Film School Earnings Study

Key takeaways

1. The median film and video bachelor's program has graduates earning $47,945 five years after completing, 24% below the $63,202 of all bachelor's programs; one year out it is $31,368. See details
2. Of the comparison fields, only drama and theatre arts, fine and studio arts and music graduates earn less; journalism graduates earn $58,362 and computer science graduates $108,473. See details
3. 68.3% of film and video graduates working five years after completing earn more than a typical high school graduate, against 86.5% of all bachelor's graduates. See details
4. Undergraduate debt is ordinary: a median $21,500, against $21,250 for all bachelor's programs. See details
5. Film master's programs leave graduates with a median $81,617 in federal loans, 2.1 times the master's median; at 6 programs it tops $140,000. See details
6. The best-paid film bachelor's programs in the data are at Dartmouth College ($79,039), Lafayette College ($77,592) and University of California-Berkeley ($68,814). See details

How much do film school graduates earn?

We read the Department of Education's College Scorecard file of every college program by field of study (College Scorecard, release of October 15, 2026). In film, video and photographic arts, the median bachelor's program has graduates earning $47,945 five years after completing, across the 140 programs with published figures. The median across all 26,939 bachelor's programs with figures is $63,202, so film graduates earn 24% less. One year out the gap is similar: $31,368 against $45,713.

Of the 10 other fields we compared, only drama and theatre arts, fine and studio arts and music graduates earn less five years out. Journalism graduates earn $58,362, radio, television and digital communication graduates $53,803, and computer science graduates $108,473.

Do film graduates out-earn high school graduates?

Most do, but fewer than in other fields. The Scorecard counts how many graduates working five years after completing earn more than a typical high school graduate. In film, video and photographic arts that is 68.3% of 8,481 graduates, against 86.5% of all bachelor's graduates, close to drama (65.0%), music (67.2%) and fine arts (69.1%).

How much do film students borrow?

At the bachelor's level, no more than anyone else. The median film and video program leaves graduates with $21,500 in federal Stafford loans, against $21,250 across all bachelor's programs. Because earnings are lower, the debt weighs more: the median film program's debt is 0.67 times its graduates' first-year earnings, against 0.44 for all bachelor's programs. Private nonprofit programs have a median debt of $23,791 and public ones $20,171.

What about a film master's degree?

The debt changes. The median film, video and photographic arts master's program leaves graduates with $81,617 in federal loans, 2.1 times the $39,198 median for all master's programs, the highest of any field we compared. Its graduates' median first-year earnings, $39,104, are below the $65,758 of all master's programs. At the American Film Institute Conservatory, the median debt is $155,710.

Which film programs pay off best?

Among film and video bachelor's programs with published five-year earnings, the highest are at Dartmouth College ($79,039), Lafayette College ($77,592) and University of California-Berkeley ($68,814). The Scorecard withholds figures for programs with too few graduates, so many film programs, including some well-known ones, do not appear.

What this means

• A film degree is a lower-paying start. Graduates trail the typical bachelor's degree by about 24% five years out.
• The debt matters more than the degree. Undergraduate borrowing is ordinary; the median film master's carries 2.1 times the usual master's debt.
• Check the program, not the field. Earnings vary widely between schools.

For what editors earn once they work, see our video editing statistics and the hourly rates in our GSA video production rates study. Mark Studios edits video for creators and brands.

How we ran the study

Data. The College Scorecard's most recent field-of-study file (download, released October 15, 2026), read November 1, 2026: 223,587 programs, each one institution, one 4-digit field of study (CIP code) and one credential level. Film and video is CIP 50.06, film/video and photographic arts, which also includes photography programs.

Measures. Earnings are the Scorecard's median earnings of graduates who received federal aid and were working and not enrolled one and five years after completing; the high school comparison is the Scorecard's count of those graduates earning more than a typical high school graduate; debt is the median federal Stafford and Grad PLUS loan debt (definitions, technical documentation). Field figures are the median of program medians, among programs whose figures the Scorecard publishes; the high school share pools graduates across programs.

Limitations

• Federal aid recipients only. Graduates who never received federal aid are not in the earnings or debt figures.
• Small programs are withheld. The Scorecard suppresses figures for programs with few graduates, so the medians describe larger programs.
• Photography is included. CIP 50.06 mixes film and video with photography programs.
• Medians of programs, not of people. A large program counts the same as a small one in the field medians.
• Earnings are early-career. Five years after completing is not a lifetime.

How to cite this study

Link to the section you use, for example https://www.markstudios.com/research/film-school-earnings-study#earnings. To cite the study as a whole:

Mark Studios. "Film School Earnings Study." Published November 1, 2026. https://www.markstudios.com/research/film-school-earnings-study

@misc{markstudios_film_school_earnings_study_2026,
  author = {{Mark Studios}},
  title = {{Film School Earnings Study}},
  year = {2026},
  month = nov,
  url = {https://www.markstudios.com/research/film-school-earnings-study},
  note = {Last verified 2026-11-01}
}

Our counts and the CSVs are free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 with a link to this page. The underlying College Scorecard data are public.

Sources

Every film, video and photographic arts program (CSV) Field comparison (CSV)

Widely quoted video statistics on other topics are traced to their origin, with a verdict on each, in our research fact-check.

1. U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard: download the data (most recent data by field of study). Accessed 2026-11-01.
2. U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard: data documentation. Accessed 2026-11-01.
3. U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard: technical documentation for field of study data. Accessed 2026-11-01.

Update policy and change log

We plan to rerun the read after each College Scorecard data release. Corrections go to contact@markstudios.com.

• November 1, 2026: First published.