SCAD Theatre (Bachelor's): Tuition, Graduate Salary, and Debt
- Bachelor's in Drama/Theatre Arts and Stagecraft
- Private nonprofit college
- Savannah, GA
- About 220 graduates a year
College Scorecard June 2026 release · BLS wages May 2025
The short answer
SCAD theatre graduates earn about what theatre graduates earn nationally, $20,532 in their first year. The typical graduate leaves with $27,000 in federal loans, close to the national median of $25,000. Two other Georgia programs report higher pay.
How it compares
Each figure is the median for graduates of the program. The Georgia and national columns are the medians across all theatre bachelor's programs that report the figure.
Five years out, SCAD graduates earn about the national figure and about $5,752 more than the Georgia median.
Debt and first-year pay at every Georgia theatre program
Programs in the upper left give graduates higher pay for less debt. Dashed lines mark the Georgia 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 65% 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 $4,772 less in their first year than other graduates. Students who expect to rely on grants should weigh this gap.
Paying back the loans
On a standard 10-year plan, the median debt means a payment of about $286 a month, or 16.7% 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, 78 parents took out Parent PLUS loans for these students, with a median of $110,684.
Where graduates work, and what the pay is worth
38% of graduates (52 of 136) were working in Georgia one year after graduating. Prices in the Savannah area are about 5% below the national average, so a $20,532 salary here buys what about $21,566 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
$79,950Median pay in Georgia. 5,010 people work in this job in Georgia. 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
$74,710Median pay in Georgia. 820 people work in this job in Georgia. 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 SCAD
Theatre ranks 11th of 11 bachelor's programs at SCAD by first-year earnings. The top three are Human-Computer Interaction ($83,500), Architectural Technology ($48,181), and Radio, TV, and Digital Media ($40,139).
Other theatre bachelor's programs near Savannah
Common questions
The median graduate earns $20,532 one year after graduating and $33,955 five years after. The median across theatre bachelor's programs in Georgia is $18,769.
The median federal loan balance is $27,000, which ranks 4th lowest of 5 theatre bachelor's programs in Georgia. That works out to about $286 a month over 10 years.
It depends on your other options. Debt equals 132% of first-year earnings, against a national median of 115%. Compare the cost with other Georgia programs before deciding.
Many leave. 38% (52 of 136) were working in Georgia 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 Georgia 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