2025 Best Design & Applied Arts Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Middle Atlantic Region

Design & Applied Arts is of the hottest bachelor's degree programs in the United States, coming in as the #27 most popular major in the country. This means there are lots of options to choose from when you decide to get your degree.

College Factual reviewed 56 schools in the Middle Atlantic Region to determine which ones were the best for bachelor's degree seekers in the field of design & applied arts. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 4,200 bachelor's degrees in design & applied arts during the 2022-2023 academic year.

What's on this page: * Our Methodology

• Best Bachelor’s Degree Schools List

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

Your choice of design & applied arts for getting your bachelor's degree school matters. 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

The overall quality of a bachelor's degree school is important to ensure a quality education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To take this into account we consider a college's overall Best Colleges 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.

Early-Career Earnings

One measure we use to determine the quality of a school is to look at the average salary of bachelor's graduates during the early years of their career. That is, everyone wants their bachelor's 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 - How many other design & applied arts students want to attend this school to pursue a bachelor's degree.
• 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 bachelor'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 colleges for design & applied arts students working on their bachelor'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 Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Middle Atlantic Region list to help you make the college decision.

In addition to our rankings, you can take two colleges and compare them based on the criteria that matters most to you in our unique tool, College Combat. Test it out when you get a chance! You may also want to bookmark the link and share it with others who are trying to make the college decision.

Best Schools for Bachelor’s Students to Study Design & Applied Arts in the Middle Atlantic Region

The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing a bachelor's degree in design & applied arts. Only those schools that rank in the top 20% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.

11 Top Middle Atlantic Region Schools for a Bachelor's in Design

1

Fashion Institute of Technology
New York, NY

633 Annual Graduates

$27,023 Median Starting Salary

$34,483 Median Student Debt

Any student pursuing a degree in a bachelor's degree in design & applied arts needs to check out Fashion Institute of Technology. FIT SUNY is a medium-sized public school located in the large city of New York.

Soon after graduation, design bachelor's recipients generally make about $27,023 at the beginning of their careers.

More information about a bachelor’s in design & applied arts from Fashion Institute of Technology

2

Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA

42 Annual Graduates

$66,274 Median Starting Salary

It is hard to beat Carnegie Mellon University if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in design & applied arts. Carnegie Mellon is a large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Pittsburgh.

Bachelor's recipients from the design & applied arts degree program at Carnegie Mellon University get $34,206 above the typical college grad in this field when they enter the workforce.

More information about a bachelor’s in design & applied arts from Carnegie Mellon University

3

Syracuse University
Syracuse, NY

101 Annual Graduates

$46,181 Median Starting Salary

$53,296 Median Student Debt

Syracuse University is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a bachelor's degree in design & applied arts. Located in the midsize city of Syracuse, Syracuse is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population.

Those design & applied arts students who get their bachelor's degree from Syracuse University earn $14,113 more than the typical design grad.

More information about a bachelor’s in design & applied arts from Syracuse University

4

Pratt Institute - Main
Brooklyn, NY

369 Annual Graduates

$36,040 Median Starting Salary

$98,854 Median Student Debt

Pratt Institute - Main is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a bachelor's degree in design & applied arts. Pratt Institute is a moderately-sized private not-for-profit school located in the city of Brooklyn.

Bachelor's recipients from the design & applied arts program at Pratt Institute - Main make $3,972 more than the standard college grad in this field when they enter the workforce.

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

5

Drexel University
Philadelphia, PA

142 Annual Graduates

$38,154 Median Starting Salary

$69,362 Median Student Debt

Drexel is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Philadelphia.

Those design & applied arts students who get their bachelor's degree from Drexel University make $6,086 more than the typical design grad.

More information about a bachelor’s in design & applied arts from Drexel University

6

The New School
New York, NY

496 Annual Graduates

$24,804 Median Starting Salary

$78,460 Median Student Debt

Located in the city of New York, New School University is a private not-for-profit school with a medium-sized student population.

Bachelor's graduates who receive their degree from the design program earn around $24,804 in their early career salary.

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

7

Rochester Institute of Technology
Rochester, NY

149 Annual Graduates

$34,709 Median Starting Salary

$50,572 Median Student Debt

Located in the suburb of Rochester, RIT is a private not-for-profit school with a large student population.

Design & Applied Arts bachelor's degree recipients from Rochester Institute of Technology earn a boost of around $2,641 over the typical earnings of design & applied arts graduates.

More information about a bachelor’s in design & applied arts from Rochester Institute of Technology

8

University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA

17 Annual Graduates

UPenn is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Philadelphia.More information about a bachelor’s in design & applied arts from University of Pennsylvania

9

Maryland Institute College of Art
Baltimore, MD

113 Annual Graduates

$27,246 Median Starting Salary

$89,748 Median Student Debt

MICA is a small private not-for-profit college located in the city of Baltimore.

Students who graduate with their bachelor's from the design program state that they receive average early career earnings of $27,246.

More information about a bachelor’s in design & applied arts from Maryland Institute College of Art

10

Thomas Jefferson University
Philadelphia, PA

39 Annual Graduates

$36,433 Median Starting Salary

$55,335 Median Student Debt

Thomas Jefferson University is a moderately-sized private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Philadelphia.

Those design & applied arts students who get their bachelor's degree from Thomas Jefferson University receive $4,365 more than the average design grad.

More information about a bachelor’s in design & applied arts from Thomas Jefferson University

11

Temple University
Philadelphia, PA

65 Annual Graduates

$43,530 Median Starting Salary

Temple is a fairly large public university located in the large city of Philadelphia.

Design & Applied Arts bachelor's degree recipients from Temple University earn a boost of about $11,462 over the average earnings of design & applied arts majors.

More information about a bachelor’s in design & applied arts from Temple University

Honorable Mentions

These are some additional schools worth mentioning that are also great but just didn't quite make the cut to earn our top Best Design & Applied Arts Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Middle Atlantic Region award.

Rank	College	Location
12	University of Delaware	Newark, DE
13	School of Visual Arts	New York, NY
14	Marist College	Poughkeepsie, NY
15	Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute	Troy, NY
16	American University	Washington, DC
17	The University of the Arts	Philadelphia, PA
18	Montclair State University	Montclair, NJ

Best Design & Applied Arts Colleges by State

Explore the best design & applied arts schools for a specific state in the Middle Atlantic Region .

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
New York	275	2,536
Pennsylvania	274	991
Maryland	207	232
New Jersey	193	358
Delaware	130	25
District of Columbia	126	39

View All Rankings >

Rankings in Majors Related to Design

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

Design Focus Areas

Major	Annual Graduates
Fashion Design	791
Graphic Design	780
Illustration	729
Visual Communications	517
Interior Design	403
Other Design & Applied Arts	332
Industrial Design	295
Commercial & Advertising Art	201
Game & Interactive Media Design	108
Commercial Photography	44

Most Popular Majors Related to Design

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Fine & Studio Arts	3,951
Drama & Theater Arts	2,902
Film, Video & Photographic Arts	2,571
Music	2,500
Dance	779
Arts & Media Management	674
General Visual & Performing Arts	481
Other Visual Art	212
Crafts, Folk Art & Artisanry	7

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.