If you plan on getting your bachelor's degree in general visual & performing arts, you won't be alone since the degree program is ranked #94 in the country in terms of popularity. As a result, there are many college that offer the degree, making your choice of school a hard one.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 9 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best General Visual & Performing Arts Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Far Western US Region ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 448 bachelor's degrees in general visual & performing arts to qualified students.
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Choosing a Great General Visual & Performing Arts School for Your Bachelor's Degree
Your choice of general visual & performing arts for getting your bachelor'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. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
A Great Overall School
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.
Early-Career Earnings
One measure we use to determine the quality of a school is to look at the average salary of bachelor's graduates during the early years of their career. That is, everyone wants their bachelor's degree to be worth something, and salaries are one measure of determining that.
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 general visual & performing arts students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - The number of general visual & performing 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 general visual & performing 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 general visual & performing arts related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for general visual & performing arts students working on their bachelor's degree.
More Ways to Rank General Visual & Performing Arts Schools
Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best General Visual & Performing Arts Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Far Western US Region list, to help you choose the best school for you.
In addition to our rankings, you can take two colleges and compare them based on the criteria that matters most to you in our unique tool, College Combat.
Test it out when you get a chance! You may also want to bookmark the link and share it with others who are trying to make the college decision.
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Otis College of Art and Design is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a bachelor's degree in general visual & performing arts. Located in the large city of Los Angeles, Otis College of Art and Design is a private not-for-profit college with a small student population.
Bachelor's students who receive their degree from the visual arts program make around $21,558 in the first couple years of their career.
Academy of Art University is a great option for students interested in a bachelor's degree in general visual & performing arts. Located in the large city of San Francisco, Academy of Art University is a private for-profit university with a moderately-sized student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the general visual & performing arts degree program at Academy of Art University get $6,975 more than the typical college grad with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
CSUSM is a large public university located in the suburb of San Marcos.
Bachelor's recipients from the general visual & performing arts program at California State University - San Marcos get $6,222 more than the standard college graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
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.
Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).