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

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 18 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Design & Applied Arts Bachelor's Degree Schools in Pennsylvania ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 929 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. 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 school's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a combination of different 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 schools for design & applied arts students working on their bachelor's degree.

One Size Does Not Fit All

Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Design & Applied Arts Bachelor's Degree Schools in Pennsylvania list, to help you choose the best school for you.

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 Pennsylvania

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

10 Top Pennsylvania Schools for a Bachelor's in Design

1

Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA

42 Annual Graduates

$66,274 Median Starting Salary

Carnegie Mellon University is a good option for individuals pursuing a bachelor's degree in design & applied arts. Carnegie Mellon is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Pittsburgh.

Bachelor's recipients from the design & applied arts program at Carnegie Mellon University make $30,798 more than the average graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.

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

2

Drexel University
Philadelphia, PA

142 Annual Graduates

$38,154 Median Starting Salary

$69,362 Median Student Debt

Drexel University is a wonderful choice for students pursuing a bachelor's degree in design & applied arts. Drexel is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Philadelphia.

Bachelor's recipients from the design & applied arts major at Drexel University earn $2,678 more than the typical graduate in this field shortly after graduation.

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

3

University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA

17 Annual Graduates

University of Pennsylvania is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a bachelor's degree in design & applied arts. UPenn is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Philadelphia.More information about a bachelor’s in design & applied arts from University of Pennsylvania

4

Thomas Jefferson University
Philadelphia, PA

39 Annual Graduates

$36,433 Median Starting Salary

$55,335 Median Student Debt

Thomas Jefferson University is a wonderful choice for students interested in a bachelor's degree in design & applied arts. Thomas Jefferson University is a medium-sized private not-for-profit university located in the city of Philadelphia.

Students who graduate with their bachelor's from the design program report average early career earnings of $36,433.

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

5

Temple University
Philadelphia, PA

65 Annual Graduates

$43,530 Median Starting Salary

Temple is a fairly large public university located in the city of Philadelphia.

Bachelor's recipients from the design & applied arts degree program at Temple University make $8,054 more than the typical graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.

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

6

The University of the Arts
Philadelphia, PA

51 Annual Graduates

$21,765 Median Starting Salary

$54,360 Median Student Debt

UArts is a small private not-for-profit university located in the city of Philadelphia.

Soon after graduating, design bachelor's recipients typically make around $21,765 at the beginning of their careers.

More information about a bachelor’s in design & applied arts from The University of the Arts

7

Kutztown University of Pennsylvania
Kutztown, PA

56 Annual Graduates

$40,286 Median Starting Salary

Located in the fringe town of Kutztown, Kutztown University is a public university with a medium-sized student population.

Bachelor's recipients from the design & applied arts degree program at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania earn $4,810 above the average college grad with the same degree shortly after graduation.

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

8

Mercyhurst University
Erie, PA

23 Annual Graduates

$28,267 Median Starting Salary

Located in the city of Erie, Mercyhurst is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population.

Bachelor's students who receive their degree from the design program make around $28,267 in the first couple years of working.

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

9

Moore College of Art and Design
Philadelphia, PA

48 Annual Graduates

$20,587 Median Starting Salary

$76,597 Median Student Debt

Moore College is a small private not-for-profit college located in the city of Philadelphia.

Bachelor's students who receive their degree from the design program earn about $20,587 in the first couple years of working.

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

10

Marywood University
Scranton, PA

13 Annual Graduates

$25,727 Median Starting Salary

Marywood is a small private not-for-profit university located in the city of Scranton.

Bachelor's students who receive their degree from the design program earn around $25,727 in their early career salary.

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

Best Design & Applied Arts Colleges in the Middle Atlantic Region

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

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
New York	275	2,536
Maryland	207	232
New Jersey	193	358
Delaware	130	25
District of Columbia	126	39

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	324
Visual Communications	127
Fashion Design	89
Other Design & Applied Arts	89
Commercial & Advertising Art	86
Illustration	84
Interior Design	76
Game & Interactive Media Design	47
Industrial Design	7

Most Popular Majors Related to Design

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Fine & Studio Arts	806
Music	624
Drama & Theater Arts	623
Film, Video & Photographic Arts	517
Dance	244
Arts & Media Management	158
General Visual & Performing Arts	131
Crafts, Folk Art & Artisanry	7
Other Visual Art	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.