Film, Video & Photographic Arts is above average in terms of popularity with it being the #42 most popular bachelor's degree program in the country. So, you have a fair amount of options to choose from when looking for a school.
College Factual looked at 189 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Film, Video & Photographic Arts Bachelor's Degree Schools ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 12,664 bachelor's degrees in film, video & photographic arts during the <nil> academic year.
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Choosing a Great Film, Video & Photographic Arts School for Your Bachelor's Degree
Your choice of film, video & photographic arts for getting your bachelor's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality film 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 make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
Average Early-Career Salaries
Average early-career salary of those graduating with their bachelor's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. After all, your bachelor's 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
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 bachelor'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 much debt film, video & photographic 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 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 bachelor'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 Bachelor's Degree Schools.
To further help you make the college decision, we've developed a unique tool called College Combat that allows you to compare schools based on the factors that matter the most to you.
Go ahead and give it a try, or bookmark the link so you can check it out later.
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Best Schools for Bachelor’s Students to Study Film, Video & Photographic Arts in the United States
The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing a bachelor's degree in film, video & photographic arts. Only those schools that rank in the top 20% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
Every student pursuing a degree in a bachelor's degree in film, video & photographic arts has to check out New York University. Located in the large city of New York, NYU is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
Bachelor's students who receive their degree from the film program earn about $23,869 in their early career salary.
It is hard to beat University of Southern California if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in film, video & photographic arts. USC is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Los Angeles.
Bachelor's recipients from the film, video & photographic arts degree program at University of Southern California earn $8,285 above the standard graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
Any student pursuing a degree in a bachelor's degree in film, video & photographic arts has to take a look at Chapman University. Chapman is a moderately-sized private not-for-profit university located in the midsize city of Orange.
Film, Video & Photographic Arts bachelor's degree recipients from Chapman University receive an earnings boost of around $9,893 over the typical earnings of film, video & photographic arts graduates.
Every student pursuing a degree in a bachelor's degree in film, video & photographic arts has to look into University of Michigan - Ann Arbor. U-M is a fairly large public university located in the medium-sized city of Ann Arbor.
Bachelor's graduates who receive their degree from the film program make around $25,565 for their early career.
Located in the suburb of Santa Barbara, UCSB is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the film, video & photographic arts degree program at University of California - Santa Barbara make $2,706 more than the standard college graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
Located in the city of Seattle, UW Seattle is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Film, Video & Photographic Arts bachelor's degree recipients from University of Washington - Seattle Campus get an earnings boost of approximately $2,659 above the average earnings of film, video & photographic arts graduates.
RIT is a fairly large private not-for-profit school located in the suburb of Rochester.
Bachelor's recipients from the film, video & photographic arts major at Rochester Institute of Technology make $2,956 above the average graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
Located in the city of Los Angeles, UCLA is a public university with a very large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the film, video & photographic arts degree program at University of California - Los Angeles earn $3,794 above the standard graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
ASU - Tempe is a fairly large public university located in the midsize city of Tempe.
Bachelor's recipients from the film, video & photographic arts major at Arizona State University - Tempe make $5,246 above the standard college graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
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Additional Noteworthy Schools
Here are some additional great schools for Film, Video & Photographic Arts students that almost earned our Best Film, Video & Photographic Arts Bachelor's Degree Schools award.
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.