BAC Architecture Programs Rank Among the Nation’s Highest Earners, Federal Data Shows

What value looks like

Measured five years out - when results actually mean something.

According to the U.S. Department of Education's College Scorecard, graduates of Boston Architectural College's architecture programs report median earnings that rank among the highest in the country - measured five years after graduation.

BAC's Bachelor of Architecture graduates report median earnings of $90,996 at the five-year mark, placing the program #1 nationally among Bachelor of Architecture programs. BAC's Master of Architecture graduates report median earnings of $91,274, placing the program #2 nationally among Master of Architecture programs.

The figures place BAC ahead of programs at UC Berkeley, USC, Northeastern, Carnegie Mellon, Pratt, RISD, Cornell, the University of Michigan, and UCLA at the undergraduate level, and ahead of Yale, MIT, Harvard, Columbia, Cornell, the University of Pennsylvania, and RISD at the graduate level.

The College Scorecard does not publish formal rankings. These positions reflect where The BAC stands when federal earnings data is filtered by degree program — Bachelor of Architecture and Master of Architecture specifically — and sorted by five-year median earnings. The data is publicly available and independently verifiable at collegescorecard.ed.gov.

The results are notable given The BAC's institutional profile. More than 90 percent of BAC students work full time while enrolled. Since its founding in 1889, The BAC has made a deliberate choice to remove barriers to design education — admitting undergraduate students on the basis of commitment and potential, not prior academic credentials. These outcomes are the product of that mission: a model built for working professionals, career changers, and nontraditional learners who have earned their place through persistence, not pedigree.

When a school built around access produces earnings outcomes that outperform institutions with far greater selectivity and resources — including some of the most prestigious universities in the world — it says something important about what actually predicts professional success.