a master's degree in design & applied arts is more popular than many other degrees. In fact, it ranks #72 out of 343 on popularity of all such degrees in the nation. This means you won't have too much trouble finding schools that offer the degree.
College Factual looked at 7 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Design & Applied Arts Master's Degree Schools in the Middle Atlantic Region ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 648 master's degrees in design & applied arts during the 2022-2023 academic year.
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Choosing a Great Design & Applied Arts School for Your Master's Degree
The design master's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality design program can vary widely even among the top schools. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
Quality Overall Is Important
The overall quality of a master's degree school is important to ensure a quality education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To account for this we include a college's overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking which itself looks at a combination of different factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
Average Earnings
To determine the overall quality of a graduate school, one factor we look at is the average early-career salary of those receiving their master's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their master's degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.
Other Factors We Consider
The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.
Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to design & applied arts students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - The number of design & applied arts students who choose to seek a master's degree at the school.
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 easy is it for design & applied arts to pay back their student loans after receiving their master's degree.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized design & applied arts related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for design & applied arts students working on their master's degree.
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Design & Applied Arts Master's Degree Schools in the Middle Atlantic Region ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
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Translate your creative ideas through concept, design and digital media with a bachelor's in graphic design online from Southern New Hampshire University.
Take the first step toward a career of visual expression and doing what you love with this online associate degree from Southern New Hampshire University.
Learn to create a striking portfolio and hone the skills you need to succeed in the world of professional photography with this online digital photography degree from Southern New Hampshire University.
Maryland Institute College of Art is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a master's degree in design & applied arts. MICA is a small private not-for-profit college located in the large city of Baltimore.
Those design & applied arts students who get their master's degree from Maryland Institute College of Art receive $12,967 more than the standard design grad.
Any student who is interested in a master's degree in design & applied arts needs to take a look at Pratt Institute - Main. Pratt Institute is a medium-sized private not-for-profit school located in the city of Brooklyn.
After graduation, design master's recipients usually make about $45,720 in their early careers.
Any student pursuing a degree in a master's degree in design & applied arts has to take a look at The New School. Located in the city of New York, New School University is a private not-for-profit school with a moderately-sized student population.
Soon after graduation, design master's recipients typically make around $39,393 at the beginning of their careers.
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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.