If you pursue a bachelor's degree in design & applied arts, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #27 most popular program in the country. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.
College Factual reviewed 32 schools in California to determine which ones were the best for bachelor's degree seekers in the field of design & applied arts. Combined, these schools handed out 2,456 bachelor's degrees in design & applied arts to qualified students.
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.
Choosing a Great Design & Applied Arts School for Your Bachelor's Degree
Your choice of design & applied arts for getting your bachelor's degree school matters. 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 bachelor's degree school is important to ensure a quality 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 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 bachelor's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their bachelor'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 - How many other design & applied arts 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 design & applied arts 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 design & applied arts related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for design & applied arts students working on their bachelor's degree.
The design school you choose to invest your time and money in matters. To help you make the decision that is right for you, we've developed a number of major-specific rankings, including this list of the Best Design & Applied Arts Bachelor's Degree Schools in California.
In addition to College Factual's rankings, you may want to take a look at College Combat, our unique tool that lets you pit your favorite schools head-to-head and compare how they rate on factors that most interest you.
When you have some time, check it out - you may want to bookmark the link so you don't forget it.
DEBUG: Raw major_slug = "visual-and-performing-arts//design-and-applied-arts"
Translate your creative ideas through concept, design and digital media with a bachelor's in graphic design online 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.
Get on the right path to the fast-paced, exciting world of video game art and design with this online bachelor's from Southern New Hampshire University.
It's hard to beat University of Southern California if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in design & applied arts. Located in the large city of Los Angeles, USC is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the design & applied arts major at University of Southern California earn $30,922 above the typical college graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
It is difficult to beat FIDM/Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising - Los Angeles if you want to pursue a bachelor's degree in design & applied arts. Located in the city of Los Angeles, FIDM Los Angeles is a private for-profit school with a small student population.
Bachelor's students who receive their degree from the design program make around $26,479 in the first couple years of working.
Art Center College of Design is a great option for individuals pursuing a bachelor's degree in design & applied arts. Art Center College of Design is a small private not-for-profit college located in the city of Pasadena.
Those design & applied arts students who get their bachelor's degree from Art Center College of Design earn $13,129 more than the typical design graduate.
It is difficult to beat University of California - Davis if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in design & applied arts. UC Davis is a fairly large public university located in the small suburb of Davis.
After graduation, design bachelor's recipients typically earn an average of $32,816 in their early careers.
Located in the midsize city of Orange, Chapman is a private not-for-profit university with a medium-sized student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the design & applied arts major at Chapman University get $12,595 above the standard college grad with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
UCLA is a very large public university located in the city of Los Angeles.
Design & Applied Arts bachelor's degree recipients from University of California - Los Angeles earn a boost of around $23,691 above the average earnings of design & applied arts graduates.
Located in the city of Long Beach, CSULB is a public university with a very large student population.
Those design & applied arts students who get their bachelor's degree from California State University - Long Beach earn $3,471 more than the average design student.
Gain a solid grounding in your online web design classes and exercise your creative muscle with this specialized online bachelor's from Southern New Hampshire University.
Go beyond traditional software development to gain the technical expertise required to succeed in an exciting and competitive field with this online bachelor's from Southern New Hampshire University.
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.
Your choice of design & applied arts for getting your bachelor's degree school matters. 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:
