If you plan on getting your master's degree in film, video & photographic arts, you won't be alone since the degree program is ranked #84 in the country in terms of popularity. This means you won't have too much trouble finding schools that offer the degree.
College Factual looked at 5 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Film, Video & Photographic Arts Master's Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 101 master's degrees in film, video & photographic arts during the 2022-2023 academic year.
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 Film, Video & Photographic Arts School for Your Master's Degree
The film master's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality film 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
A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
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
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to film, video & photographic arts students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - The number of film, video & photographic arts students who choose to seek a master's degree at the school.
Educational Resources - The amount of money and other resources allocated to students while they are pursuing their degree. These resources include such things as number of students per instructor and education expenditures per student.
Student Debt - How easy is it for film, video & photographic 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 film, video & photographic arts related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for film, video & photographic arts students working on their master's degree.
More Ways to Rank Film, Video & Photographic Arts Schools
The film 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 Film, Video & Photographic Arts Master's Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region.
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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.
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.
It is difficult to beat Columbia College Chicago if you wish to pursue a master's degree in film, video & photographic arts. Located in the large city of Chicago, Columbia is a private not-for-profit college with a medium-sized student population.
Master's recipients from the film, video & photographic arts program at Columbia College Chicago get $5,796 above the average college grad in this field when they enter the workforce.
Any student pursuing a degree in a master's degree in film, video & photographic arts needs to look into DePaul University. Located in the city of Chicago, DePaul is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
Master's students who receive their degree from the film program earn around $23,892 for their early career.
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.