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

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.

In 2025, College Factual analyzed 6 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Design & Applied Arts Bachelor's Degree Schools in Minnesota ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 334 bachelor's degrees in design & applied arts to qualified students.

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. 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 quality education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To take this into account we consider a college'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.

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 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

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 Bachelor's Degree Schools in Minnesota 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 Design & Applied Arts in Minnesota

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

Top Minnesota Schools for a Bachelor's in Design

1

University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
Minneapolis, MN

108 Annual Graduates

$42,462 Median Starting Salary

$24,350 Median Student Debt

University of Minnesota - Twin Cities is one of the best schools in the country for getting a bachelor's degree in design & applied arts. UMN Twin Cities is a fairly large public university located in the large city of Minneapolis.

Those design & applied arts students who get their bachelor's degree from University of Minnesota - Twin Cities earn $7,225 more than the average design grad.

More information about a bachelor’s in design & applied arts from University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

2

Minneapolis College of Art and Design
Minneapolis, MN

58 Annual Graduates

$23,687 Median Starting Salary

$45,270 Median Student Debt

Every student who is interested in a bachelor's degree in design & applied arts needs to take a look at Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Located in the city of Minneapolis, MCAD is a private not-for-profit college with a small student population.

Soon after graduation, design bachelor's recipients typically make around $23,687 in their early careers.

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

3

Minnesota State University - Moorhead
Moorhead, MN

21 Annual Graduates

$38,587 Median Starting Salary

Minnesota State University - Moorhead is a wonderful choice for individuals pursuing a bachelor's degree in design & applied arts. Located in the medium-sized suburb of Moorhead, MSU Moorhead is a public university with a small student population.

Design & Applied Arts bachelor's degree recipients from Minnesota State University - Moorhead receive an earnings boost of approximately $3,350 over the typical income of design & applied arts majors.

More information about a bachelor’s in design & applied arts from Minnesota State University - Moorhead

4

University of Minnesota - Duluth
Duluth, MN

47 Annual Graduates

$31,337 Median Starting Salary

University of Minnesota - Duluth is a good choice for individuals interested in a bachelor's degree in design & applied arts. Located in the city of Duluth, UMN Duluth is a public university with a medium-sized student population.

After graduation, design bachelor's recipients typically earn about $31,337 at the beginning of their careers.

More information about a bachelor’s in design & applied arts from University of Minnesota - Duluth

5

Bemidji State University
Bemidji, MN

18 Annual Graduates

$40,231 Median Starting Salary

Bemidji State University is a small public university located in the town of Bemidji.

Bachelor's recipients from the design & applied arts program at Bemidji State University get $4,994 above the average college graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.

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

6

Saint Cloud State University
Saint Cloud, MN

11 Annual Graduates

$34,627 Median Starting Salary

Located in the city of Saint Cloud, St. Cloud State University is a public university with a large student population.

After graduation, design bachelor's recipients generally earn an average of $34,627 in their early careers.

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

Best Design & Applied Arts Colleges in the Plains States Region

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

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Missouri	228	342
Iowa	197	378
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	142
Commercial & Advertising Art	52
Illustration	45
Interior Design	39
Industrial Design	32
Visual Communications	18
Fashion Design	4
Game & Interactive Media Design	2

Most Popular Majors Related to Design

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Fine & Studio Arts	330
Music	197
Drama & Theater Arts	170
Film, Video & Photographic Arts	119
Arts & Media Management	21
General Visual & Performing Arts	20
Dance	20

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.