2022 Best Value Design Schools for a Bachelor’s in Kentucky For Those Making $0-$30k

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 Design Schools for a Bachelor’s in Kentucky For Those Making $0-$30k” ranking is part of that endeavor.

Design & Applied Arts is the 34th most popular major in the country with 36,854 degrees awarded in 2019-2020. In 2017-2018, design and applied arts graduates who were awarded their degree in 2015-2017, earned an average of $29,542 and had an average of $27,114 in loans still to pay off.

Across Kentucky, there were 124 design and applied arts graduates with average earnings and debt of $35,700 and $27,430 respectively. At the bachelor’s degree level specifically, there were 63 design and applied arts graduates with average earnings and debt of $35,401 and $24,684 respectively.

This year’s “Best Value Design Schools for a Bachelor’s in Kentucky For Those Making $0-$30k” ranking analyzed 3 colleges that offered a degree in design and applied arts. Not only do the schools that top this list have excellent design and applied arts programs, but they also cost less that schools of similar quality.

To come up with these rankings, we looked at factors such as the cost to attend the school after aid is awarded and overall quality of the design and applied arts program at the school. Check out our ranking methodology for more information.

One Size Does Not Fit All

Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we’ve developed the “Best Value Design Schools for a Bachelor’s in Kentucky For Those Making $0-$30k” ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.

To further help you make the college decision, we’ve developed a unique tool called College Combat that allows you to compare schools based on the factors that matter the most to you. When you have some time, check it out - you may want to bookmark the link so you don’t forget it.

Best Value Design Schools for a Bachelor’s in Kentucky For Those Making $0-$30k

The colleges and universities below are the best for kentucky bachelor’s degree design students whose families make $0-$30k.

Top 3 Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Design & Applied Arts (Income $0-$30k) in Kentucky

#1

Northern Kentucky University

Highland Heights, Kentucky

#3 in overall quality

$4,156 Average Net Price

$41,007 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Northern Kentucky University. The school came in at #1 for the Best Value Design Schools for a Bachelor’s in Kentucky For Those Making $0-$30k. NKU is located in Highland Heights, Kentucky and, has a fairly large student population. In 2019-2020, this school awarded 13 bachelors’s design degrees to qualified students.

NKU not only placed well in this ranking. It is also #3 on our “Best Design & Applied Arts Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Kentucky” list. The yearly cost to attend NKU is $4,156 for Kentucky Bachelor’s Degree Design students whose families make $0-$30k.

Read more about Design & Applied Arts at NKU

#2

University of Kentucky

Lexington, Kentucky

#1 in overall quality

$11,848 Average Net Price

$42,235 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend University of Kentucky. It ranked #2 on our 2022 Best Value Design Schools for a Bachelor’s in Kentucky For Those Making $0-$30k list. Lexington, Kentucky is the setting for this large institution of higher learning. The public school handed out bachelors’s design degrees to 23 students in 2019-2020.

UK did well in our major quality rankings, too. It placed #1 on our “Best Design & Applied Arts Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Kentucky” list. It costs about $11,848 for kentucky bachelor’s degree design students whose families make $0-$30k per year to attend University of Kentucky.

The school has an excellent freshman retention rate of 86%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year.

Read full report on Design & Applied Arts at UK

#3

Bellarmine University

Louisville, Kentucky

#2 in overall quality

$21,398 Average Net Price

$32,711 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Bellarmine University. The school came in at #3 for the Best Value Design Schools for a Bachelor’s in Kentucky For Those Making $0-$30k. This small school is located in Louisville, Kentucky, and it awarded 13 bachelors’s design degrees in 2019-2020.

Bellarmine U also made our “Best Design & Applied Arts Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Kentucky” list, coming in at #2. It costs about $21,398 for Kentucky Bachelor’s Degree Design students whose families make $0-$30k per year to attend Bellarmine U.

Full Bellarmine University Design & Applied Arts Report

• Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Design & Applied Arts (Income $0-$30k) in the Southeast Region
• Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Design & Applied Arts (Income $0-$30k)

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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