2025 Best Design & Applied Arts Master's Degree Schools in New York

Design & Applied Arts is above average in terms of popularity with it being the #72 most popular master's degree program in the country. So, you have a fair amount of options to choose from when looking for a school.

For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 5 schools in New York to determine which ones were the best for design & applied arts students pursuing a master's degree. Combined, these schools handed out 361 master's degrees in design & applied arts to qualified students.

Jump to one of the following sections: * Our Methodology

• Best Master’s Degree Schools List

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

Your choice of design & applied arts for getting your master's degree school matters. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:

Overall Quality Is a Must

A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.

Average Early-Career Salaries

Average early-career salary of those graduating with their master's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. After all, your master'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

In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:

• Major Focus - How much a school focuses on design & applied arts students vs. other majors.
• Major Demand - How many other design & applied arts students want to attend this school to pursue a master's degree.
• Educational Resources - The amount of money and other resources allocated to students while they are pursuing their degree. These resources include such things as number of students per instructor and education expenditures per student.
• Student Debt - How much debt design & applied arts students go into to obtain their master'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 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.

More Ways to Rank Design & Applied Arts Schools

The design school you choose to invest your time and money in matters. To help you make the decision that is right for you, we've developed a number of major-specific rankings, including this list of the Best Design & Applied Arts Master's Degree Schools in New York.

Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Design & Applied Arts in New York

Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a master's degree in design & applied arts.

Top New York Schools for a Master's in Design

1

Pratt Institute - Main
Brooklyn, NY

122 Annual Graduates

$45,720 Median Starting Salary

It is difficult to beat Pratt Institute - Main if you want to pursue a master's degree in design & applied arts. Located in the city of Brooklyn, Pratt Institute is a private not-for-profit school with a medium-sized student population.

Master's recipients from the design & applied arts major at Pratt Institute - Main make $8,798 more than the average college grad in this field shortly after graduation.

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

2

The New School
New York, NY

91 Annual Graduates

$39,393 Median Starting Salary

It's hard to beat The New School if you want to pursue a master's degree in design & applied arts. New School University is a medium-sized private not-for-profit school located in the city of New York.

Those design & applied arts students who get their master's degree from The New School earn $2,471 more than the average design graduate.

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

3

Rochester Institute of Technology
Rochester, NY

22 Annual Graduates

Any student pursuing a degree in a master's degree in design & applied arts has to check out Rochester Institute of Technology. RIT is a large private not-for-profit school located in the suburb of Rochester.More information about a master’s in design & applied arts from Rochester Institute of Technology

4

School of Visual Arts
New York, NY

25 Annual Graduates

$48,325 Median Starting Salary

School of Visual Arts is a great decision for students pursuing a master's degree in design & applied arts. Located in the city of New York, SVA is a private for-profit school with a small student population.

Those design & applied arts students who get their master's degree from School of Visual Arts earn $11,403 more than the typical design grad.

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

5

Fashion Institute of Technology
New York, NY

30 Annual Graduates

Located in the city of New York, FIT SUNY is a public school with a moderately-sized student population.More information about a master’s in design & applied arts from Fashion Institute of Technology

Best Design & Applied Arts Colleges in the Middle Atlantic Region

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

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

View All Rankings >

Design & Applied Arts Related Rankings by Major

One of 10 majors within the Visual & Performing Arts area of study, Design & Applied Arts has other similar majors worth exploring.

Design Concentrations

Major	Annual Graduates
Interior Design	139
Industrial Design	61
Illustration	50
Visual Communications	45
Fashion Design	45
Other Design & Applied Arts	15
Game & Interactive Media Design	6

Majors Similar to Design

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Music	907
Fine & Studio Arts	656
Film, Video & Photographic Arts	340
Drama & Theater Arts	330
Other Visual Art	227
Arts & Media Management	129
Dance	43
General Visual & Performing Arts	31

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.