A degree in visual communications is more popular than many other degrees. In fact, it ranks #154 out of 1506 on popularity of all such degrees in the nation. This means you won't have too much trouble finding schools that offer the degree.
College Factual looked at 119 colleges and universities when compiling its 2024 Best Visual Communications Schools ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 6,039 degrees in visual communications during the 2021-2022 academic year.
The graphic arts program you select can have a big impact on your future. That's why we developed our collection of Best Schools for Visual Communications rankings. In order to come up with a best overall ranking for visual communications 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.
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Visual Communications Schools 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 Visual Communications in the United States
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 graphic arts degrees they offer, see the list below. Only those schools that rank in the top 15% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
It is hard to beat Washington University in St Louis if you want to pursue a degree in visual communications. Located in the suburb of Saint Louis, WUSTL is a private not-for-profit university with a large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #17 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means WUSTL is a great university overall.
There were about 60 visual communications students who graduated with this degree at WUSTL in the most recent data year.
University of Notre Dame is a great decision for students interested in a degree in visual communications. Located in the suburb of Notre Dame, Notre Dame is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #20 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means Notre Dame is a great university overall.
There were approximately 29 visual communications students who graduated with this degree at Notre Dame in the most recent year we have data available.
Any student pursuing a degree in visual communications has to look into Carnegie Mellon University. Located in the large city of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #9 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means Carnegie Mellon is a great university overall.
There were about 46 visual communications students who graduated with this degree at Carnegie Mellon in the most recent year we have data available.
It's hard to beat Iowa State University if you want to pursue a degree in visual communications. Located in the small city of Ames, Iowa State is a public university with a very large student population. This university ranks 1st out of 40 colleges for overall quality in the state of Iowa.
There were roughly 41 visual communications students who graduated with this degree at Iowa State in the most recent year we have data available.
Located in the large city of Austin, UT Austin is a public university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #36 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means UT Austin is a great university overall.
There were about 61 visual communications students who graduated with this degree at UT Austin in the most recent data year.
FIDM Los Angeles is a small private for-profit school located in the city of Los Angeles.
There were approximately 57 visual communications students who graduated with this degree at FIDM Los Angeles in the most recent year we have data available.
UC is a fairly large public university located in the city of Cincinnati. This university ranks 5th out of 96 schools for overall quality in the state of Ohio.
There were approximately 68 visual communications students who graduated with this degree at UC in the most recent year we have data available.
Located in the large city of Philadelphia, UPenn is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #4 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means UPenn is a great university overall.
There were about 15 visual communications students who graduated with this degree at UPenn in the most recent data year.
USC is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Los Angeles. A Best Colleges rank of #11 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means USC is a great university overall.
There were about 49 visual communications students who graduated with this degree at USC in the most recent year we have data available.
Located in the small suburb of Davis, UC Davis is a public university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #52 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means UC Davis is a great university overall.
There were approximately 244 visual communications students who graduated with this degree at UC Davis in the most recent data year.
Located in the city of Seattle, UW Seattle is a public university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #37 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means UW Seattle is a great university overall.
There were roughly 23 visual communications students who graduated with this degree at UW Seattle in the most recent data year.
Located in the city of Fort Worth, TCU is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population. This university ranks 5th out of 115 colleges for overall quality in the state of Texas.
There were about 9 visual communications students who graduated with this degree at TCU in the most recent data year.
Syracuse is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the midsize city of Syracuse. This university ranks 12th out of 142 schools for overall quality in the state of New York.
There were approximately 35 visual communications students who graduated with this degree at Syracuse in the most recent year we have data available.
Purdue is a very large public university located in the city of West Lafayette. A Best Colleges rank of #40 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means Purdue is a great university overall.
There were roughly 24 visual communications students who graduated with this degree at Purdue in the most recent year we have data available.
WWU is a fairly large public university located in the city of Bellingham. This university ranks 5th out of 51 colleges for overall quality in the state of Washington.
There were roughly 48 visual communications students who graduated with this degree at WWU in the most recent data year.
These are some additional schools worth mentioning that are also great but just didn't quite make the cut to earn our top Best Visual Communications Schools award.
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 graphic arts program you select can have a big impact on your future. That's why we developed our collection of Best Schools for Visual Communications rankings. In order to come up with a best overall ranking for visual communications schools, we combine our degree-level rankings, weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each level.
