2024 Best Film, Video & Photographic Arts Master's Degree Schools in New York

Film, Video & Photographic Arts is above average in terms of popularity with it being the #84 most popular master's degree program in the country. As a result, there are many college that offer the degree, making your choice of school a hard one.

For its 2024 ranking, College Factual looked at 8 schools in New York to determine which ones were the best for film, video & photographic arts students pursuing a master's degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 287 master's degrees in film, video & photographic arts during the 2020-2021 academic year.

What's on this page: * Our Methodology

• Best Master’s Degree Schools List

Choosing a Great Film, Video & Photographic Arts School for Your Master's Degree

Your choice of film, video & photographic arts for getting your master's degree school matters. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.

A Great Overall School

The overall quality of a master's degree school is important to ensure a quality education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To take this into account we consider a school's overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking which itself looks at a combination of various factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.

Early-Career Earnings

One measure we use to determine the quality of a school is to look at the average salary of master's graduates during the early years of their career. That is, everyone wants their master's degree to be worth something, and salaries are one measure of determining that.

Other Factors We Consider

The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.

• Major Focus - How much a school focuses on film, video & photographic arts students vs. other majors.
• Major Demand - How many other film, video & photographic arts students want to attend this school to pursue a master'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 film, video & photographic arts students go into to obtain their master'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 film, video & photographic arts related body.

Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for film, video & photographic arts students working on their master's degree.

One Size Does Not Fit All

When choosing the right school for you, it's important to arm yourself with all the facts you can. To that end, we've created a number of major-specific rankings, including this Best Film, Video & Photographic Arts Master's Degree Schools in New York list to help you make the college decision.

Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Film, Video & Photographic Arts in New York

The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing a master's degree in film, video & photographic arts.

10 Top New York Schools for a Master's in Film

1

Columbia University in the City of New York
New York, NY

75 Annual Graduates

$34,730 Median Starting Salary

Any student pursuing a degree in a master's degree in film, video & photographic arts has to take a look at Columbia University in the City of New York. Columbia is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the city of New York.

Master's graduates who receive their degree from the film program make an average of $34,730 in their early career salary.

More information about a master’s in film, video & photographic arts from Columbia University in the City of New York

2

New York University
New York, NY

54 Annual Graduates

$27,998 Median Starting Salary

Any student who is interested in a master's degree in film, video & photographic arts has to look into New York University. NYU is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of New York.

After graduating, film master's recipients typically make around $27,998 in the first five years of their career.

More information about a master’s in film, video & photographic arts from New York University

3

Syracuse University
Syracuse, NY

10 Annual Graduates

It's difficult to beat Syracuse University if you wish to pursue a master's degree in film, video & photographic arts. Located in the medium-sized city of Syracuse, Syracuse is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population.More information about a master’s in film, video & photographic arts from Syracuse University

4

Brooklyn College
Brooklyn, NY

26 Annual Graduates

$39,827 Median Starting Salary

Brooklyn College is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a master's degree in film, video & photographic arts. Located in the city of Brooklyn, Brooklyn College is a public college with a fairly large student population.

Film, Video & Photographic Arts master's degree recipients from Brooklyn College earn a boost of about $7,082 over the typical earnings of film, video & photographic arts graduates.

More information about a master’s in film, video & photographic arts from Brooklyn College

5

School of Visual Arts
New York, NY

58 Annual Graduates

$28,424 Median Starting Salary

SVA is a small private for-profit school located in the city of New York.

Students who graduate with their master's from the film program state that they receive average early career wages of $28,424.

More information about a master’s in film, video & photographic arts from School of Visual Arts

6

Rochester Institute of Technology
Rochester, NY

20 Annual Graduates

Located in the suburb of Rochester, RIT is a private not-for-profit school with a large student population.More information about a master’s in film, video & photographic arts from Rochester Institute of Technology

7

The New School
New York, NY

13 Annual Graduates

Located in the city of New York, New School University is a private not-for-profit school with a fairly large student population.More information about a master’s in film, video & photographic arts from The New School

8

The City College of New York
New York, NY

16 Annual Graduates

CCNY is a large public college located in the city of New York.More information about a master’s in film, video & photographic arts from The City College of New York

8

Purchase College
Purchase, NY

3 Annual Graduates

Located in the suburb of Purchase, Purchase College is a public college with a small student population.More information about a master’s in film, video & photographic arts from Purchase College

10

Stony Brook University
Stony Brook, NY

9 Annual Graduates

SUNY Stony Brook is a fairly large public university located in the large suburb of Stony Brook.More information about a master’s in film, video & photographic arts from Stony Brook University

Best Film, Video & Photographic Arts Colleges in the Middle Atlantic Region

Explore all the Best Film, Video & Photographic Arts Colleges in the Middle Atlantic Area or other specific states within that region.

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Pennsylvania	248	11
Maryland	193	29
New Jersey	188	7
District of Columbia	154	32

View All Rankings >

Film, Video & Photographic Arts Related Rankings by Major

Film, Video & Photographic Arts is one of 10 different types of Visual & Performing Arts programs to choose from.

Film Concentrations

Major	Annual Graduates
Film & Video Production	135
Film/Cinema/Media Studies	79
Photography	60
Other Film/Video & Photographic Arts	13

Majors Similar to Film

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Music	811
Fine & Studio Arts	642
Design & Applied Arts	380
Drama & Theater Arts	250
Arts & Media Management	185
Other Visual Art	141
Dance	36
General Visual & Performing Arts	24

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.