and year 5 figures come from different graduating classes, so the growth rate is an estimate.
Does family income change the outcome?
Graduates who received Pell Grants, which go to students from lower-income families, earned more in their first year than other graduates. At this program, the outcome does not look worse for students with less money.
Paying back the loans
On a standard 10-year plan, the median debt means a payment of about $276 a month, or 13.5% of a graduate's typical monthly pay in the first year.
The government publishes these as ranges to protect privacy. They were measured in 2018 to 2020, partly during the pandemic pause on federal loan payments, so the forbearance share may be higher than usual. Separately, 29 parents took out Parent PLUS loans for these students, with a median of $29,590.
Where graduates work, and what the pay is worth
71% of graduates (55 of 77) were working in Ohio one year after graduating. Prices in the Akron area are about 7% below the national average, so a $24,565 salary here buys what about $26,309 buys in a typical US city.
Careers this field leads to
These are the jobs that the federal crosswalk from fields of study to occupations links to theatre, largest first. Pay is the median across all experience levels.
Producers and Directors
$69,350Median pay in Ohio. 1,610 people work in this job in Ohio. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 4% from 2025 to 2035, with about 12,100 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree, plus less than 5 years of related work experience.
Writers and Authors
$65,930Median pay in Ohio. 830 people work in this job in Ohio. Nationally, jobs are projected to stay about the same in number from 2025 to 2035, with about 11,900 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree.
About Kent State
Theatre ranks 51st of 56 bachelor's programs at Kent State by first-year earnings. The top three are Nursing ($66,990), Construction Management ($64,652), and Computer Science ($60,051).
Other theatre bachelor's programs near Kent
Common questions
The median graduate earns $24,565 one year after graduating and $30,381 five years after. The median across theatre bachelor's programs in Ohio is $21,685.
The median federal loan balance is $26,000, which ranks 5th lowest of 9 theatre bachelor's programs in Ohio. That works out to about $276 a month over 10 years.
On the numbers, yes for most students. Debt equals 106% of first-year earnings, against a national median of 115%, and the share of borrowers in default two years into repayment is 20% or less.
Most do. 71% (55 of 77) were working in Ohio one year after graduating.
About this data
- Earnings and debt only include students who received federal financial aid (grants or loans).
- Earnings only count graduates who were working and not enrolled in more school. Graduates who went straight to further study are not included.
- Debt only includes federal loans. Private loans and credit cards are not counted.
- Some schools with several campuses report one combined figure for all of them. We count each of those schools once, and leave them out of Ohio comparisons when their main campus is in another state.
- Scorecard figures describe graduating classes from several years ago. BLS wages are from May 2025.
- School-level numbers like tuition, admission rate, and graduation rate are for the whole school, not the theatre program.
Sources
- U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard, field of study and institution files, June 2026 release
- Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025
- Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections 2025 to 2035
- Bureau of Economic Analysis, Regional Price Parities, 2024
- NCES, CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 crosswalk, and IPEDS institution directory, 2024