2023 Most Focused Master’s Degree Colleges for Design & Applied Arts in Massachusetts
7
Ranked Colleges
77
Degrees Awarded
$39,300
Avg Cost*
With all of the options students have for higher education today, it can be tough to choose which direction to take. College Factual was founded, in part, to help students make the decision as to what would be the best school for them. Our “Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Design Major in Massachusetts” ranking is part of that endeavor.
In 2021-2022, 36,323 people earned their degree in design & applied arts, making the major the 36th most popular in the United States. In , design & applied arts graduates who were awarded their degree in , earned an average of $32,210 and had an average of $24,297 in loans still to pay off.
Across Massachusetts, there were 923 design & applied arts graduates with average earnings and debt of $34,757 and $25,720 respectively. At the master’s degree level specifically, there were 77 design & applied arts graduates with average earnings and debt of $64,127 and $43,515 respectively.
This year’s “Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Design Major in Massachusetts” ranking analyzed 7 colleges that offered a degree in design & applied arts. The colleges and universities that top this list are recognized because their design & applied arts program is one of the largest majors offered at the school.
See our ranking methodology to learn more.
One Size Does Not Fit All
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 “Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Design Major in Massachusetts”.
To further help you make the college decision, we’ve developed a unique tool called College Combat that allows you to compare schools based on the factors that matter the most to you. We encourage you to try it out and pit your favorite colleges and universities head to head! If you don’t have time right now, you can bookmark it for later.
Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Design Major in Massachusetts
The following schools top our list of the Best “Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Design Major in Massachusetts”.
Top 7 Most Focused Master’s Degree Colleges for Design & Applied Arts in Massachusetts
Out of the 7 schools in the Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Design Major in Massachusetts that were part of this year’s ranking, Endicott College landed the #1 spot on the list. Located in Beverly, Massachusetts, this small private not-for-profit school handed out 13 degrees to qualified masters’s design students in 2021-2022.
Students who start out at the school are likely to stick around. The freshman retention rate is 87%. The undergrad student loan default rate at the school is 0.8%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%.
Read more about Design & Applied Arts at Endicott
You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Suffolk University. The school came in at #2 for the Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Design Major in Massachusetts. Suffolk is a medium-sized private not-for-profit school situated in Boston, Massachusetts. It awarded 9 masters’s design degrees in 2021-2022.
The school has an impressive undergrad student loan default rate. It’s only 1.4%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%.
Read full report on Design & Applied Arts at Suffolk
Out of the 7 schools in the Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Design Major in Massachusetts that were part of this year’s ranking, Massachusetts College of Art and Design landed the #3 spot on the list. Boston, Massachusetts is the setting for this small institution of higher learning. The public school handed out masters’s design degrees to 140 students in 2021-2022.
The impressive undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio of 9 to 1 means that students may have more opportunities to work more closely with their professors than they would at other schools. The low undergrad student loan default rate of 2.3% is a good sign that students have an easier time paying off their loans than they might at other schools. For comparison, the national default rate is 10.1%. The school has an excellent freshman retention rate of 86%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year.
Read full report on Design & Applied Arts at Massachusetts College of Art and Design
You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Northeastern University. The school came in at #4 for the Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Design Major in Massachusetts. Northeastern University is a private not-for-profit institution located in Boston, Massachusetts. The school has a large population, and it awarded 24 masters’s degrees in 2021-2022.
The school has an impressive undergrad student loan default rate. It’s only 0.5%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%. With a freshman retention rate of 97%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its undergraduate students.
Read full report on Design & Applied Arts at Northeastern University
You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Boston University. The school came in at #5 for the Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Design Major in Massachusetts. Boston U is a large private not-for-profit school situated in Boston, Massachusetts. It awarded 17 masters’s design degrees in 2021-2022.
The undergrad student loan default rate at the school is 0.5%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%. With a freshman retention rate of 94%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its undergraduate students.
Read more about Design & Applied Arts at Boston U
Harvard University landed the #6 spot on the 2023 Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Design Major in Massachusetts ranking. Harvard is a private not-for-profit institution located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school has a large population, and it awarded 12 masters’s degrees in 2021-2022.
The low undergrad student loan default rate of 0.3% is a good sign that students have an easier time paying off their loans than they might at other schools. For comparison, the national default rate is 10.1%. With a undergrad student-to-faculty ratio of 7 to 1, it’s easy to see that the school is committed to helping their undergraduates succeed. With a freshman retention rate of 96%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its undergraduate students.
Read full report on Design & Applied Arts at Harvard
University of Massachusetts - Dartmouth came in at #7 in this year’s edition of the Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Design Major in Massachusetts ranking. University of Massachusetts - Dartmouth is located in North Dartmouth, Massachusetts and, has a medium-sized student population. In 2021-2022, this school awarded 2 masters’s design degrees to qualified students.
The school has an impressive undergrad student loan default rate. It’s only 1.7%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%.
Read full report on Design & Applied Arts at University of Massachusetts - Dartmouth
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Notes and References
References
- 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 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).
- Information about the national average student loan default rate is from the U.S. Department of Education and refers to data about the 2016 borrower cohort tracking period for which the cohort default rate (CDR) was 10.1%.
Read more about our data sources and methodologies
- *Avg Salary and Avg 4-Year Grad Rate are for the top schools only.
- Some schools otherwise deserving of recognition may have been removed from this ranking in the event that new data identified post-publication warranted it, or at the request of the school.