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2022 Best Value Product Design Schools for a Bachelor’s in California

7 Ranked Colleges
192 Degrees Awarded
$28,300 Avg Net Price*
Best Value Product Design Schools for a Bachelor's in California

When pursuing a degree in today’s world, students have many different options to choose from. College Factual has developed its “Best Value Product Design Schools for a Bachelor’s in California” ranking as one item you can use to help make this decision.

In 2019-2020, 1,879 people earned their degree in industrial design, making the major the 290th most popular in the United States.

Across California, there were 193 industrial design graduates with average earnings and debt of $0 and $0 respectively. At the bachelor’s degree level specifically, there were 192 industrial design graduates with average earnings and debt of $37,907 and $21,546 respectively.

This year’s “Best Value Product Design Schools for a Bachelor’s in California” ranking analyzed 7 colleges that offered a degree in industrial design. The schools that top this list are recognized because they have great industrial design programs and cost less that schools of similar quality.

When determining these rankings, we looked at things such as overall quality of the industrial design program at the school and the cost to attend the school once aid has been awarded. Check out our ranking methodology for more information.

More Ways to Rank Industrial Design Schools

Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we’ve developed the “Best Value Product Design Schools for a Bachelor’s in California” ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.

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. We encourage you to try it out and pit your favorite colleges and universities head to head! If you don’t have time right now, you can bookmark it for later.

Best Value Product Design Schools for a Bachelor’s in California

The following schools top our list of the Best Best Value Product Design Schools for a Bachelor’s in California.

Top 7 Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Industrial Design in California

#2 in overall quality

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend California State University - Long Beach. It ranked #1 on our 2022 Best Value Product Design Schools for a Bachelor’s in California list. CSULB is located in Long Beach, California and, has a large student population. In 2019-2020, this school awarded 34 bachelors’s product design degrees to qualified students.

CSULB did well in our major quality rankings, too. It placed #2 on our “Best Industrial Design Bachelor’s Degree Schools in California” list. The estimated yearly cost for CSULB is $9,622 for california bachelor’s degree product design students.

The low student loan default rate of 1.6% is a good sign that students have an easier time paying off their loans than they might at other schools. For comparison, the national default rate is 10.1%. The school has an excellent freshman retention rate of 89%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year.

Read more about Industrial Design at CSULB

#2

San Jose State University

San Jose, California
#1 in overall quality

Out of the 7 schools in the Best Value Product Design Schools for a Bachelor’s in California that were part of this year’s ranking, San Jose State University landed the #2 spot on the list. San Jose State is a large public school situated in San Jose, California. It awarded 16 bachelors’s product design degrees in 2019-2020.

San Jose State also made our “Best Industrial Design Bachelor’s Degree Schools in California” list, coming in at #1. The yearly cost to attend San Jose State University is $14,928 for California Bachelor’s Degree Product Design students.

The school has an impressive student loan default rate. It’s only 3.7%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%. The school has an excellent freshman retention rate of 86%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year.

Full San Jose State Industrial Design Report

#3

San Francisco State University

San Francisco, California
#5 in overall quality

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend San Francisco State University. The school came in at #3 for the Best Value Product Design Schools for a Bachelor’s in California. San Francisco, California is the setting for this large institution of higher learning. The public school handed out bachelors’s product design degrees to 46 students in 2019-2020.

SFSU did well in our major quality rankings, too. It placed #5 on our “Best Industrial Design Bachelor’s Degree Schools in California” list. The estimated yearly cost for SFSU is $15,113 for California Bachelor’s Degree Product Design students.

Read more about Industrial Design at San Francisco State University

#6 in overall quality

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend FIDM/Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising - Los Angeles. It ranked #4 on our 2022 Best Value Product Design Schools for a Bachelor’s in California list. FIDM Los Angeles is located in Los Angeles, California and, has a small student population. In 2019-2020, this school awarded 31 bachelors’s product design degrees to qualified students.

FIDM Los Angeles did well in our major quality rankings, too. It placed #6 on our “Best Industrial Design Bachelor’s Degree Schools in California” list. The yearly cost to attend FIDM/Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising - Los Angeles is $41,505 for California Bachelor’s Degree Product Design students.

Read full report on Industrial Design at FIDM/Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising - Los Angeles

#6

Otis College of Art and Design

Los Angeles, California
#3 in overall quality

Otis College of Art and Design ranked #6 on this year’s Best Value Product Design Schools for a Bachelor’s in California list. Located in Los Angeles, California, this small private not-for-profit school handed out 15 degrees to qualified bachelors’s product design students in 2019-2020.

Otis College of Art and Design also took the #3 spot in our “Best Industrial Design Bachelor’s Degree Schools in California” ranking. The estimated yearly cost for Otis College of Art and Design is $43,147 for california bachelor’s degree product design students.

The impressive student-to-faculty ratio of 7 to 1 means that students may have more opportunities to work more closely with their professors than they would at other schools. The low student loan default rate of 3.0% is a good sign that students have an easier time paying off their loans than they might at other schools. For comparison, the national default rate is 10.1%.

Read full report on Industrial Design at Otis College of Art and Design

#7

California College of the Arts

San Francisco, California
#4 in overall quality

California College of the Arts came in at #7 in this year’s edition of the Best Value Product Design Schools for a Bachelor’s in California ranking. California College of the Arts is located in San Francisco, California and, has a small student population. In 2019-2020, this school awarded 33 bachelors’s product design degrees to qualified students.

In addition to being on our california bachelor’s degree product design students list, California College of the Arts has also earned the #4 rank in our “Best Industrial Design Bachelor’s Degree Schools in California” ranking. It costs about $33,876 for California Bachelor’s Degree Product Design students per year to attend California College of the Arts.

The low student loan default rate of 4.3% is a good sign that students have an easier time paying off their loans than they might at other schools. For comparison, the national default rate is 10.1%. Since the school has a student-to-faculty ratio of 8 to 1, those pursuing a degree will have more opportunities to interact with their professors.

Read more about Industrial Design at California College of the Arts

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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.

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