12-month alumni employment study
Employment achievement of Spring 2025 alumni
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“SCAD continually looks ahead to where the greatest opportunities for growth will be. By bringing outside perspectives into the educational experience and anticipating emerging fields, SCAD prepares students to adapt, create, and lead.”
Fred Gilbert — vice president for UX, Google Workspace
2,366
Total graduates
The full Spring 2025 cohort.
70%
Knowledge rate
Graduates with a known outcome.
99%
Employment rate
Employed or continuing education.
91%
Creative field rate
Employed in creative or related work.
This report presents the employment and continuing-education outcomes of SCAD's Spring 2025 graduating class across all degree levels, locations, and programs, following the methodology.
Employment outcomes
-
Eligible employment
Began at or near graduation
1,225
graduates
-
Further education
Enrolled in continued study
137
graduates
-
Unemployed
Seeking, not yet employed
19
graduates
Working in creative fields
-
Creative or related
Roles tied to their disciplinary skills
1,119
graduates
-
Other fields
Outside their skill area
106
graduates
Study overview and methodology
To better understand the career paths of recent graduates, SCAD's office for career and alumni success and the office of curriculum and assessment collaborated to conduct a study on Spring 2025 alumni using a multistep process. As the key finding of the study, 99% of reporting graduates were employed, pursuing further education, or both within 12 months of commencement.
This information is gathered annually by SCAD to ascertain the employment and continuing education status of its graduates, with the goal of monitoring alumni career development and assisting and advising in the pursuit of employment or further education.
Methodology
SCAD's alumni follow-up study is a multistep process beginning at graduation and extending for 12 months. In alignment with the National Association of Colleges and Employers' (NACE) best practices and federal program integrity regulations, SCAD includes permanent, full-time, part-time, freelance, self-employed, and further education as part of its alumni employment rate.
- June 2025: Administration of a commencement survey immediately prior to graduation regarding secured employment and continuing education.
- February-April 2026: Administration of a follow-up online survey regarding secured employment and continued education.
- June 2025-June 2026: Monitoring of a variety of internal and external data sources, including: the university's internal data management system, which identifies alumni returning to SCAD for an additional degree or currently employed at SCAD; the National Student Clearinghouse, an independent organization that tracks national enrollment data and indicates which graduates are pursuing further education at other institutions; LinkedIn and other online sources such as ArtStation, where SCAD alumni share profile and employment information; academic department ambassadors who stay connected with students post-graduation; and SCAD's career and alumni success database, which tracks student- and alumni-reported employment data.
Knowledge rate
Using best practices from NACE, SCAD captured information from 70% of the Spring 2025 graduates — a total of 1,658 undergraduate and graduate alumni — from Savannah and Atlanta, Georgia, and SCADnow. SCAD's 70% response rate meets NACE's First-Destination Survey benchmark, which targets a 65% knowledge rate.
How rate is calculated
Consistent with federal reporting guidelines, graduates in internships, those continuing employment that began before graduation, and those not seeking employment are excluded from the denominator. The employment rate reflects only postgraduate outcomes: eligible employment that began at or near graduation, plus enrollment in further education, divided by that same figure plus those still seeking employment. The creative field rate is calculated separately, as the share of eligibly employed graduates working in a role tied to their field of study.
Outcomes by location and school
By location |
||
|---|---|---|
| Location | Employed / Further ed. | Creative field |
| Savannah | 99% | 91% |
| Atlanta | 97% | 95% |
| SCADnow | 100% | 95% |
| Grand total | 99% | 91% |
By school |
||
|---|---|---|
| School | Employed / Further ed. | Creative field |
| School of Business Innovation | 100% | 96% |
| School of Fine Arts | 100% | 93% |
| School of Liberal Arts | 100% | 83% |
| School of Design | 99% | 96% |
| School of Fashion | 99% | 95% |
| School of Film and Acting | 99% | 91% |
| School of Visual Communication | 99% | 82% |
| School of Building Arts | 99% | 96% |
| School of Animation and Motion | 97% | 88% |
| School of Creative Technology | 96% | 95% |
| Grand total | 99% | 91% |
Employed / Further ed. reflects the same methodology as the topline employment rate (eligible employment + further education, divided by that figure plus not-employed). Creative Field reflects the share of eligibly employed graduates working in a role tied to their field of study, calculated within each school.
Industry sectors and employers
Sector assigned by employer and, where an employer is unique to one graduate, by academic department. Based on 1,220 classified records of the 1,225 eligibly employed graduates.
Major employers, Spring 2025
Studio Homestead • URBN • Wendover Art Group • The Walt Disney Company • L'Oréal • Deloitte • Gensler • Abercrombie & Fitch • Estée Lauder Inc. • Amazon
1,000+
Unique employers hired SCAD alumni in 2025.
The SCAD advantage
At SCAD, every academic program is driven by a conviction that creative intelligence, range, and resilience define success in today's hyperconnected global economy. Organizations worldwide are seeking visionaries who can transform challenges into opportunities and navigate complexity with inventive solutions — and the capacity to deliver strategic, meaningful, breakthrough outcomes has never been more vital.
