2025 Best Design & Applied Arts Bachelor's Degree Schools in Texas

If you pursue a bachelor's degree in design & applied arts, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #27 most popular program in the country. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.

For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 20 schools in Texas to determine which ones were the best for design & applied arts students pursuing a bachelor's degree. Combined, these schools handed out 799 bachelor's degrees in design & applied arts to qualified students.

What's on this page: * Our Methodology

• Best Bachelor’s Degree Schools List

Choosing a Great Design & Applied Arts School for Your Bachelor's Degree

Your choice of design & applied arts for getting your bachelor's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality design program can vary widely even among the top schools. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:

Quality Overall Is Important

The overall quality of a bachelor's degree school is important to ensure a good education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To take this into account we consider a school's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a host of various factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.

Average Earnings

To determine the overall quality of a graduate school, one factor we look at is the average early-career salary of those receiving their bachelor's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their bachelor's degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.

Other Factors We Consider

The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.

• Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to design & applied arts students as compared to other majors.
• Major Demand - How many other design & applied arts students want to attend this school to pursue a bachelor's degree.
• Educational Resources - How many resources are allocated to students. These resources may include educational expenditures per student, number of students per instructor, and graduation rate among other things.
• Student Debt - How much debt design & applied 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 design & applied arts related body.

Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for design & applied arts students working on their bachelor's degree.

One Size Does Not Fit All

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 Design & Applied Arts Bachelor's Degree Schools in Texas list to help you make the college decision.

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 Bachelor’s Students to Study Design & Applied Arts in Texas

Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a bachelor's degree in design & applied arts.

10 Top Texas Schools for a Bachelor's in Design

1

The University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX

48 Annual Graduates

$44,506 Median Starting Salary

The University of Texas at Austin is a great option for students pursuing a bachelor's degree in design & applied arts. UT Austin is a fairly large public university located in the city of Austin.

Those design & applied arts students who get their bachelor's degree from The University of Texas at Austin receive $10,713 more than the average design student.

More information about a bachelor’s in design & applied arts from The University of Texas at Austin

2

Texas Christian University
Fort Worth, TX

52 Annual Graduates

Texas Christian University is a good choice for individuals interested in a bachelor's degree in design & applied arts. TCU is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Fort Worth.More information about a bachelor’s in design & applied arts from Texas Christian University

3

Texas State University
San Marcos, TX

103 Annual Graduates

$44,396 Median Starting Salary

$23,635 Median Student Debt

Texas State University is one of the best schools in the country for getting a bachelor's degree in design & applied arts. Texas State is a fairly large public university located in the city of San Marcos.

Design & Applied Arts bachelor's degree recipients from Texas State University get an earnings boost of around $10,603 over the typical earnings of design & applied arts graduates.

More information about a bachelor’s in design & applied arts from Texas State University

4

Southern Methodist University
Dallas, TX

12 Annual Graduates

Southern Methodist University is a wonderful option for individuals interested in a bachelor's degree in design & applied arts. SMU is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large suburb of Dallas.More information about a bachelor’s in design & applied arts from Southern Methodist University

5

University of North Texas
Denton, TX

119 Annual Graduates

$33,867 Median Starting Salary

$31,368 Median Student Debt

UNT is a very large public university located in the medium-sized city of Denton.

Students who graduate with their bachelor's from the design program report average early career income of $33,867.

More information about a bachelor’s in design & applied arts from University of North Texas

6

Baylor University
Waco, TX

25 Annual Graduates

$39,333 Median Starting Salary

Located in the midsize city of Waco, Baylor is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.

Design & Applied Arts bachelor's degree recipients from Baylor University get an earnings boost of around $5,540 over the average income of design & applied arts majors.

More information about a bachelor’s in design & applied arts from Baylor University

7

Texas Tech University
Lubbock, TX

29 Annual Graduates

Located in the large city of Lubbock, Texas Tech is a public university with a very large student population.More information about a bachelor’s in design & applied arts from Texas Tech University

8

University of Houston
Houston, TX

51 Annual Graduates

$47,461 Median Starting Salary

UH is a very large public university located in the large city of Houston.

Design & Applied Arts bachelor's degree recipients from University of Houston get an earnings boost of around $13,668 above the average earnings of design & applied arts majors.

More information about a bachelor’s in design & applied arts from University of Houston

9

Saint Edward's University
Austin, TX

35 Annual Graduates

$30,589 Median Starting Salary

Located in the city of Austin, St. Edward's University is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population.

After graduation, design bachelor's recipients typically make around $30,589 in the first five years of their career.

More information about a bachelor’s in design & applied arts from Saint Edward’s University

10

Sam Houston State University
Huntsville, TX

29 Annual Graduates

$39,959 Median Starting Salary

SHSU is a fairly large public university located in the town of Huntsville.

Those design & applied arts students who get their bachelor's degree from Sam Houston State University earn $6,166 more than the average design grad.

More information about a bachelor’s in design & applied arts from Sam Houston State University

Best Design & Applied Arts Colleges in the Southwest Region

Explore all the Best Design & Applied Arts Colleges in the Southwest Area or other specific states within that region.

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Arizona	200	374
Oklahoma	190	165

View All Rankings >

Rankings in Majors Related to Design

One of 10 majors within the Visual & Performing Arts area of study, Design & Applied Arts has other similar majors worth exploring.

Design Focus Areas

Major	Annual Graduates
Interior Design	225
Visual Communications	198
Graphic Design	198
Fashion Design	71
Game & Interactive Media Design	46
Industrial Design	29
Other Design & Applied Arts	14
Commercial Photography	12
Commercial & Advertising Art	4
Illustration	2

Most Popular Related Majors

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Fine & Studio Arts	1,500
Music	1,325
Drama & Theater Arts	761
General Visual & Performing Arts	527
Dance	210
Film, Video & Photographic Arts	144
Arts & Media Management	62

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). More about our data sources and methodologies.