2024 Best Value Colleges for Film, Video & Photographic Arts in Maryland

When it comes to choosing a college, students have a lot of options - but not all of them are good. At College Factual, we’re committed to helping you make that decision by providing information such as that found in our “Best Value Film Schools in Maryland” ranking.

Film, Video & Photographic Arts is the 62nd most popular major in the country with 16,778 degrees awarded in 2020-2021. In 2019-2020, film, video & photographic arts graduates who were awarded their degree in 2017-2019, earned an average of $24,170 and had an average of $25,804 in loans still to pay off.

Across Maryland, there were 103 film, video & photographic arts graduates with average earnings and debt of $26,327 and $27,000 respectively.

This year’s “Best Value Film Schools in Maryland” ranking looked at 3 colleges that offer degrees in a bachelor’s in film, video & photographic arts. The schools that top this list are recognized because they have great film, video & photographic arts programs and cost less that schools of similar quality.

Some of the factors we look at when determining these rankings are overall quality of the film, video & photographic arts program at the school and the cost of the school after aid is awarded among other things. For more information, check out our ranking methodology.

One Size Does Not Fit All

The film 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 “Best Value Film Schools in Maryland”.

One of our other unique offerings is College Combat. This tool lets you build your own customized comparisons utilizing the factors that are most important to you. 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.

Best Value Film Schools in Maryland

The following schools top our list of the Best Best Value Film Schools in Maryland.

Top 3 Best Value Colleges for Film, Video & Photographic Arts in Maryland

1

University of Maryland - College Park
College Park, Maryland

#2 in overall quality

$18,048 Average Net Price

$52,217 Average Early-Career Earnings

Out of the 3 schools in the Best Value Film Schools in Maryland that were part of this year’s ranking, University of Maryland - College Park landed the #1 spot on the list. UMCP is located in College Park, Maryland and, has a large student population. In 2020-2021, this school awarded 17 ’s film degrees to qualified students.

UMCP did well in our major quality rankings, too. It placed #2 on our “Best Film, Video & Photographic Arts Schools in Maryland” list. It costs about $18,048 for Maryland Film students per year to attend UMCP.

The low undergrad student loan default rate of 1.8% is a good sign that students have an easier time paying off their loans than they might at other schools. For comparison, the national default rate is 10.1%. With a freshman retention rate of 95%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its undergraduate students.

Full UMCP Film, Video & Photographic Arts Report

2

Stevenson University
Stevenson, Maryland

#3 in overall quality

$24,906 Average Net Price

$46,605 Average Early-Career Earnings

Out of the 3 schools in the Best Value Film Schools in Maryland that were part of this year’s ranking, Stevenson University landed the #2 spot on the list. Stevenson, Maryland is the setting for this small institution of higher learning. The private not-for-profit school handed out ’s film degrees to 20 students in 2020-2021.

Stevenson did well in our major quality rankings, too. It placed #3 on our “Best Film, Video & Photographic Arts Schools in Maryland” list. The yearly cost to attend Stevenson is $24,906 for Maryland Film students.

The undergrad student loan default rate at the school is 4.4%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%.

Read more about Film, Video & Photographic Arts at Stevenson

3

Maryland Institute College of Art
Baltimore, Maryland

#1 in overall quality

$38,867 Average Net Price

$34,356 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Maryland Institute College of Art. It ranked #3 on our 2024 Best Value Film Schools in Maryland list. This small school is located in Baltimore, Maryland, and it awarded 37 ’s film degrees in 2020-2021.

MICA did well in our major quality rankings, too. It placed #1 on our “Best Film, Video & Photographic Arts Schools in Maryland” list. The estimated yearly cost for Maryland Institute College of Art is $38,867 for maryland film students.

With a freshman retention rate of 86%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its undergraduate students. The school has an impressive undergrad student loan default rate. It’s only 4.1%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%. The impressive undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio of 10 to 1 means that students may have more opportunities to work more closely with their professors than they would at other schools.

Read full report on Film, Video & Photographic Arts at MICA

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

Notes and References

References

• 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 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).
• Information about the national average student loan default rate is from the U.S. Department of Education and refers to data about the 2016 borrower cohort tracking period for which the cohort default rate (CDR) was 10.1%.

Read more about our data sources and methodologies

Footnotes

• *Average salary, average net price, and average tuition and fees are for the top schools only.
• Some schools otherwise deserving of recognition may have been removed from this ranking in the event that new data identified post-publication warranted it, or at the request of the school.