2025 Best Design & Applied Arts Master's Degree Schools in the Middle Atlantic 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 Middle Atlantic Region ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 658 master's degrees in design & applied arts during the 2021-2022 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 take this into account we include a school's overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree 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.

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 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 master'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 Master's Degree Schools in the Middle Atlantic Region ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.

Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Design & Applied Arts in the Middle Atlantic Region

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

Top Middle Atlantic Region Schools for a Master's in Design

1

Maryland Institute College of Art
Baltimore, MD

210 Annual Graduates

$70,027 Median Starting Salary

Maryland Institute College of Art is one of the best schools in the country for getting a master's degree in design & applied arts. MICA is a small private not-for-profit college located in the city of Baltimore.

Those design & applied arts students who get their master's degree from Maryland Institute College of Art earn $12,967 more than the typical design student.

More information about a master’s in design & applied arts from Maryland Institute College of Art

2

Pratt Institute - Main
Brooklyn, NY

122 Annual Graduates

$45,720 Median Starting Salary

Any student who is interested in a master's degree in design & applied arts has to check out Pratt Institute - Main. Pratt Institute is a moderately-sized private not-for-profit school located in the city of Brooklyn.

After graduation, design master's recipients typically earn about $45,720 in their early careers.

More information about a master’s in design & applied arts from Pratt Institute - Main

3

The New School
New York, NY

91 Annual Graduates

$39,393 Median Starting Salary

Every student pursuing a degree in a master's degree in design & applied arts has to look into The New School. Located in the large city of New York, New School University is a private not-for-profit school with a moderately-sized student population.

After graduation, design master's recipients typically make around $39,393 at the beginning of their careers.

More information about a master’s in design & applied arts from The New School

4

Rochester Institute of Technology
Rochester, NY

22 Annual Graduates

Rochester Institute of Technology is a good choice for individuals interested in a master's degree in design & applied arts. Located in the suburb of Rochester, RIT is a private not-for-profit school with a fairly large student population.More information about a master’s in design & applied arts from Rochester Institute of Technology

5

School of Visual Arts
New York, NY

25 Annual Graduates

$48,325 Median Starting Salary

SVA is a small private for-profit school located in the large city of New York.

Master's students who receive their degree from the design program earn an average of $48,325 in their early career salary.

More information about a master’s in design & applied arts from School of Visual Arts

6

Drexel University
Philadelphia, PA

9 Annual Graduates

Drexel is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Philadelphia.More information about a master’s in design & applied arts from Drexel University

7

Fashion Institute of Technology
New York, NY

30 Annual Graduates

FIT SUNY is a medium-sized public school located in the city of New York.More information about a master’s in design & applied arts from Fashion Institute of Technology

Best Design & Applied Arts Colleges by State

Explore the best design & applied arts schools for a specific state in the Middle Atlantic Region .

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
New York	261	380
Pennsylvania	248	73
Maryland	193	207
New Jersey	188	0
District of Columbia	154	32
Delaware	109	3

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
Other Design & Applied Arts	218
Interior Design	149
Illustration	76
Visual Communications	71
Industrial Design	71
Fashion Design	60
Game & Interactive Media Design	9
Graphic Design	3
Commercial & Advertising Art	1

Most Popular Related Majors

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Music	1,372
Fine & Studio Arts	938
Drama & Theater Arts	452
Film, Video & Photographic Arts	434
Arts & Media Management	241
Other Visual Art	235
Dance	82
General Visual & Performing Arts	45

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.