2025 Best General Visual & Performing Arts Schools in the Plains States Region
6Colleges in the Plains States Region
364Visual Arts Degrees Awarded
$27,435Avg Early-Career Salary
If you plan on majoring in general visual & performing arts, you won't be alone since the degree program is ranked #116 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 6 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best General Visual & Performing Arts Schools in the Plains States Region ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 364 degrees in general visual & performing arts annually.
Choosing a Great General Visual & Performing Arts School
Your choice of general visual & performing 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 general visual & performing 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 General Visual & Performing Arts Degree Level
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best General Visual & Performing Arts Schools in the Plains States Region ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
You can also filter this list by location to find schools closer to you.
In addition to College Factual's rankings, you may want to take a look at College Combat, our unique tool that lets you pit your favorite schools head-to-head and compare how they rate on factors that most interest you.
When you have some time, check it out - you may want to bookmark the link so you don't forget it.
Best Schools for General Visual & Performing Arts in the Plains States Region
Although we recommend filtering by degree level first, you can view the list below to see which schools give the educational experience for the visual arts degree levels they offer.
It is hard to beat Iowa State University if you wish to pursue a degree in general visual & performing arts. Located in the city of Ames, Iowa State is a public university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #88 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means Iowa State is a great university overall.
There were about 17 general visual & performing arts students who graduated with this degree at Iowa State in the most recent year we have data available.
Every student pursuing a degree in general visual & performing arts has to look into University of Nebraska - Lincoln. UNL is a fairly large public university located in the large city of Lincoln. A Best Colleges rank of #207 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means UNL is a great university overall.
There were about 9 general visual & performing arts students who graduated with this degree at UNL in the most recent year we have data available.
It's hard to beat University of Missouri - Columbia if you want to pursue a degree in general visual & performing arts. Mizzou is a fairly large public university located in the midsize city of Columbia. A Best Colleges rank of #131 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means Mizzou is a great university overall.
There were approximately 46 general visual & performing arts students who graduated with this degree at Mizzou in the most recent data year. General Visual & Performing Arts degree recipients from University of Missouri - Columbia earn a boost of around $2,340 above the typical earnings of general visual & performing arts graduates.
Wichita State University is a good choice for students pursuing a degree in general visual & performing arts. WSU is a large public university located in the large city of Wichita. This university ranks 15th out of 44 schools for overall quality in the state of Kansas.
There were about 91 general visual & performing arts students who graduated with this degree at WSU in the most recent data year. Students who receive their degree from the visual arts program earn about $20,013 in their early career salary.
Located in the city of Springfield, Missouri State is a public university with a fairly large student population. This university ranks 10th out of 48 colleges for overall quality in the state of Missouri.
There were roughly 16 general visual & performing arts students who graduated with this degree at Missouri State in the most recent data year.
Located in the small city of Cape Girardeau, Southeast Missouri State University is a public university with a moderately-sized student population. This university ranks 23rd out of 48 schools for overall quality in the state of Missouri.
There were roughly 49 general visual & performing arts students who graduated with this degree at Southeast Missouri State University in the most recent data year. Students who graduate with their degree from the visual arts program report average early career wages of $26,668.
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 general visual & performing 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 general visual & performing arts schools, we combine our degree-level rankings, weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each level.
