If you plan on majoring in visual & performing arts, you won't be alone since the degree program is ranked #221 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 reviewed 76 schools in the United States to determine which ones were the best for degree seekers in the field of visual & performing arts. Combined, these schools handed out 3,130 degrees in visual & performing arts to qualified students.
The visual arts program you select can have a big impact on your future. That's why we developed our collection of Best Schools for Visual & Performing Arts rankings. For our Best Overall Visual & Performing Arts School rankings, we roll up the results of our degree-level rankings, weighted by the number of degrees awarded at that level.
You may want to choose one of the degree levels below to find the schools of most interest to you.
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 Visual & Performing Arts Schools list to help you make the college decision.
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.
Best Schools for Visual & Performing Arts in the United States
The schools below may not offer all types of visual arts degrees so you may want to filter by degree level first. However, they are great for the degree levels they do offer. Only those schools that rank in the top 15% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
It is hard to beat Duke University if you wish to pursue a degree in visual & performing arts. Located in the city of Durham, Duke is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #7 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means Duke is a great university overall.
There were approximately 6 visual & performing arts students who graduated with this degree at Duke in the most recent data year.
Rice University is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a degree in visual & performing arts. Rice is a medium-sized private not-for-profit university located in the city of Houston. A Best Colleges rank of #16 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means Rice is a great university overall.
There were approximately 26 visual & performing arts students who graduated with this degree at Rice in the most recent data year.
Any student who is interested in visual & performing arts needs to take a look at The University of Texas at Austin. Located in the large city of Austin, UT Austin is a public university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #36 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means UT Austin is a great university overall.
There were roughly 3 visual & performing arts students who graduated with this degree at UT Austin in the most recent data year.
University of Pennsylvania is one of the best schools in the country for getting a degree in visual & performing arts. Located in the city of Philadelphia, UPenn is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #4 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means UPenn is a great university overall.
There were approximately 13 visual & performing arts students who graduated with this degree at UPenn in the most recent year we have data available.
University of California - San Diego is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a degree in visual & performing arts. UCSD is a fairly large public university located in the large city of La Jolla. A Best Colleges rank of #38 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means UCSD is a great university overall.
There were roughly 99 visual & performing arts students who graduated with this degree at UCSD in the most recent data year.
Located in the city of Richardson, UT Dallas is a public university with a very large student population. This university ranks 11th out of 115 colleges for overall quality in the state of Texas.
There were approximately 34 visual & performing arts students who graduated with this degree at UT Dallas in the most recent data year.
GMU is a fairly large public university located in the suburb of Fairfax. A Best Colleges rank of #117 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means GMU is a great university overall.
There were about 107 visual & performing arts students who graduated with this degree at GMU in the most recent data year.
Texas Tech is a fairly large public university located in the large city of Lubbock. This university ranks 9th out of 115 schools for overall quality in the state of Texas.
There were roughly 21 visual & performing arts students who graduated with this degree at Texas Tech in the most recent year we have data available.
OHIO Athens is a very large public university located in the distant town of Athens. This university ranks 9th out of 96 schools for overall quality in the state of Ohio.
There were approximately 4 visual & performing arts students who graduated with this degree at OHIO Athens in the most recent data year.
Located in the city of New Haven, Yale is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #8 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means Yale is a great university overall.
There were approximately 5 visual & performing arts students who graduated with this degree at Yale in the most recent year we have data available.
RPI is a moderately-sized private not-for-profit school located in the small city of Troy. A Best Colleges rank of #106 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means RPI is a great school overall.
There were about 10 visual & performing arts students who graduated with this degree at RPI in the most recent year we have data available.
Located in the city of Missoula, UM is a public university with a medium-sized student population. This university ranks 3rd out of 11 schools for overall quality in the state of Montana.
There were approximately 13 visual & performing arts students who graduated with this degree at UM 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 visual arts program you select can have a big impact on your future. That's why we developed our collection of Best Schools for Visual & Performing Arts rankings. For our Best Overall Visual & Performing Arts School rankings, we roll up the results of our degree-level rankings, weighted by the number of degrees awarded at that level.
