2025 Best Design & Applied Arts Bachelor's Degree Schools in Tennessee
Design & Applied Arts is of the hottest bachelor's degree programs in the United States, coming in as the #27 most popular major in the country. This means there are lots of options to choose from when you decide to get your degree.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 7 schools in Tennessee to determine which ones were the best for design & applied arts students pursuing a bachelor's degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 231 bachelor's degrees in design & applied arts during the 2022-2023 academic year.
What's on this page: * Our Methodology
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Featured Design & Applied Arts Programs
Learn about start dates, transferring credits, availability of financial aid, and more by contacting the universities below.
AA in Digital Photography
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.
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BA in Digital Photography
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.
Learn More
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. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
A Great Overall School
The overall quality of a bachelor's degree school is important to ensure a good education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To account for this we include a college's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a host of various factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
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
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
The design 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 Design & Applied Arts Bachelor's Degree Schools in Tennessee.
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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Featured Design & Applied Arts Programs
Learn about start dates, transferring credits, availability of financial aid, and more by contacting the universities below.
BA in Digital Photography
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.
Learn More
BA in Game Art & Development
Get on the right path to the fast-paced, exciting world of video game art and design with this online bachelor's from Southern New Hampshire University.
Learn More
Best Schools for Bachelor’s Students to Study Design & Applied Arts in Tennessee
The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing a bachelor's degree in design & applied arts.
Top Tennessee Schools for a Bachelor's in Design
Belmont University is a great decision for students interested in a bachelor's degree in design & applied arts. Located in the large city of Nashville, Belmont is a private not-for-profit university with a medium-sized student population.
Bachelor's students who receive their degree from the design program make an average of $28,702 in the first couple years of working.
More information about a bachelor’s in design & applied arts from Belmont University
It's hard to beat The University of Tennessee - Knoxville if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in design & applied arts. UT Knoxville is a fairly large public university located in the midsize city of Knoxville.
Bachelor's recipients from the design & applied arts program at The University of Tennessee - Knoxville make $5,712 above the average college graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
More information about a bachelor’s in design & applied arts from The University of Tennessee - Knoxville
It's difficult to beat The University of Tennessee - Chattanooga if you want to pursue a bachelor's degree in design & applied arts. UT Chattanooga is a large public university located in the medium-sized city of Chattanooga.
Those design & applied arts students who get their bachelor's degree from The University of Tennessee - Chattanooga make $11,619 more than the average design student.
More information about a bachelor’s in design & applied arts from The University of Tennessee - Chattanooga
Every student pursuing a degree in a bachelor's degree in design & applied arts needs to look into University of Memphis. Located in the city of Memphis, UofM is a public university with a fairly large student population.More information about a bachelor’s in design & applied arts from University of Memphis
Located in the medium-sized city of Murfreesboro, Middle Tennessee State University is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Design & Applied Arts bachelor's degree recipients from Middle Tennessee State University earn a boost of about $8,458 above the typical earnings of design & applied arts majors.
More information about a bachelor’s in design & applied arts from Middle Tennessee State University
