If you plan on getting your master's degree in fine & studio arts, you won't be alone since the degree program is ranked #58 in the country in terms of popularity. This means you won't have too much trouble finding schools that offer the degree.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 3 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Fine & Studio Arts Master's Degree Schools in Pennsylvania ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 120 master's degrees in fine & studio arts during the 2022-2023 academic year.
Choosing a Great Fine & Studio Arts School for Your Master's Degree
The fine arts master's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. 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 make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
Average Earnings
To determine the overall quality of a graduate school, one factor we look at is the average early-career salary of those receiving their master's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their master's degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.
Other Factors We Consider
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
Major Focus - How much a school focuses on fine & studio arts students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - The number of fine & studio arts students who choose to seek a master's degree at the school.
Educational Resources - The amount of money and other resources allocated to students while they are pursuing their degree. These resources include such things as number of students per instructor and education expenditures per student.
Student Debt - How much debt fine & studio arts students go into to obtain their master'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 fine & studio arts related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for fine & studio arts students working on their master's degree.
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Fine & Studio Arts Master's Degree Schools in Pennsylvania ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Fine & Studio Arts in Pennsylvania
The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing a master's degree in fine & studio arts.
Top Pennsylvania Schools for a Master's in Fine Arts
University of Pennsylvania is a good choice for individuals pursuing a master's degree in fine & studio arts. Located in the city of Philadelphia, UPenn is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
Students who graduate with their master's from the fine arts program state that they receive average early career earnings of $30,417.
It's difficult to beat Temple University if you want to pursue a master's degree in fine & studio arts. Located in the large city of Philadelphia, Temple is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Soon after graduation, fine arts master's recipients generally make around $27,007 at the beginning of their careers.
It is difficult to beat Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts if you want to pursue a master's degree in fine & studio arts. Located in the city of Philadelphia, PAFA is a private not-for-profit school with a small student population.
Students who graduate with their master's from the fine arts program report average early career earnings of $24,994.
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).
The fine arts master's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
