2025 Best Film, Video & Photographic Arts Schools in Illinois
4Colleges in Illinois
479Film Degrees Awarded
$25,982Avg Early-Career Salary
Film, Video & Photographic Arts is above average in terms of popularity with it being the #62 most popular degree program in the country. So, you have a fair amount of options to choose from when looking for a school.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 4 schools in Illinois to determine which ones were the best for film, video & photographic arts students pursuing a degree. Combined, these schools handed out 479 degrees in film, video & photographic arts to qualified students.
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.
Learn to create a striking portfolio and hone the skills you need to succeed in the world of professional photography with this online digital photography degree from Southern New Hampshire University.
Choosing a Great Film, Video & Photographic Arts School
Your choice of film, video & photographic arts school matters, so we have put together these rankings to help you make your decision. In order to come up with a best overall ranking for film, video & photographic arts schools, we combine our degree-level rankings, weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each level.
You may want to choose one of the degree levels below to find the schools of most interest to you.
Pick Your Film, Video & Photographic Arts Degree Level
Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Film, Video & Photographic Arts Schools in Illinois list, to help you choose the best school for you.
More interested in schools in a specific area of the country? Filter this list by region or state.
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.
Go ahead and give it a try, or bookmark the link so you can check it out later.
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.
Learn to create a striking portfolio and hone the skills you need to succeed in the world of professional photography with this online digital photography degree from Southern New Hampshire University.
Best Schools for Film, Video & Photographic Arts in Illinois
Although we recommend filtering by degree level first, you can view the list below to see which schools give the educational experience for the film degree levels they offer.
Columbia College Chicago is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a degree in film, video & photographic arts. Located in the city of Chicago, Columbia is a private not-for-profit college with a moderately-sized student population. This college ranks 9th out of 85 colleges for overall quality in the state of Illinois.
There were about 198 film, video & photographic arts students who graduated with this degree at Columbia in the most recent year we have data available. After graduating, film degree recipients typically make an average of $24,415 in the first five years of their career.
Northwestern University is a good choice for students pursuing a degree in film, video & photographic arts. Northwestern is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Evanston. A Best Colleges rank of #5 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means Northwestern is a great university overall.
There were about 14 film, video & photographic arts students who graduated with this degree at Northwestern in the most recent data year.
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.
It is difficult to beat DePaul University if you want to pursue a degree in film, video & photographic arts. Located in the large city of Chicago, DePaul is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #135 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means DePaul is a great university overall.
There were about 198 film, video & photographic arts students who graduated with this degree at DePaul in the most recent year we have data available. Students who graduate with their degree from the film program state that they receive average early career earnings of $25,671.
It is hard to beat Southern Illinois University Carbondale if you wish to pursue a degree in film, video & photographic arts. SIUC is a fairly large public university located in the town of Carbondale. This university ranks 36th out of 85 colleges for overall quality in the state of Illinois.
There were approximately 26 film, video & photographic arts students who graduated with this degree at SIUC in the most recent year we have data available. Graduates who receive their degree from the film program earn about $21,322 in the first couple years of working.
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).
Your choice of film, video & photographic arts school matters, so we have put together these rankings to help you make your decision. In order to come up with a best overall ranking for film, video & photographic arts schools, we combine our degree-level rankings, weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each level.
