Texas State Theatre (Bachelor's): Tuition, Graduate Salary, and Debt
- Bachelor's in Drama/Theatre Arts and Stagecraft
- Public university
- San Marcos, TX
- About 168 graduates a year
College Scorecard June 2026 release · BLS wages May 2025
The short answer
Texas State theatre graduates earn more than graduates of most theatre programs nationally, $26,045 in their first year. The typical graduate leaves with $21,500 in federal loans, close to the national median of $25,000. Several Texas programs report higher pay.
How it compares
Each figure is the median for graduates of the program. The Texas and national columns are the medians across all theatre bachelor's programs that report the figure.
Five years out, Texas State graduates earn more than the national figure and about the same as the Texas median.
Debt and first-year pay at every Texas theatre program
Programs in the upper left give graduates higher pay for less debt. Dashed lines mark the Texas 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 55% 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 slightly more in their first year than other graduates, but borrowed more: a median of $21,500 against $19,500.
Paying back the loans
On a standard 10-year plan, the median debt means a payment of about $228 a month, or 10.5% 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, 72 parents took out Parent PLUS loans for these students, with a median of $23,980.
Where graduates work, and what the pay is worth
84% of graduates (137 of 164) were working in Texas one year after graduating. Prices in the Austin area are about 2% below the national average, so a $26,045 salary here buys what about $26,559 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
$71,710Median pay in Texas. 6,610 people work in this job in Texas. 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
$69,990Median pay in Texas. 2,320 people work in this job in Texas. 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 Texas State
Theatre ranks 62nd of 64 bachelor's programs at Texas State by first-year earnings. The top three are Construction Engineering Technology ($76,646), Electrical Engineering ($72,990), and Nursing ($72,861).
Other theatre bachelor's programs near San Marcos
Common questions
The median graduate earns $26,045 one year after graduating and $40,459 five years after. The median across theatre bachelor's programs in Texas is $25,050.
The median federal loan balance is $21,500, which ranks 2nd lowest of 14 theatre bachelor's programs in Texas. That works out to about $228 a month over 10 years.
On the numbers, yes for most students. Debt equals 83% of first-year earnings, against a national median of 115%, and the share of borrowers in default two years into repayment is 10% or less. If the highest possible early salary is the main goal, several Texas programs report higher pay, usually with more debt.
Most do. 84% (137 of 164) were working in Texas 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 Texas 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