Alumnus Dan Goods, Visual Strategist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, stands with “Refraction,” an artwork he created with fellow alum David Delgado.

An Art Center education doesn’t come cheaply. It requires a high-deposit, high-return investment of resources, tapping reserves of creativity and cash. But Art Center students know these initial sacrifices will pay off down the road when they emerge with an education custom designed to equip them for creatively and financially fulfilling careers. Money magazine reinforced the College’s reputation for boosting its grads’ professional prospects this week when it ranked Art Center third on its list of 25 of the best college values.

In response to millions of parents seeking colleges that strike a balance between affordability and professional prestige  and training, Money devised a new tool to measure a college’s ROI.  The new ranking places Art Center at number three on its “Value All-Star” list since, according to the editors’ careful calculations, Art Center alumni exceed expectations when it comes to earning. Money found that our grads take home an extra $12,000 per year early in their careers, using criteria based on three equally weighted categories: quality, affordability and career outcomes. The magazine defines outcomes almost entirely in terms of how much students earn after graduation.

These findings are no fluke. In fact they’re consistent with last year’s Coroflot.com’s Creative Employment Snapshot survey which showed Art Center grads making up to $25K more when compared to alums from other art and design schools.

But the post-graduation flow of high-paying job offers doesn’t quite capture the unquantifiable character of an Art Center degree. This is an institution that encourages original thinking while also meeting the demands of the marketplace. Art Center is a place that breeds iconoclasts offering a new viewpoint on industry. With that in mind, here are five impressive, unexpected and interesting careers that show how our grads thrive professionally.

• Jeff Hall (Graduate Media Design Practices-Field, 2013): His design-based fieldwork experience qualified him to lead UNICEF’s newest Innovation Lab in Jakarta, a position typically reserved for an engineer or development specialist.

• Anthony Sims (Transportation Design, 2011): Industrial Designer at Space Exploration Technologies, also known as SpaceX.

• Dan Goods (Graphic Design, 2002): Visual Strategist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena where he designs experiences for people to interact with something beautiful, meaningful and even profound.