2025 Best Visual & Performing Arts Bachelor's Degree Schools in District of Columbia

a bachelor's degree in visual & performing arts is more popular than many other degrees. In fact, it ranks #9 out of 38 on popularity of all such degrees in the nation. As a result, there are many college that offer the degree, making your choice of school a hard one.

For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 2 schools in District of Columbia to determine which ones were the best for visual & performing arts students pursuing a bachelor's degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 333 bachelor's degrees in visual & performing arts during the 2022-2023 academic year.

Jump to one of the following sections: * Our Methodology

• Best Bachelor’s Degree Schools List

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

In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:

• Major Focus - How much a school focuses on visual & performing arts students vs. other majors.
• Major Demand - The number of visual & performing arts students who choose to seek a bachelor'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 visual & performing 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 visual & performing arts related body.

Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for visual & performing arts students working on their bachelor's degree.

One Size Does Not Fit All

The visual & performing 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 Visual & Performing Arts Bachelor's Degree Schools in District of Columbia.

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 Visual & Performing Arts in District of Columbia

Learn about the top ranked colleges and universities for visual & performing arts students seeking a a bachelor's degree.

Top District of Columbia Schools for a Bachelor's in Visual & Performing Arts

1

American University
Washington, DC

Master's Degree Highest Degree Type

99 Annual Graduates

American University is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a bachelor's degree in visual & performing arts. The American University is a large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Washington.More information about a bachelor’s in visual & performing arts from American University

2

Howard University
Washington, DC

Master's Degree Highest Degree Type

60 Annual Graduates

It's difficult to beat Howard University if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in visual & performing arts. Located in the large city of Washington, Howard is a private not-for-profit university with a large student population.More information about a bachelor’s in visual & performing arts from Howard University

Best Visual & Performing Arts Colleges in the Middle Atlantic Region

Explore all the Best Visual & Performing Arts Colleges in the Middle Atlantic Area or other specific states within that region.

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Pennsylvania	37	4,279
New York	37	10,551
New Jersey	34	1,892
Maryland	33	1,285
Delaware	30	100

View All Rankings >

Visual & Performing Arts Majors to Study

Major	Annual Graduates
Fine & Studio Arts	92
Music	60
Design & Applied Arts	47
Film, Video & Photographic Arts	45
Arts & Media Management	32
Drama & Theater Arts	29
Dance	16
General Visual & Performing Arts	12

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 Bonnielou2013. More about our data sources and methodologies.