2024 Best Painting Schools in Illinois

If you plan on majoring in painting, you won't be alone since the degree program is ranked #517 in the country in terms of popularity. So, you have a fair amount of options to choose from when looking for a school.

In 2024, College Factual analyzed 2 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Painting Schools in Illinois ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 14 degrees in painting during the 2020-2021 academic year.

What's on this page: * Degree-Level Rankings

• Best Overall Painting Schools List

Pick Your Painting Degree Level

The painting 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 Painting Schools in Illinois. More interested in schools in a specific area of the country? Filter this list by region or state.

To further help you make the college decision, we've developed a unique tool called College Combat that allows you to compare schools based on the factors that matter the most to you. Go ahead and give it a try, or bookmark the link so you can check it out later.

Read more about College Factual's methodology.

Best Schools for Painting in Illinois

Although we recommend filtering by degree level first, you can view the list below to see which schools give the educational experience for the painting degree levels they offer.

Top Illinois Schools in Painting

1

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Champaign, IL

Bachelor's Degree Highest Degree Type

It is difficult to beat University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign if you wish to pursue a degree in painting. UIUC is a very large public university located in the city of Champaign.More information about a degree in painting from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

2

American Academy of Art
Chicago, IL

Bachelor's Degree Highest Degree Type

It is difficult to beat American Academy of Art if you want to pursue a degree in painting. The Academy is a fairly small private for-profit school located in the city of Chicago.More information about a degree in painting from American Academy of Art

Best Painting Colleges in the Great Lakes Region

Explore all the Best Painting Schools in the Great Lakes Area or other specific states within that region.

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Ohio	939	17
Michigan	915	16
Indiana	737	2

View All Rankings >

Painting Related Rankings by Major

Painting is one of 13 different types of Fine & Studio Arts programs to choose from.

Most Popular Majors Related to Painting

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Fine Arts	1,017
Art Studies	397
Art History	137
Intermedia/Multimedia	16
Sculpture	2
Drawing	1
Other Fine Arts & Art Studies	1

View All Painting Related Majors >

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).
• Credit for the banner image above goes to Jorge Royan.

More about our data sources and methodologies.