a bachelor's degree in graphic communications is more popular than many other degrees. In fact, it ranks #99 out of 363 on popularity of all such degrees in the nation. As a result, there are many college that offer the degree, making your choice of school a hard one.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 7 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Graphic Communications Bachelor's Degree Schools in California ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 580 bachelor's degrees in graphic communications to qualified students.
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Choosing a Great Graphic Communications School for Your Bachelor's Degree
The graphic communication bachelor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality graphic communication program can vary widely even among the top schools. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
A Great Overall School
The overall quality of a bachelor's degree school is important to ensure a good education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To take this into account we consider a college's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a collection of various factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
Early-Career Earnings
One measure we use to determine the quality of a school is to look at the average salary of bachelor's graduates during the early years of their career. That is, everyone wants their bachelor's degree to be worth something, and salaries are one measure of determining that.
Other Factors We Consider
The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.
Major Focus - How much a school focuses on graphic communications students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - How many other graphic communications students want to attend this school to pursue a bachelor's degree.
Educational Resources - How many resources are allocated to students. These resources may include educational expenditures per student, number of students per instructor, and graduation rate among other things.
Student Debt - How much debt graphic communications students go into to obtain their bachelor's degree and how well they are able to pay back that debt.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized graphic communications related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for graphic communications students working on their bachelor's degree.
Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Graphic Communications Bachelor's Degree Schools in California list, to help you choose the best school for you.
In addition to our rankings, you can take two colleges and compare them based on the criteria that matters most to you in our unique tool, College Combat.
Test it out when you get a chance! You may also want to bookmark the link and share it with others who are trying to make the college decision.
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Any student pursuing a degree in a bachelor's degree in graphic communications has to take a look at California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo. Cal Poly San Luis Obispo is a fairly large public university located in the small suburb of San Luis Obispo.
Bachelor's recipients from the graphic communications program at California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo earn $16,448 above the average graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
It's hard to beat Art Center College of Design if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in graphic communications. Art Center College of Design is a small private not-for-profit college located in the midsize city of Pasadena.
Graphic Communications bachelor's degree recipients from Art Center College of Design earn a boost of about $34,429 over the typical earnings of graphic communications graduates.
Every student who is interested in a bachelor's degree in graphic communications has to take a look at Academy of Art University. Academy of Art University is a medium-sized private for-profit university located in the city of San Francisco.
Students who graduate with their bachelor's from the graphic communication program report average early career earnings of $27,481.
California College of the Arts is a wonderful decision for students pursuing a bachelor's degree in graphic communications. Located in the city of San Francisco, California College of the Arts is a private not-for-profit college with a small student population.
Bachelor's graduates who receive their degree from the graphic communication program make an average of $26,481 in their early career salary.
The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).