Culinary Arts isn't the most popular bachelor's program in the world, but it's not the least popular either. To be more precise it ranks #216 in popularity out of 363 majors in the country. So, it might take a little more work to find colleges and universities that offer the degree program.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 2 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Culinary Arts Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Middle Atlantic Region ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 198 bachelor's degrees in culinary arts during the 2022-2023 academic year.
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 culinary arts students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - How many other culinary arts students want to attend this school to pursue a bachelor's degree.
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 culinary arts to pay back their student loans after receiving their bachelor's degree.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized culinary arts related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for culinary arts students working on their bachelor's degree.
When choosing the right school for you, it's important to arm yourself with all the facts you can. To that end, we've created a number of major-specific rankings, including this Best Culinary Arts Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Middle Atlantic Region list to help you make the college decision.
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.
Best Schools for Bachelor’s Students to Study Culinary Arts in the Middle Atlantic Region
Learn about the top ranked colleges and universities for culinary arts students seeking a a bachelor's degree.
Top Middle Atlantic Region Schools for a Bachelor's in Culinary Arts
Any student pursuing a degree in a bachelor's degree in culinary arts has to take a look at Culinary Institute of America. Located in the large suburb of Hyde Park, The Culinary Institute of America is a private not-for-profit school with a small student population.
Culinary Arts bachelor's degree recipients from Culinary Institute of America receive an earnings boost of approximately $13,636 over the typical income of culinary arts majors.
The Restaurant School at Walnut Hill College is a good decision for individuals interested in a bachelor's degree in culinary arts. The Restaurant School at Walnut Hill College is a fairly small private for-profit college located in the large city of Philadelphia.
Bachelor's graduates who receive their degree from the culinary arts program earn about $27,593 in their early career salary.
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).