2025 Best General Visual & Performing Arts Schools in Illinois

A degree in general visual & performing arts is more popular than many other degrees. In fact, it ranks #116 out of 395 on popularity of all such degrees in the nation. So, you have a fair amount of options to choose from when looking for a school.

College Factual looked at 2 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best General Visual & Performing Arts Schools in Illinois ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 67 degrees in general visual & performing arts annually.

Jump to one of the following sections: * Degree-Level Rankings

• Best Overall General Visual & Performing Arts Schools List

Pick Your General Visual & Performing Arts Degree Level

The visual arts school you choose to invest your time and money in matters. To help you make the decision that is right for you, we've developed a number of major-specific rankings, including this list of the Best General Visual & Performing Arts Schools in Illinois. 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.

Read more about College Factual's methodology.

Best Schools for General Visual & Performing Arts in Illinois

If you aren't interested in a particular degree level and want to know which schools are the overall best at delivering an education for the visual arts degrees they offer, see the list below.

Top Illinois Schools in Visual Arts

1

Elmhurst University
Elmhurst, IL

Bachelor's Degree Highest Degree Type

64.3% Growth in Graduates

Elmhurst University is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a degree in general visual & performing arts. Elmhurst is a small private not-for-profit university located in the large suburb of Elmhurst.More information about a degree in general visual & performing arts from Elmhurst University

2

University of Illinois at Chicago
Chicago, IL

Bachelor's Degree Highest Degree Type

Any student pursuing a degree in general visual & performing arts has to check out University of Illinois at Chicago. UIC is a very large public university located in the city of Chicago.More information about a degree in general visual & performing arts from University of Illinois at Chicago

Best General Visual & Performing Arts Colleges in the Great Lakes Region

Explore all the Best General Visual & Performing Arts Schools in the Great Lakes Area or other specific states within that region.

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Michigan	322	10
Ohio	314	67
Indiana	294	26
Wisconsin	273	78

View All Rankings >

General Visual & Performing Arts Related Rankings by Major

General Visual & Performing Arts is one of 10 different types of Visual & Performing Arts programs to choose from.

Visual Arts Focus Areas

Major	Annual Graduates
Visual & Performing Arts	38
Digital Arts	29

View All Visual Arts Focus Areas >

Most Popular Related Majors

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Fine & Studio Arts	1,595
Design & Applied Arts	1,143
Music	995
Drama & Theater Arts	916
Film, Video & Photographic Arts	479
Arts & Media Management	278
Dance	46
Other Visual Art	34

View All Visual Arts Related Majors >

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).
• Credit for the banner image above goes to Sven Mandel / CC-BY-SA-4.0.

More about our data sources and methodologies.