2024 Best Design & Applied Arts Schools in the Great Lakes Region
74Colleges in the Great Lakes Region
5,375Design Degrees Awarded
$32,734Avg Early-Career Salary
If you pursue a degree in design & applied arts, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #36 most popular program in the country. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.
In 2024, College Factual analyzed 74 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Design & Applied Arts Schools in the Great Lakes Region ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 5,375 degrees in design & applied arts to qualified students.
Your choice of design & applied arts school matters, so we have put together these rankings to help you make your decision. In order to come up with a best overall ranking for design & applied arts schools, we combine our degree-level rankings, weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each level.
In order to find the schools that are the best fit for you, you may want to filter to one of the degree levels below.
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Design & Applied Arts Schools in the Great Lakes Region ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
You can also filter this list by location to find schools closer to you.
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.
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Best Schools for Design & Applied Arts in the Great Lakes Region
If you aren't interested in a particular degree level and want to know which schools are the overall best at delivering an education for the design degrees they offer, see the list below. Only those schools that rank in the top 15% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
It is difficult to beat University of Notre Dame if you want to pursue a degree in design & applied arts. Notre Dame is a large private not-for-profit university located in the suburb of Notre Dame. A Best Colleges rank of #20 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means Notre Dame is a great university overall.
There were approximately 43 design & applied arts students who graduated with this degree at Notre Dame in the most recent data year. Design & Applied Arts degree recipients from University of Notre Dame receive an earnings boost of approximately $21,816 above the average income of design & applied arts majors.
University of Cincinnati - Main Campus is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a degree in design & applied arts. Located in the city of Cincinnati, UC is a public university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #166 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means UC is a great university overall.
There were approximately 253.00000000000003 design & applied arts students who graduated with this degree at UC in the most recent data year. Those design & applied arts students who get their degree from University of Cincinnati - Main Campus make $17,414 more than the standard design graduate.
Every student pursuing a degree in design & applied arts needs to take a look at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. UIUC is a fairly large public university located in the city of Champaign. A Best Colleges rank of #34 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means UIUC is a great university overall.
There were roughly 105 design & applied arts students who graduated with this degree at UIUC in the most recent data year. Those design & applied arts students who get their degree from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign earn $11,619 more than the typical design graduate.
Michigan State University is a good decision for students pursuing a degree in design & applied arts. Michigan State is a fairly large public university located in the city of East Lansing. A Best Colleges rank of #74 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means Michigan State is a great university overall.
There were roughly 97 design & applied arts students who graduated with this degree at Michigan State in the most recent year we have data available. Those design & applied arts students who get their degree from Michigan State University make $4,572 more than the average design graduate.
UW - Madison is a very large public university located in the city of Madison. A Best Colleges rank of #30 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means UW - Madison is a great university overall.
There were about 68 design & applied arts students who graduated with this degree at UW - Madison in the most recent data year. Those design & applied arts students who get their degree from University of Wisconsin - Madison receive $10,950 more than the average design student.
Located in the city of West Lafayette, Purdue is a public university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #40 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means Purdue is a great university overall.
There were about 63 design & applied arts students who graduated with this degree at Purdue in the most recent data year. Design & Applied Arts degree recipients from Purdue University - Main Campus earn a boost of approximately $9,471 over the average earnings of design & applied arts graduates.
Located in the large city of Columbus, Ohio State is a public university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #69 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means Ohio State is a great university overall.
There were about 47 design & applied arts students who graduated with this degree at Ohio State in the most recent data year. Those design & applied arts students who get their degree from Ohio State University - Main Campus earn $7,545 more than the typical design graduate.
Located in the distant town of Menomonie, UW - Stout is a public university with a medium-sized student population. This university ranks 11th out of 46 schools for overall quality in the state of Wisconsin.
There were about 135 design & applied arts students who graduated with this degree at UW - Stout in the most recent data year. Those design & applied arts students who get their degree from University of Wisconsin - Stout make $6,844 more than the average design grad.
Columbia is a moderately-sized private not-for-profit college located in the large city of Chicago. This college ranks 16th out of 85 schools for overall quality in the state of Illinois.
There were roughly 271 design & applied arts students who graduated with this degree at Columbia in the most recent year we have data available. Students who receive their degree from the design program make an average of $29,065 in the first couple years of their career.
Located in the town of Oxford, Miami University - Oxford is a public university with a large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #116 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means Miami University - Oxford is a great university overall.
There were approximately 76 design & applied arts students who graduated with this degree at Miami University - Oxford in the most recent data year. Those design & applied arts students who get their degree from Miami University - Oxford earn $6,558 more than the standard design student.
Located in the large suburb of Kent, Kent State is a public university with a very large student population. This university ranks 14th out of 96 colleges for overall quality in the state of Ohio.
There were about 238 design & applied arts students who graduated with this degree at Kent State in the most recent year we have data available. Those design & applied arts students who get their degree from Kent State University at Kent receive $2,665 more than the average design grad.
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Here are some additional great schools for Design & Applied Arts students in the Great Lakes Region that almost earned our Best Design & Applied Arts Schools in the Great Lakes Region award.
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).
college factual
Your choice of design & applied arts school matters, so we have put together these rankings to help you make your decision. In order to come up with a best overall ranking for design & applied arts schools, we combine our degree-level rankings, weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each level.
