Design & Applied Arts is of the hottest associate degree programs in the United States, coming in as the #19 most popular major in the country. So, there are lots of possibilities to explore when you're trying to determine where you want to get your degree.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 17 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Design & Applied Arts Associate Degree Schools in the Southeast Region ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 1,237 associate degrees in design & applied arts during the 2022-2023 academic year.
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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.
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Choosing a Great Design & Applied Arts School for Your Associate Degree
The design associate 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. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
Overall Quality Is a Must
A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To account for this we consider a school's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a host of various factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
Average Early-Career Salaries
To determine the overall quality of a graduate school, one factor we look at is the average early-career salary of those receiving their associate degree from the school. After all, your associate degree won't mean much if it doesn't help you find a job that will help you earn a living.
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 associate 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 much debt design & applied arts students go into to obtain their associate 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 design & applied arts related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for design & applied arts students working on their associate 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 Associate Degree Schools in the Southeast Region ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
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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.
It's difficult to beat Palm Beach State College if you want to pursue an associate degree in design & applied arts. Palm Beach State College is a fairly large public college located in the large suburb of Lake Worth.
Associate recipients from the design & applied arts degree program at Palm Beach State College get $8,909 more than the standard college grad in this field shortly after graduation.
Every student who is interested in an associate degree in design & applied arts needs to look into Gwinnett Technical College. GTC is a moderately-sized public college located in the suburb of Lawrenceville.
Those design & applied arts students who get their associate degree from Gwinnett Technical College receive $4,992 more than the typical design graduate.
Any student pursuing a degree in an associate degree in design & applied arts has to take a look at Rasmussen University - Florida. Located in the city of Ocala, Rasmussen University - Florida is a private for-profit university with a small student population.
Associate recipients from the design & applied arts major at Rasmussen University - Florida earn $4,387 more than the standard college grad in this field shortly after graduation.
MDC is a very large public college located in the city of Miami.
Associate recipients from the design & applied arts degree program at Miami Dade College earn $2,607 above the standard graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
Northern Virginia Community College is a very large public college located in the suburb of Annandale.
Design & Applied Arts associate degree recipients from Northern Virginia Community College earn a boost of approximately $5,373 above the typical earnings of design & applied arts majors.
Seminole State is a fairly large public college located in the city of Sanford.
Associate recipients from the design & applied arts major at Seminole State College of Florida earn $3,488 above the typical college graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
Located in the midsize city of Fort Lauderdale, Keiser University - Ft Lauderdale is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population.
Associate graduates who receive their degree from the design program earn about $20,360 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.
The design associate 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. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
