2025 Best Design & Applied Arts Associate Degree Schools in Arizona

If you pursue a associate degree in design & applied arts, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #19 most popular program in the country. This means there are lots of options to choose from when you decide to get your degree.

College Factual looked at 5 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Design & Applied Arts Associate Degree Schools in Arizona ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 201 associate degrees in design & applied arts during the 2021-2022 academic year.

What's on this page: * Our Methodology

• Best Associate Degree Schools List

Choosing a Great Design & Applied Arts School for Your Associate Degree

The design associate 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. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.

A Great Overall School

A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To take this into account we consider a college's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a collection of different factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.

Early-Career Earnings

Average early-career salary of those graduating with their associate degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. That is, everyone wants their associate 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 - The number of design & applied arts students who choose to seek a associate 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 much debt design & applied arts students go into to obtain their associate 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 associate 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 Associate Degree Schools in Arizona ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.

Best Schools for Associate Students to Study Design & Applied Arts in Arizona

The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing an associate degree in design & applied arts.

Top Arizona Schools for an Associate in Design

1

Scottsdale Community College
Scottsdale, AZ

44 Annual Graduates

$38,676 Median Starting Salary

Scottsdale Community College is one of the best schools in the country for getting an associate degree in design & applied arts. Scottsdale Community College is a moderately-sized public college located in the rural area of Scottsdale.

Those design & applied arts students who get their associate degree from Scottsdale Community College earn $9,701 more than the typical design grad.

More information about a associate in design & applied arts from Scottsdale Community College

2

Phoenix College
Phoenix, AZ

45 Annual Graduates

It is difficult to beat Phoenix College if you wish to pursue an associate degree in design & applied arts. Phoenix College is a fairly large public college located in the city of Phoenix.More information about a associate in design & applied arts from Phoenix College

3

Glendale Community College
Glendale, AZ

10 Annual Graduates

It's hard to beat Glendale Community College if you wish to pursue an associate degree in design & applied arts. Glendale Community College is a fairly large public college located in the suburb of Glendale.More information about a associate in design & applied arts from Glendale Community College

4

University of Advancing Technology
Tempe, AZ

13 Annual Graduates

University of Advancing Technology is one of the finest schools in the country for getting an associate degree in design & applied arts. Located in the city of Tempe, University of Advancing Technology is a private for-profit university with a fairly small student population.More information about a associate in design & applied arts from University of Advancing Technology

5

Sessions College for Professional Design
Tempe, AZ

18 Annual Graduates

$19,275 Median Starting Salary

Sessions College is a fairly small private for-profit college located in the medium-sized city of Tempe.

Soon after graduating, design associate recipients usually earn around $19,275 in the first five years of their career.

More information about a associate in design & applied arts from Sessions College for Professional Design

Best Design & Applied Arts Colleges in the Southwest Region

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

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Texas	200	464
New Mexico	140	30
Oklahoma	136	42

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
Graphic Design	65
Interior Design	59
Game & Interactive Media Design	32
Visual Communications	27
Illustration	7
Commercial & Advertising Art	4
Commercial Photography	3
Fashion Design	3
Industrial Design	1

Most Popular Majors Related to Design

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Fine & Studio Arts	97
Film, Video & Photographic Arts	62
General Visual & Performing Arts	59
Drama & Theater Arts	42
Music	35
Dance	30
Arts & Media Management	18

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.