2025 Best Design & Applied Arts Bachelor's Degree Schools in Iowa

Ranked #27 in popularity, design & applied arts is one of the most sought-after bachelor's degree programs in the nation. So, there are lots of possibilities to explore when you're trying to determine where you want to get your degree.

College Factual looked at 4 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Design & Applied Arts Bachelor's Degree Schools in Iowa ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 360 bachelor's degrees in design & applied arts during the 2022-2023 academic year.

What's on this page: * Our Methodology

• Best Bachelor’s Degree Schools List

Choosing a Great Design & Applied Arts School for Your Bachelor's Degree

Your choice of design & applied arts for getting your bachelor's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality design 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

The overall quality of a bachelor'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 ranking which itself looks at a combination of various 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 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

The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.

• Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to design & applied arts students as compared to other majors.
• Major Demand - How many other design & applied arts students want to attend this school to pursue a bachelor'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 design & applied 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 design & applied arts related body.

Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for design & applied arts students working on their bachelor's degree.

One Size Does Not Fit All

Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Design & Applied Arts Bachelor's Degree Schools in Iowa ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.

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.

Best Schools for Bachelor’s Students to Study Design & Applied Arts in Iowa

Explore the top ranked colleges and universities for design & applied arts students seeking a a bachelor's degree.

Top Iowa Schools for a Bachelor's in Design

1

Iowa State University
Ames, IA

216 Annual Graduates

$37,565 Median Starting Salary

$32,090 Median Student Debt

Any student pursuing a degree in a bachelor's degree in design & applied arts has to look into Iowa State University. Iowa State is a very large public university located in the small city of Ames.

Those design & applied arts students who get their bachelor's degree from Iowa State University receive $3,985 more than the average design graduate.

More information about a bachelor’s in design & applied arts from Iowa State University

2

University of Northern Iowa
Cedar Falls, IA

46 Annual Graduates

$38,637 Median Starting Salary

University of Northern Iowa is a great decision for students pursuing a bachelor's degree in design & applied arts. UNI is a medium-sized public university located in the city of Cedar Falls.

Bachelor's recipients from the design & applied arts program at University of Northern Iowa earn $5,057 more than the typical graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.

More information about a bachelor’s in design & applied arts from University of Northern Iowa

3

Luther College
Decorah, IA

15 Annual Graduates

It is hard to beat Luther College if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in design & applied arts. Located in the remote town of Decorah, Luther is a private not-for-profit college with a small student population.More information about a bachelor’s in design & applied arts from Luther College

4

Upper Iowa University
Fayette, IA

23 Annual Graduates

$31,122 Median Starting Salary

It's hard to beat Upper Iowa University if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in design & applied arts. UIU is a small private not-for-profit university located in the remote area of Fayette.

Students who graduate with their bachelor's from the design program report average early career earnings of $31,122.

More information about a bachelor’s in design & applied arts from Upper Iowa University

Best Design & Applied Arts Colleges in the Plains States Region

Explore all the Best Design & Applied Arts Colleges in the Plains States Area or other specific states within that region.

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Missouri	228	342
Minnesota	215	351
Kansas	184	137
Nebraska	180	119
North Dakota	149	22
South Dakota	148	51

View All Rankings >

Rankings in Majors Related to Design

One of 10 majors within the Visual & Performing Arts area of study, Design & Applied Arts has other similar majors worth exploring.

Design Focus Areas

Major	Annual Graduates
Graphic Design	129
Interior Design	78
Industrial Design	62
Visual Communications	46
Commercial & Advertising Art	41
Game & Interactive Media Design	4

Majors Similar to Design

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Fine & Studio Arts	189
Music	167
Drama & Theater Arts	125
Film, Video & Photographic Arts	79
Dance	15
General Visual & Performing Arts	13
Other Visual Art	4
Arts & Media Management	1

Notes and References

• 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). More about our data sources and methodologies.