2024 Best Design & Applied Arts Master's Degree Schools in the Southeast Region

Design & Applied Arts is above average in terms of popularity with it being the #72 most popular master's degree program in the country. So, you have a fair amount of options to choose from when looking for a school.

College Factual reviewed 17 schools in the Southeast Region to determine which ones were the best for master's degree seekers in the field of design & applied arts. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 534 master's degrees in design & applied arts during the 2020-2021 academic year.

What's on this page: * Our Methodology

• Best Master’s Degree Schools List

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

The design master's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality design program can vary widely even among the top schools. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:

Overall Quality Is a Must

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

Average Early-Career Salaries

Average early-career salary of those graduating with their master's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. After all, your master's degree won't mean much if it doesn't help you find a job that will help you earn a living.

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 - The number of design & applied arts students who choose to seek a master's degree at the school.
• 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 easy is it for design & applied arts to pay back their student loans after receiving their master's degree.
• Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized design & applied arts related body.

Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for design & applied arts students working on their master'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 Master's Degree Schools in the Southeast Region list to help you make the college decision.

Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Design & Applied Arts in the Southeast Region

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

10 Top Southeast Region Schools for a Master's in Design

1

University of Florida
Gainesville, FL

4 Annual Graduates

University of Florida is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a master's degree in design & applied arts. UF is a fairly large public university located in the medium-sized city of Gainesville.More information about a master’s in design & applied arts from University of Florida

2

Georgia Institute of Technology - Main Campus
Atlanta, GA

12 Annual Graduates

Any student pursuing a degree in a master's degree in design & applied arts has to take a look at Georgia Institute of Technology - Main Campus. Georgia Tech is a fairly large public school located in the large city of Atlanta.More information about a master’s in design & applied arts from Georgia Institute of Technology - Main Campus

3

Savannah College of Art and Design
Savannah, GA

245 Annual Graduates

$43,941 Median Starting Salary

Savannah College of Art and Design is one of the best schools in the country for getting a master's degree in design & applied arts. Located in the medium-sized city of Savannah, SCAD is a private not-for-profit college with a fairly large student population.

Master's students who receive their degree from the design program earn about $43,941 in the first couple years of their career.

More information about a master’s in design & applied arts from Savannah College of Art and Design

4

Auburn University
Auburn, AL

14 Annual Graduates

It's difficult to beat Auburn University if you wish to pursue a master's degree in design & applied arts. Located in the small city of Auburn, Auburn is a public university with a very large student population.More information about a master’s in design & applied arts from Auburn University

5

North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC

22 Annual Graduates

$46,655 Median Starting Salary

Located in the city of Raleigh, NC State is a public university with a fairly large student population.

Those design & applied arts students who get their master's degree from North Carolina State University earn $4,499 more than the typical design student.

More information about a master’s in design & applied arts from North Carolina State University

6

Marymount University
Arlington, VA

24 Annual Graduates

Marymount is a small private not-for-profit university located in the city of Arlington.More information about a master’s in design & applied arts from Marymount University

7

Clemson University
Clemson, SC

3 Annual Graduates

Clemson is a very large public university located in the large suburb of Clemson.More information about a master’s in design & applied arts from Clemson University

8

Liberty University
Lynchburg, VA

75 Annual Graduates

Liberty University is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the small city of Lynchburg.More information about a master’s in design & applied arts from Liberty University

9

University of Kentucky
Lexington, KY

2 Annual Graduates

Located in the city of Lexington, UK is a public university with a very large student population.More information about a master’s in design & applied arts from University of Kentucky

10

Florida State University
Tallahassee, FL

9 Annual Graduates

Florida State is a fairly large public university located in the medium-sized city of Tallahassee.More information about a master’s in design & applied arts from Florida State University

Best Design & Applied Arts Colleges by State

Explore the best design & applied arts colleges for a specific state in the Southeast Region .

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Florida	208	105
Georgia	190	259
Virginia	182	113
North Carolina	178	22
Tennessee	166	1
Alabama	151	16
Kentucky	147	2
South Carolina	146	12
Mississippi	145	4
Arkansas	121	0

View All Rankings >

Rankings in Majors Related to Design

Design & Applied Arts is one of 10 different types of Visual & Performing Arts programs to choose from.

Design Focus Areas

Major	Annual Graduates
Visual Communications	179
Interior Design	88
Illustration	86
Industrial Design	78
Game & Interactive Media Design	45
Fashion Design	25
Graphic Design	25
Other Design & Applied Arts	8

Majors Similar to Design

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Music	898
Fine & Studio Arts	391
Arts & Media Management	348
Film, Video & Photographic Arts	312
Drama & Theater Arts	304
General Visual & Performing Arts	117
Dance	48
Other Visual Art	4

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.