Financial Insights

Tuition Breakdown

When we say money should not be an obstacle and we'll find a way for every student to attend DAD, this is what we mean. A little more than half our students paid full tuition, which changed four times in our first two years to keep up with our rapid growth. First at 14k, 16k, 18k, and then our current price of 27k.

The other half either enrolled through our BCM grant program which is funded primarily through DAD with some outside agency funding, through an agency partner scholarship (2 were awarded in this time), or through a privately arranged deal with us that we offer to students with financial hardships.

$84k
Agency contributions in 2020 for our Black Creatvity Matters fund

$12k
Agency contributions in 2021 for our Black Creatvity Matters fund

Tuition Assistance

Our biggest diversity initiative was the launch of the Black Creativity Matters (BCM) fund, offering free tuition to all young Black creatives who were accepted to DAD. Funded in part by 10 agencies and a 100% match by DAD, we had enough in 2020 to cover the costs of admitting 10 students. The next year, however, saw only 2 agencies choose to contribute and the BCM fund was drastically slashed.

Despite having no money left, we admitted 4 more students before eventually deciding in late 2021 to begin charging BCM recipients a reduced tuition cost of $12,000.