2024 Best Design & Applied Arts Master's Degree Schools in Virginia

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 3 schools in Virginia 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 113 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 good education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To take this into account we include a college'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 full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for design & applied arts students working on their master's degree.

One Size Does Not Fit All

Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Design & Applied Arts Master's Degree Schools in Virginia list, to help you choose the best school for you.

Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Design & Applied Arts in Virginia

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

Top Virginia Schools for a Master's in Design

1

Marymount University
Arlington, VA

24 Annual Graduates

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

2

Liberty University
Lynchburg, VA

75 Annual Graduates

Any student who is interested in a master's degree in design & applied arts has to look into Liberty University. 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

3

Virginia Commonwealth University
Richmond, VA

13 Annual Graduates

Every student who is interested in a master's degree in design & applied arts needs to look into Virginia Commonwealth University. VCU is a fairly large public university located in the city of Richmond.More information about a master’s in design & applied arts from Virginia Commonwealth University

Best Design & Applied Arts Colleges in the Southeast Region

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

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Florida	208	105
Georgia	190	259
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	76
Interior Design	24
Graphic Design	13

Majors Similar to Design

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Music	127
Drama & Theater Arts	81
Film, Video & Photographic Arts	46
Fine & Studio Arts	39
Arts & Media Management	33
Dance	18
General Visual & Performing Arts	11

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.