In 65% of dance programs across the United States, the median student graduates with more federal loan debt than they earn in their entire first year of work. For drama and theatre, the figure is 62%. Among the 310 Computer Science programs in the same dataset: zero.
Those numbers have been uncomfortable for years. They became newly consequential in 2026.
What changed
The SAVE income-driven repayment plan — which allowed borrowers earning around $25,000 to qualify for payments as low as $0 — was struck down by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in March 2026. Its replacement, the Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP), went into effect July 1, 2026, under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Borrowers are not automatically transitioned; servicers are notifying borrowers in rolling 90-day windows through the end of 2026. The repayment backstop that once made it manageable to graduate into a low-earning field has been restructured. For students choosing a major today, the financial margin for error is narrower than it was 18 months ago.
Which fields leave graduates most exposed
Performing arts and visual arts fields carry the highest share of programs where median student debt exceeds median first-year earnings. The data comes from the 2026 College Scorecard release, covering 25,648 bachelor's degree programs. For each field, we computed what percentage of programs have a median debt load exceeding median first-year earnings — a direct dollar comparison, not a ratio.
| Major Field | Programs | % Where Debt > Year-1 Earnings | Typical Debt | Typical First-Year Earnings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dance | 52 | 65% | $23,751 | $22,183 |
| Drama / Theatre Arts | 233 | 62% | $22,850 | $21,080 |
| Film / Video Arts | 134 | 41% | $23,551 | $25,524 |
| Fine and Studio Arts | 368 | 40% | $22,869 | $25,008 |
| Music | 220 | 36% | $23,517 | $28,193 |
Source: College Scorecard (U.S. Dept. of Education), 2026 release. Figures are program-level medians from collegescorecard.ed.gov. "% underwater" = share of programs where median debt exceeds median first-year earnings.
The drama figure is the clearest signal: of 233 theatre programs analyzed, 145 have a median debt load that exceeds median first-year earnings. Not a narrow majority — a solid one.
What the other end looks like
Technical fields show the reverse pattern just as consistently. Among the 310 CS programs in our dataset, not one has a median debt load exceeding median first-year earnings. Aerospace Engineering: zero. Electrical Engineering: zero. Nursing: zero, across 990 programs. The debt loads in technical fields are nearly identical to arts programs — typically $20,000–$24,000. The difference is entirely on the earnings side: CS graduates earn a median $73,530 in year one; drama graduates earn $21,080.
A drama student and a CS student at the same public university will take on roughly the same debt. What they earn on graduation day is a different conversation entirely.
Graduate school just got more constrained too
Students in low-earning undergraduate fields often plan for graduate credentials as a path to better outcomes — an arts administration master's, a film MFA, a performance credential. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act also changed this. Starting July 1, 2026, Graduate PLUS loans are eliminated and graduate borrowing is capped at $20,500 per year with a $100,000 aggregate limit for most non-professional programs.
A student who graduates with debt near or above their first-year earnings, then pursues an arts-related master's, now faces tighter borrowing constraints in both phases of their education. The extended earning ramp that made these degrees viable in the long run is harder to fund.
The school you choose matters more here than almost anywhere
None of this means theatre or dance is the wrong major. It means the specific program matters more — and in a different direction — than in fields where the earnings are high enough to absorb almost any school's price tag. The same logic behind nursing school prestige being irrelevant to earnings applies here with higher stakes: in nursing, even an average program produces graduates earning $75,000 and the debt is easily serviceable regardless. In dance, where the median first-year salary is $22,183, the school's net price is the difference between a manageable loan and a decade-long constraint.
The arts and design programs ranked on this site are sorted by the ratio of first-year earnings to net price. The programs that appear at the top of those rankings are the ones where students borrow the least relative to what they actually earn — and they often look nothing like what students picture when they imagine a prestigious arts program.
The SAVE plan is gone. What remains is the math. If you are pursuing a degree in a field where the majority of programs leave graduates carrying more debt than a year's salary, the right question is not whether to pursue it. It is which program asks a price that the field can actually support.