2025 Best Design & Applied Arts Master's Degree Schools in the Southeast Region

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.

College Factual reviewed 5 schools in the Southeast Region to determine which ones were the best for master's degree seekers in the field of design & applied arts. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 370 master's degrees in design & applied arts during the 2022-2023 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. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:

Overall Quality Is a Must

The overall quality of a master'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 consider 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 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

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 full 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

When choosing the right school for you, it's important to arm yourself with all the facts you can. To that end, we've created a number of major-specific rankings, including this Best Design & Applied Arts Master's Degree Schools in the Southeast Region list to help you make the college decision.

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

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

Top Southeast Region Schools for a Master's in Design

1

Savannah College of Art and Design
Savannah, GA

151 Annual Graduates

$40,987 Median Starting Salary

Savannah College of Art and Design is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a master's degree in design & applied arts. Located in the medium-sized city of Savannah, SCAD is a private not-for-profit college with a fairly large student population.

Master's graduates who receive their degree from the design program earn around $40,987 in their early career salary.

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

2

North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC

10 Annual Graduates

$52,950 Median Starting Salary

It is hard to beat North Carolina State University if you wish to pursue a master's degree in design & applied arts. Located in the large city of Raleigh, NC State is a public university with a very large student population.

Master's recipients from the design & applied arts major at North Carolina State University make $5,078 more than the average college grad in this field when they enter the workforce.

More information about a master’s in design & applied arts from North Carolina State University

3

Liberty University
Lynchburg, VA

78 Annual Graduates

$50,570 Median Starting Salary

Liberty University is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a master's degree in design & applied arts. Liberty University is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the small city of Lynchburg.

Those design & applied arts students who get their master's degree from Liberty University make $2,698 more than the standard design student.

More information about a master’s in design & applied arts from Liberty University

4

Furman University
Greenville, SC

10 Annual Graduates

Furman University is a wonderful choice for individuals interested in a master's degree in design & applied arts. Furman is a small private not-for-profit university located in the large suburb of Greenville.More information about a master’s in design & applied arts from Furman University

5

Full Sail University
Winter Park, FL

56 Annual Graduates

$41,119 Median Starting Salary

Full Sail University is a fairly large private for-profit university located in the large suburb of Winter Park.

After graduation, design master's recipients usually earn about $41,119 in the first five years of their career.

More information about a master’s in design & applied arts from Full Sail University

Best Design & Applied Arts Colleges by State

Explore the best design & applied arts colleges for a specific state in the Southeast Region .

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Florida	208	105
Georgia	190	259
Virginia	182	113
North Carolina	178	22
Tennessee	166	1
Alabama	151	16
Kentucky	147	2
South Carolina	146	12
Mississippi	145	4
Arkansas	121	0

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
Visual Communications	156
Interior Design	78
Illustration	70
Fashion Design	27
Graphic Design	21
Other Design & Applied Arts	10
Industrial Design	8

Majors Similar to Design

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Music	877
Fine & Studio Arts	407
Drama & Theater Arts	393
Film, Video & Photographic Arts	343
Arts & Media Management	316
General Visual & Performing Arts	108
Dance	32
Other Visual Art	4

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.