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

Ranked #27 in popularity, design & applied arts is one of the most sought-after bachelor's degree programs in the nation. So, there are lots of possibilities to explore when you're trying to determine where you want to get your degree.

In 2024, College Factual analyzed 64 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Design & Applied Arts Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Southeast Region ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 3,988 bachelor's degrees in design & applied arts during the 2020-2021 academic year.

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. 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 bachelor's degree school is important to ensure a quality education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To account for this we include a college'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 Early-Career Salaries

Average early-career salary of those graduating with their bachelor's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. After all, your bachelor'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 - 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 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 bachelor's degree.

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 Design & Applied Arts Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Southeast Region 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. Go ahead and give it a try, or bookmark the link so you can check it out later.

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

Explore the top ranked colleges and universities for design & applied arts students seeking a a bachelor's degree.

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

1

University of Florida
Gainesville, FL

56 Annual Graduates

$43,267 Median Starting Salary

$19,839 Median Student Debt

University of Florida is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a bachelor's degree in design & applied arts. UF is a very large public university located in the medium-sized city of Gainesville.

Bachelor's recipients from the design & applied arts major at University of Florida earn $11,008 more than the typical college grad with the same degree when they enter the workforce.

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

2

Virginia Tech
Blacksburg, VA

62 Annual Graduates

$49,418 Median Starting Salary

$25,802 Median Student Debt

Virginia Tech is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a bachelor's degree in design & applied arts. Virginia Tech is a fairly large public school located in the city of Blacksburg.

Those design & applied arts students who get their bachelor's degree from Virginia Tech receive $17,159 more than the average design student.

More information about a bachelor’s in design & applied arts from Virginia Tech

3

Georgia Institute of Technology - Main Campus
Atlanta, GA

61 Annual Graduates

$48,199 Median Starting Salary

$26,354 Median Student Debt

Every student who is interested in a bachelor's degree in design & applied arts needs to check out Georgia Institute of Technology - Main Campus. Georgia Tech is a very large public school located in the large city of Atlanta.

Those design & applied arts students who get their bachelor's degree from Georgia Institute of Technology - Main Campus make $15,940 more than the typical design graduate.

More information about a bachelor’s in design & applied arts from Georgia Institute of Technology - Main Campus

4

Auburn University
Auburn, AL

118 Annual Graduates

$37,862 Median Starting Salary

$26,000 Median Student Debt

Auburn University is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a bachelor's degree in design & applied arts. Located in the city of Auburn, Auburn is a public university with a fairly large student population.

Design & Applied Arts bachelor's degree recipients from Auburn University get an earnings boost of approximately $5,603 over the average income of design & applied arts graduates.

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

5

Savannah College of Art and Design
Savannah, GA

824 Annual Graduates

$24,889 Median Starting Salary

$27,000 Median Student Debt

Located in the city of Savannah, SCAD is a private not-for-profit college with a large student population.

Students who graduate with their bachelor's from the design program state that they receive average early career earnings of $24,889.

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

6

Virginia Commonwealth University
Richmond, VA

302 Annual Graduates

$29,473 Median Starting Salary

$25,937 Median Student Debt

VCU is a fairly large public university located in the medium-sized city of Richmond.

Bachelor's graduates who receive their degree from the design program earn an average of $29,473 in their early career salary.

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

7

North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC

60 Annual Graduates

$38,731 Median Starting Salary

$20,500 Median Student Debt

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

Bachelor's recipients from the design & applied arts degree program at North Carolina State University make $6,472 above the standard college grad in this field shortly after graduation.

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

8

Clemson University
Clemson, SC

96 Annual Graduates

$41,708 Median Starting Salary

$26,000 Median Student Debt

Clemson is a fairly large public university located in the large suburb of Clemson.

Those design & applied arts students who get their bachelor's degree from Clemson University make $9,449 more than the standard design graduate.

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

9

Tulane University of Louisiana
New Orleans, LA

2 Annual Graduates

Located in the city of New Orleans, Tulane is a private not-for-profit university with a large student population.More information about a bachelor’s in design & applied arts from Tulane University of Louisiana

10

Florida State University
Tallahassee, FL

39 Annual Graduates

$44,538 Median Starting Salary

$22,250 Median Student Debt

Florida State is a fairly large public university located in the midsize city of Tallahassee.

Those design & applied arts students who get their bachelor's degree from Florida State University earn $12,279 more than the standard design grad.

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

Honorable Mentions

Here are some additional great schools for Design & Applied Arts students in the Southeast Region that almost earned our Best Design & Applied Arts Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Southeast Region award.

Rank	College	Location
11	University of Arkansas	Fayetteville, AR
12	Belmont University	Nashville, TN
13	Marymount University	Arlington, VA
14	Appalachian State University	Boone, NC
15	University of Kentucky	Lexington, KY
16	University of Miami	Coral Gables, FL

Best Design & Applied Arts Colleges by State

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

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Florida	225	707
Georgia	224	1,028
Tennessee	220	208
North Carolina	213	529
Virginia	213	635
South Carolina	195	224
Kentucky	187	64
Alabama	184	196
Louisiana	171	50
Mississippi	169	25
Arkansas	167	216
West Virginia	147	106

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	883
Graphic Design	877
Illustration	503
Visual Communications	457
Industrial Design	378
Fashion Design	314
Other Design & Applied Arts	250
Game & Interactive Media Design	197
Commercial Photography	68
Commercial & Advertising Art	61

Majors Similar to Design

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Fine & Studio Arts	5,527
Music	3,652
Drama & Theater Arts	2,754
Film, Video & Photographic Arts	2,280
General Visual & Performing Arts	1,389
Arts & Media Management	1,351
Dance	492
Other Visual Art	75
Crafts, Folk Art & Artisanry	26

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.