2025 Best Design & Applied Arts Master's Degree Schools in the Far Western US Region

a master's degree in design & applied arts is more popular than many other degrees. In fact, it ranks #72 out of 343 on popularity of all such degrees in the nation. This means you won't have too much trouble finding schools that offer the degree.

College Factual looked at 7 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Design & Applied Arts Master's Degree Schools in the Far Western US Region ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 213 master's degrees in design & applied arts during the 2022-2023 academic year.

What's on this page: * Our Methodology

• Best Master’s Degree Schools List

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

The design master's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality design program can vary widely even among the top schools. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:

Quality Overall Is Important

The overall quality of a master'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 consider a school's overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking which itself looks at a collection of different factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.

Average Earnings

To determine the overall quality of a graduate school, one factor we look at is the average early-career salary of those receiving their master's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their master's degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.

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 - The number of design & applied arts students who choose to seek a master's degree at the school.
• 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 easy is it for design & applied arts to pay back their student loans after receiving their master's degree.
• 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 master's degree.

One Size Does Not Fit All

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 Design & Applied Arts Master's Degree Schools in the Far Western US Region list to help you make the college decision.

Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Design & Applied Arts in the Far Western US Region

The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing a master's degree in design & applied arts.

Top Far Western US Region Schools for a Master's in Design

1

University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA

32 Annual Graduates

It's hard to beat University of Southern California if you want to pursue a master's degree in design & applied arts. Located in the large city of Los Angeles, USC is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population.More information about a master’s in design & applied arts from University of Southern California

2

University of California - Los Angeles
Los Angeles, CA

11 Annual Graduates

It's difficult to beat University of California - Los Angeles if you want to pursue a master's degree in design & applied arts. UCLA is a very large public university located in the large city of Los Angeles.More information about a master’s in design & applied arts from University of California - Los Angeles

3

California College of the Arts
San Francisco, CA

36 Annual Graduates

It's hard to beat California College of the Arts if you want to pursue a master's degree in design & applied arts. Located in the city of San Francisco, California College of the Arts is a private not-for-profit college with a small student population.More information about a master’s in design & applied arts from California College of the Arts

4

Art Center College of Design
Pasadena, CA

31 Annual Graduates

Art Center College of Design is a great choice for individuals pursuing a master's degree in design & applied arts. Art Center College of Design is a small private not-for-profit college located in the midsize city of Pasadena.More information about a master’s in design & applied arts from Art Center College of Design

5

Academy of Art University
San Francisco, CA

51 Annual Graduates

$38,358 Median Starting Salary

Academy of Art University is a moderately-sized private for-profit university located in the large city of San Francisco.

Students who graduate with their master's from the design program report average early career income of $38,358.

More information about a master’s in design & applied arts from Academy of Art University

6

University of Oregon
Eugene, OR

14 Annual Graduates

Located in the medium-sized city of Eugene, UO is a public university with a very large student population.More information about a master’s in design & applied arts from University of Oregon

7

Pacific Northwest College of Art
Portland, OR

10 Annual Graduates

Located in the city of Portland, Pacific Northwest College of Art is a private not-for-profit college with a fairly small student population.More information about a master’s in design & applied arts from Pacific Northwest College of Art

Best Design & Applied Arts Colleges by State

Explore the best design & applied arts colleges for a specific state in the Far Western US Region .

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
California	253	193
Washington	183	6
Oregon	158	18
Nevada	105	0

View All Rankings >

Rankings in Majors Related to Design

Design & Applied Arts is one of 10 different types of Visual & Performing Arts programs to choose from.

Design Focus Areas

Major	Annual Graduates
Visual Communications	57
Other Design & Applied Arts	45
Graphic Design	32
Illustration	26
Game & Interactive Media Design	25
Commercial & Advertising Art	18
Fashion Design	7
Interior Design	3

Most Popular Related Majors

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Film, Video & Photographic Arts	890
Music	705
Fine & Studio Arts	446
Drama & Theater Arts	313
Arts & Media Management	76
General Visual & Performing Arts	54
Dance	53
Other Visual Art	7

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.