2022 Best Value Culinary Arts Schools for a Bachelor’s in the Southwest Region

With all of the options students have for higher education today, it can be tough to choose which direction to take. College Factual was founded, in part, to help students make the decision as to what would be the best school for them. Our “Best Value Culinary Arts Schools for a Bachelor’s in the Southwest Region” ranking is part of that endeavor.

In 2019-2020, 21,906 people earned their degree in culinary arts, making the major the 80th most popular in the United States. In 2017-2018, culinary arts graduates who were awarded their degree in 2015-2017, earned an average of $23,822 and had an average of $19,004 in loans still to pay off.

Across the Southwest region, there were 2,671 culinary arts graduates with average earnings and debt of $23,641 and $21,214 respectively. At the bachelor’s degree level specifically, there were 51 culinary arts graduates with average earnings and debt of $38,896 and $23,899 respectively.

For this year’s “Best Value Culinary Arts Schools for a Bachelor’s in the Southwest Region” ranking, we looked at 3 colleges that offer a degree in culinary arts. This ranking identifies schools with high-quality culinary arts programs that also have a lower cost than schools of similar quality.

Some of the factors we look at when determining these rankings are overall quality of the culinary arts program at the school and the cost of the school after aid is awarded among other things. Check out our ranking methodology for more information.

More Ways to Rank Culinary Arts Schools

When choosing the right school for you, it’s important to arm yourself with all the facts you can. To that end, we’ve created a number of major-specific rankings, including this “Best Value Culinary Arts Schools for a Bachelor’s in the Southwest Region” list to help you make the college decision.

We’ve created a tool called College Combat that lets you create your own customized comparisons 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.

Best Value Culinary Arts Schools for a Bachelor’s in the Southwest Region

The colleges and universities below are the best for southwest region bachelor’s degree culinary arts students.

Top 3 Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Culinary Arts in the Southwest Region

#1

The Art Institute of Houston

Houston, Texas

#1 in overall quality

$22,844 Average Net Price

$28,816 Average Early-Career Earnings

Out of the 3 schools in the Best Value Culinary Arts Schools for a Bachelor’s in the Southwest Region that were part of this year’s ranking, The Art Institute of Houston landed the #1 spot on the list. Ai Houston is a private for-profit institution located in Houston, Texas. The school has a small population, and it awarded 13 bachelors’s degrees in 2019-2020.

As a testament to the quality of education offered at Ai Houston, the school also landed the #1 spot in our “Best Culinary Arts Bachelor’s Degree Schools in the Southwest Region” ranking. It costs about $22,844 for Southwest Region Bachelor’s Degree Culinary Arts students per year to attend The Art Institute of Houston.

Read full report on Culinary Arts at The Art Institute of Houston

#2

The Art Institute of San Antonio

San Antonio, Texas

#2 in overall quality

$22,421 Average Net Price

$28,816 Average Early-Career Earnings

Out of the 3 schools in the Best Value Culinary Arts Schools for a Bachelor’s in the Southwest Region that were part of this year’s ranking, The Art Institute of San Antonio landed the #2 spot on the list. Located in San Antonio, Texas, this small private for-profit school awarded 14 diplomas to qualified bachelors’s culinary arts students in 2019-2020.

Ai San Antonio did well in our major quality rankings, too. It placed #2 on our “Best Culinary Arts Bachelor’s Degree Schools in the Southwest Region” list. It costs about $22,421 for southwest region bachelor’s degree culinary arts students per year to attend The Art Institute of San Antonio.

Full The Art Institute of San Antonio Culinary Arts Report

#3

The Art Institute of Austin

Austin, Texas

#3 in overall quality

$24,156 Average Net Price

$28,816 Average Early-Career Earnings

Out of the 3 schools in the Best Value Culinary Arts Schools for a Bachelor’s in the Southwest Region that were part of this year’s ranking, The Art Institute of Austin landed the #3 spot on the list. The Art Institute of Austin is a private for-profit institution located in Austin, Texas. The school has a small population, and it awarded 5 bachelors’s degrees in 2019-2020.

Ai Austin not only placed well in this ranking. It is also #3 on our “Best Culinary Arts Bachelor’s Degree Schools in the Southwest Region” list. The yearly cost to attend The Art Institute of Austin is $24,156 for southwest region bachelor’s degree culinary arts students.

Read more about Culinary Arts at The Art Institute of Austin

• Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Culinary Arts

Notes and References

References

• 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 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).
• Information about the national average student loan default rate is from the U.S. Department of Education and refers to data about the 2016 borrower cohort tracking period for which the cohort default rate (CDR) was 10.1%.

Read more about our data sources and methodologies

Footnotes

• *Average salary, average net price, and average tuition and fees are for the top schools only.
• Some schools otherwise deserving of recognition may have been removed from this ranking in the event that new data identified post-publication warranted it, or at the request of the school.

Credits

• Credit for the banner image above goes to U.S. Army Europe Images.

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