Notre Dame Design and Applied Arts (Bachelor's): Tuition, Graduate Salary, and Debt
- Bachelor's in Design and Applied Arts
- Private nonprofit university
- Notre Dame, IN
- About 28 graduates a year
College Scorecard June 2026 release · BLS wages May 2025
The short answer
Notre Dame design and applied arts graduates earn more than graduates of most design and applied arts programs nationally, $46,825 in their first year. Where this program stands out is debt. The typical graduate leaves with $20,250 in federal loans, less than at 88% of design and applied arts programs in the country. It is one of the higher-paying design and applied arts degrees in Indiana.
How it compares
Each figure is the median for graduates of the program. The Indiana and national columns are the medians across all design and applied arts bachelor's programs that report the figure.
Five years out, Notre Dame graduates earn more than the national figure and about $32,689 more than the Indiana median.
Debt and first-year pay at every Indiana design and applied arts program
Programs in the upper left give graduates higher pay for less debt. Dashed lines mark the Indiana 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 74% between the first and fifth year.
Year 1 and year 5 figures come from different graduating classes, so the growth rate is an estimate.
Paying back the loans
On a standard 10-year plan, the median debt means a payment of about $215 a month, or 5.5% 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.
Where graduates work, and what the pay is worth
Prices in the South Bend area are about 7% below the national average, so a $46,825 salary here buys what about $50,426 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 design and applied arts, largest first. Pay is the median across all experience levels.
Graphic Designers
$55,480Median pay in Indiana. 3,450 people work in this job in Indiana. Nationally, jobs are projected to shrink 2% from 2025 to 2035, with about 16,000 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree.
Web and Digital Interface Designers
$63,430Median pay in Indiana. 1,160 people work in this job in Indiana. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 6% from 2025 to 2035, with about 8,300 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree.
Interior Designers
$62,580Median pay in Indiana. 1,020 people work in this job in Indiana. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 3% from 2025 to 2035, with about 7,700 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree.
Art Directors
$105,690Median pay in Indiana. 350 people work in this job in Indiana. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 4% from 2025 to 2035, with about 12,200 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree, plus 5 years or more of related work experience.
About Notre Dame
Design and Applied Arts ranks 22nd of 32 bachelor's programs at Notre Dame by first-year earnings. The top three are Finance ($99,222), Computer and Information Science ($96,517), and Other Mathematics ($89,689).
Other design and applied arts bachelor's programs near Notre Dame
Common questions
The median graduate earns $46,825 one year after graduating and $81,608 five years after. The median across design and applied arts bachelor's programs in Indiana is $35,439.
The median federal loan balance is $20,250, which ranks the lowest of 7 design and applied arts bachelor's programs in Indiana. That works out to about $215 a month over 10 years.
On the numbers, yes for most students. Debt equals 43% of first-year earnings, against a national median of 77%.
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 Indiana 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 design and applied arts 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