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.
In 2024, College Factual analyzed 97 schools in order to identify the top ones for its 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.
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 interested in a degree in photography. NYU is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the city of New York. A Best Colleges rank of #27 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means NYU is a great university overall.
There were roughly 30 photography students who graduated with this degree at NYU in the most recent year we have data available.
Yale University is a wonderful option for students pursuing 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 #8 out of 2,217 schools 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 year we have data available.
Every student who is interested in photography needs to check out Brigham Young University - Provo. Located in the midsize city of Provo, BYU is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #100 out of 2,217 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 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 medium-sized private for-profit university located in the large city of San Francisco. This university ranks 37th out of 168 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.
Temple is a very large public university located in the large city of Philadelphia. This university ranks 11th out of 109 schools for overall quality in the state of Pennsylvania.
There were about 17 photography students who graduated with this degree at Temple in the most recent data year.
Located in the city of Washington, The American University is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #129 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means The American University is a great university overall.
There were approximately 1 photography students who graduated with this degree at The American University in the most recent data year.
Located in the midsize city of Syracuse, Syracuse is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #132 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means Syracuse is a great university overall.
There were roughly 16 photography students who graduated with this degree at Syracuse in the most recent data year.
Located in the city of Seattle, Seattle U is a private not-for-profit university with a moderately-sized student population. This university ranks 2nd out of 51 colleges for overall quality in the state of Washington.
There were roughly 1 photography students who graduated with this degree at Seattle U in the most recent year we have data available.
Columbia is a moderately-sized private not-for-profit college located in the city of Chicago. This college ranks 16th out of 85 schools for overall quality in the state of Illinois.
There were roughly 44 photography students who graduated with this degree at Columbia in the most recent data year.
Massachusetts College of Art and Design is a small public college located in the city of Boston.
There were approximately 26 photography students who graduated with this degree at Massachusetts College of Art and Design in the most recent data year.
Located in the city of New York, New School University is a private not-for-profit school with a large student population. This school ranks 15th out of 142 colleges for overall quality in the state of New York.
There were approximately 63 photography students who graduated with this degree at New School University in the most recent year we have data available.
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.
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).