SCAD graduates emerge trained to use artificial intelligence and emerging technologies as catalysts that amplify human creativity and design thinking rather than replace it. But technical skill with AI alone doesn't keep a career resilient. As automation reshapes every industry, the range of skills that remain distinctly human — and distinctly valuable — are the ones a creative education builds by design. SCAD prepares students to utilize AI and their human judgment — a tool AI cannot replace.
“Journalist and author David Epstein makes a similar case in Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World — arguing that breadth, not narrow specialization, is what equips people to navigate the wicked, interconnected problems of a technology-driven world. 'Specialization is obvious: keep going straight. Breadth is trickier to grow.'”
David Epstein — author, Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World
Critical thinking
Collaboration and teamwork
Curiosity
Adaptability and flexibility
Communication
Leadership and professionalism
Grounded in these human strengths and skilled with the technology reshaping every industry, SCAD alumni are positioned to redefine business sectors and creative industries worldwide. Our graduates excel at embracing ambiguity, leveraging technological advances, and generating unprecedented value in an increasingly dynamic professional ecosystem. Through their distinctive range of creative mastery, human skill, and technological savvy, SCAD alumni lead the vanguard of innovation, pioneering new frontiers in artistic expression and design excellence.
In the 2025-26 academic year, SCAD achieved 45 No. 1 rankings, including the No. 1 Red Dot Design University in the Americas and Europe and the No. 1 Art School in the U.S. by Art & Object. More than a dozen new No. 1 rankings were earned across The Wall Street Journal, The Princeton Review, Animation Career Review, The Rookies, College Factual, Top Tier Admissions, Design Manager, and Indeed. SCAD also topped the International Design Awards and European Product Design Awards rank of Global Design Universities.
Notable alumni
From 2025
Ludovica Rinero (M.A., interior design, 2025) — Chef de Projet Architecture, Louis Vuitton, Paris, France
Jonathan C. Rodriguez (B.F.A., user experience design, 2025) — Experience Designer, Adobe Inc., San Francisco, CA
Olivia E. Lively (B.F.A., fashion, 2025) — Design Assistant — Fabrics & Embroidery, Oscar De La Renta, New York, NY
Juliana K. Klug (B.F.A., visual effects, 2025) — Associate Tech Artist, Warner Bros. Discovery, Los Angeles, CA
Lea Bagi (B.F.A., illustration, 2025) — Global Digital Designer (Freelance), MAC Cosmetics, Savannah, GA
Anabela R. Hwang (B.F.A., graphic design, 2025) — Associate Package Designer, Mattel, Inc., Culver City, CA
Sean P. McKenna (B.F.A., film and television, 2025) — Presidential Associate — Creative, Estée Lauder Companies Inc., New York, NY
Kassidy M. Keenehan (B.F.A., painting, 2025) — Artisan and Art Consultant, Wendover Art Group, Largo, FL
Hayden K. Allred (M.F.A., production design, 2025) — Video Systems Designer, Disney Live Entertainment, Lake Buena Vista, FL
From recent years
Dalryn Schuster (B.F.A., fashion, 2025) — LVMH Horizons Retail Executive Fellow, Louis Vuitton, Miami, FL
Alexis Divis (B.F.A., industrial design, 2023) — Senior Experience Designer, Johnson & Johnson, New York, NY
Matt Shuman (B.F.A., industrial design, 2021) — R&D Project Designer, Gulfstream Aerospace, Savannah, GA
Camille von Simson (B.F.A., graphic design, 2020) — Partner and Art Director, East East Creative, Miami, FL
Lauren Corrado (B.F.A., fashion marketing and management, 2020) — Senior Manager, Brand Marketing and Creative Services, Sam Edelman, New York, NY
Notable alumni accomplishments
This year's Academy Award-nominated films benefited from the talented contributions of more than 200 SCAD Bees, with students and alumni working on 21 of the productions that were up for Oscars this year. This includes seven of the 10 Best Picture Nominees, three nominees for Best Animated Feature, and every nominee in the Best Visual Effects category.
SCAD alum Huda Razzak (M.F.A., animation, 2021) has been awarded a prestigious $120,000 grant from the Sundance Institute Filmmakers Fund for her animated feature Home of the Birds. This impressive recognition from the storied independent filmmaking haven attests to Razzak's early accomplishments and ambitious vision as she continues to build her career from the knowledge she gained at SCAD.
The work of SCAD alum artist Mora Nyaribo (M.F.A., fibers, 2022) was featured in a recent exhibition, Nyuso: A Celebration of African Artistry and Afrofuturism, and earned her a glowing profile describing her journey from working as a fashion designer in her home country of Kenya to pursuing her graduate degree at SCAD.
SCAD acting stars lit up Broadway in 2026 with Burke Swanson (B.F.A., acting, 2019) in Stranger Things: The First Shadow, Kayli Carter (B.F.A., acting, 2015) in The Balusters, and Ell Talley (B.F.A., acting, 2025) in The Outsiders.
SCAD alumni employment archive
Explore our historical employment data and career outcomes. Select a report year below to view or download the complete PDF report.