Ranked #19 in popularity, design & applied arts is one of the most sought-after associate degree programs in the nation. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 3 schools in California to determine which ones were the best for design & applied arts students pursuing a associate degree. Combined, these schools handed out 1,151 associate degrees in design & applied arts to qualified students.
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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. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
Quality Overall Is Important
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.
Average Earnings
One measure we use to determine the quality of a school is to look at the average salary of associate graduates during the early years of their career. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their associate 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 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 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 associate degree.
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 Associate Degree Schools in California list to help you make the college decision.
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Featured Design & Applied Arts Programs
Learn about start dates, transferring credits, availability of financial aid, and more by contacting the universities below.
Take the first step toward a career of visual expression and doing what you love with this online associate degree from Southern New Hampshire University.
FIDM/Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising - Los Angeles is a good decision for students interested in an associate degree in design & applied arts. Located in the large city of Los Angeles, FIDM Los Angeles is a private for-profit school with a small student population.
After graduation, design associate recipients usually make an average of $24,393 in their early careers.
Academy of Art University is a great decision for students pursuing an associate degree in design & applied arts. Academy of Art University is a medium-sized private for-profit university located in the city of San Francisco.
Associate graduates who receive their degree from the design program earn an average of $26,478 for their early career.
Interior Designers Institute is a great option for individuals interested in an associate degree in design & applied arts. Interior Designers Institute is a fairly small private for-profit school located in the city of Newport Beach.
Design & Applied Arts associate degree recipients from Interior Designers Institute receive an earnings boost of around $23,622 over the typical income of design & applied arts graduates.
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.
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. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors: