2025 Best Design & Applied Arts Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Southeast Region

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.

In 2025, College Factual analyzed 59 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Design & Applied Arts Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Southeast Region ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 4,090 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 good education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To account for this we consider a school's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a host 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 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 complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges 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 the Southeast Region 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 the Southeast Region

Learn about the top ranked colleges and universities for design & applied arts students seeking a a bachelor's degree. Only those schools that rank in the top 20% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.

11 Top Southeast Region Schools for a Bachelor's in Design

1

Savannah College of Art and Design
Savannah, GA

755 Annual Graduates

$23,400 Median Starting Salary

$97,681 Median Student Debt

Savannah College of Art and Design is a wonderful choice for students pursuing a bachelor's degree in design & applied arts. Located in the midsize city of Savannah, SCAD is a private not-for-profit college with a large student population.

After graduation, design bachelor's recipients usually earn around $23,400 in the first five years of their career.

More information about a bachelor’s in design & applied arts from Savannah College of Art and Design

2

University of Florida
Gainesville, FL

54 Annual Graduates

$43,144 Median Starting Salary

University of Florida is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a bachelor's degree in design & applied arts. UF is a fairly large public university located in the midsize city of Gainesville.

Bachelor's recipients from the design & applied arts program at University of Florida make $9,459 more than the average college graduate in this field shortly after graduation.

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

3

Virginia Tech
Blacksburg, VA

72 Annual Graduates

$46,761 Median Starting Salary

Virginia Tech is one of the best schools in the country for getting a bachelor's degree in design & applied arts. Virginia Tech is a fairly large public school located in the city of Blacksburg.

Those design & applied arts students who get their bachelor's degree from Virginia Tech make $13,076 more than the standard design graduate.

More information about a bachelor’s in design & applied arts from Virginia Tech

4

Auburn University
Auburn, AL

116 Annual Graduates

$46,585 Median Starting Salary

$74,308 Median Student Debt

Auburn University is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a bachelor's degree in design & applied arts. Located in the city of Auburn, Auburn is a public university with a very large student population.

Design & Applied Arts bachelor's degree recipients from Auburn University earn a boost of approximately $12,900 over the typical earnings of design & applied arts majors.

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

5

Virginia Commonwealth University
Richmond, VA

322 Annual Graduates

$25,872 Median Starting Salary

$26,292 Median Student Debt

VCU is a very large public university located in the city of Richmond.

Soon after graduating, design bachelor's recipients generally make about $25,872 at the beginning of their careers.

More information about a bachelor’s in design & applied arts from Virginia Commonwealth University

6

Clemson University
Clemson, SC

79 Annual Graduates

$46,689 Median Starting Salary

Located in the suburb of Clemson, Clemson is a public university with a fairly large student population.

Design & Applied Arts bachelor's degree recipients from Clemson University get an earnings boost of around $13,004 over the typical earnings of design & applied arts majors.

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

7

North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC

77 Annual Graduates

$44,930 Median Starting Salary

Located in the large city of Raleigh, NC State is a public university with a fairly large student population.

Bachelor's recipients from the design & applied arts program at North Carolina State University get $11,245 above the standard college graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.

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

8

Georgia Institute of Technology - Main Campus
Atlanta, GA

12 Annual Graduates

$52,694 Median Starting Salary

Georgia Tech is a very large public school located in the city of Atlanta.

Those design & applied arts students who get their bachelor's degree from Georgia Institute of Technology - Main Campus earn $19,009 more than the average design grad.

More information about a bachelor’s in design & applied arts from Georgia Institute of Technology - Main Campus

9

Appalachian State University
Boone, NC

131 Annual Graduates

$34,722 Median Starting Salary

$18,939 Median Student Debt

Appalachian State is a fairly large public university located in the distant town of Boone.

After graduation, design bachelor's recipients usually make about $34,722 at the beginning of their careers.

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

10

Belmont University
Nashville, TN

47 Annual Graduates

$28,702 Median Starting Salary

Located in the large city of Nashville, Belmont is a private not-for-profit university with a medium-sized student population.

After graduating, design bachelor's recipients generally make an average of $28,702 in their early careers.

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

11

Florida State University
Tallahassee, FL

33 Annual Graduates

$49,144 Median Starting Salary

Florida State is a very large public university located in the medium-sized city of Tallahassee.

Bachelor's recipients from the design & applied arts program at Florida State University earn $15,459 above the standard college graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.

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

Honorable Mentions

Here are some additional great schools for Design & Applied Arts students in the Southeast Region that almost earned our Best Design & Applied Arts Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Southeast Region award.

Rank	College	Location
12	Ringling College of Art and Design	Sarasota, FL
13	Liberty University	Lynchburg, VA
14	University of Kentucky	Lexington, KY
15	West Virginia University	Morgantown, WV
16	University of Miami	Coral Gables, FL
17	Marymount University	Arlington, VA
18	University of Arkansas	Fayetteville, AR
19	Samford University	Birmingham, AL

Best Design & Applied Arts Colleges by State

Explore the best design & applied arts colleges for a specific state in the Southeast Region .

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Florida	225	707
Georgia	224	1,028
Tennessee	220	208
North Carolina	213	529
Virginia	213	635
South Carolina	195	224
Kentucky	187	64
Alabama	184	196
Louisiana	171	50
Mississippi	169	25
Arkansas	167	216
West Virginia	147	106

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	941
Interior Design	867
Illustration	633
Visual Communications	530
Other Design & Applied Arts	386
Fashion Design	318
Industrial Design	226
Game & Interactive Media Design	118
Commercial Photography	38
Commercial & Advertising Art	33

Majors Similar to Design

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Fine & Studio Arts	5,505
Music	3,729
Film, Video & Photographic Arts	2,749
Drama & Theater Arts	2,705
General Visual & Performing Arts	1,780
Arts & Media Management	1,287
Dance	470
Other Visual Art	81
Crafts, Folk Art & Artisanry	27

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.