a master's degree in film, video & photographic arts is more popular than many other degrees. In fact, it ranks #84 out of 343 on popularity of all such degrees in the nation. So, you have a fair amount of options to choose from when looking for a school.
College Factual looked at 3 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Film, Video & Photographic Arts Master's Degree Schools in Illinois ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 67 master's degrees in film, video & photographic arts to qualified students.
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
Your choice of film, video & photographic arts for getting your master's degree school matters. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
Overall Quality Is a Must
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 school'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 Early-Career Salaries
Average early-career salary of those graduating with their master's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. After all, your master'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
The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.
Major Focus - How much a school focuses on film, video & photographic arts students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - How many other film, video & photographic arts students want to attend this school to pursue a master'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 film, video & photographic arts students go into to obtain their master'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 master's degree.
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Film, Video & Photographic Arts Master's Degree Schools in Illinois 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.
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.
Any student who is interested in a master's degree in film, video & photographic arts needs to check out Columbia College Chicago. Columbia is a moderately-sized private not-for-profit college located in the large city of Chicago.
Those film, video & photographic arts students who get their master's degree from Columbia College Chicago earn $5,796 more than the standard film student.
DePaul University is a wonderful decision for students pursuing a master's degree in film, video & photographic arts. DePaul is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Chicago.
Students who graduate with their master's from the film program state that they receive average early career wages of $23,892.
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.
by our College Data Analytics Team
Your choice of film, video & photographic arts for getting your master's degree school matters. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
