If you plan on majoring in photography, you won't be alone since the degree program is ranked #310 in the country in terms of popularity. As a result, there are many college that offer the degree, making your choice of school a hard one.
College Factual looked at 99 colleges and universities when compiling its 2023 Best Photography Schools ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 2,184 degrees in photography during the 2020-2021 academic year.
The photography program you select can have a big impact on your future. That's why we developed our collection of Best Schools for Photography rankings. We derive our Best Overall Photography School rankings by rolling up our degree-level rankings after weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each school.
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.
The photography school you choose to invest your time and money in matters. To help you make the decision that is right for you, we've developed a number of major-specific rankings, including this list of the Best Photography Schools.
If you'd like to restrict your choices to just one part of the country, you can filter this list by location.
In addition to our rankings, you can take two colleges and compare them based on the criteria that matters most to you in our unique tool, College Combat.
Test it out when you get a chance! You may also want to bookmark the link and share it with others who are trying to make the college decision.
Take the first step toward a career of visual expression and doing what you love with this online associate degree from Southern New Hampshire University.
Learn to create a striking portfolio and hone the skills you need to succeed in the world of professional photography with this online digital photography degree from Southern New Hampshire University.
Although we recommend filtering by degree level first, you can view the list below to see which schools give the educational experience for the photography degree levels they offer. Only those schools that rank in the top 15% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
New York University is a wonderful choice for students pursuing a degree in photography. NYU is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of New York. A Best Colleges rank of #30 out of 2,241 colleges nationwide means NYU is a great university overall.
There were about 30 photography students who graduated with this degree at NYU in the most recent year we have data available.
Yale University is a good option for students interested in a degree in photography. Yale is a large private not-for-profit university located in the midsize city of New Haven. A Best Colleges rank of #15 out of 2,241 colleges nationwide means Yale is a great university overall.
There were about 10 photography students who graduated with this degree at Yale in the most recent data year.
Syracuse University is a great choice for students pursuing a degree in photography. Located in the medium-sized city of Syracuse, Syracuse is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #71 out of 2,241 schools nationwide means Syracuse is a great university overall.
There were about 16 photography students who graduated with this degree at Syracuse in the most recent year we have data available.
Academy of Art University is a great decision for students interested in a degree in photography. Academy of Art University is a moderately-sized private for-profit university located in the city of San Francisco. This university ranks 22nd out of 170 colleges for overall quality in the state of California.
There were approximately 93 photography students who graduated with this degree at Academy of Art University in the most recent year we have data available.
Located in the large city of Washington, The American University is a private not-for-profit university with a large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #80 out of 2,241 colleges nationwide means The American University is a great university overall.
There were about 1 photography students who graduated with this degree at The American University in the most recent data year.
Located in the midsize city of Provo, BYU is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #122 out of 2,241 colleges nationwide means BYU is a great university overall.
There were about 7 photography students who graduated with this degree at BYU in the most recent data year.
Temple is a very large public university located in the large city of Philadelphia. A Best Colleges rank of #146 out of 2,241 schools nationwide means Temple is a great university overall.
There were about 17 photography students who graduated with this degree at Temple in the most recent data year.
Located in the large suburb of Rochester, RIT is a private not-for-profit school with a fairly large student population. This school ranks 16th out of 143 schools for overall quality in the state of New York.
There were approximately 60 photography students who graduated with this degree at RIT in the most recent year we have data available.
Columbia is a moderately-sized private not-for-profit college located in the large city of Chicago. This college ranks 13th out of 87 schools for overall quality in the state of Illinois.
There were about 44 photography students who graduated with this degree at Columbia in the most recent year we have data available.
UW Seattle is a fairly large public university located in the large city of Seattle. A Best Colleges rank of #38 out of 2,241 colleges nationwide means UW Seattle is a great university overall.
There were roughly 1 photography students who graduated with this degree at UW Seattle in the most recent year we have data available.
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
The photography program you select can have a big impact on your future. That's why we developed our collection of Best Schools for Photography rankings. We derive our Best Overall Photography School rankings by rolling up our degree-level rankings after weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each school.
