2021 Highest Paid Visual & Performing Arts Graduates
Finding the Best Visual & Performing Arts School for You
With 94,501 bachelor's degrees handed out in 2018-2019, visual and performing arts is the #8 most popular major in the United States.
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Highest Paid Visual & Performing Arts Graduates ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
For this year's Highest Paid Visual & Performing Arts Graduates ranking, we looked at 547 colleges that offer a bachelor's in visual and performing arts.
The numbers used in this ranking are early career salaries, which we define to be 10 years after a student started college. This is the salary typically earned 4-6 years after graduation, but may be different depending on how long a person takes to complete their degree.
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Salaries of Visual & Performing Arts Majors After Graduation
After graduation, visual and performing arts majors from schools in the United States earn an average salary of $25,086 per year. That's not so great, since it is 37% less than the national average salary of a typical bachelor's degree holder. However, graduates from the schools in this list may make more.
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2021 Highest Paid Visual & Performing Arts Grads in the United States
The following colleges produce the highest paid visual and performing arts graduates.
Top 25 Best Schools for Highly Paid Visual & Performing Arts Graduates
Harvard University comes in at #1 in this year's ranking. Located in the city of Cambridge, Harvard is a private not-for-profit school with a fairly large student population.
Full Visual & Performing Arts at Harvard University Report
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Northeastern University Professional Advancement Network earned the #1 spot in our 2021 rankings. Northeastern University Professional Advancement Network is a fairly large private not-for-profit school located in the city of Boston.
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The #2 spot in this year's ranking belongs to Lawrence Technological University. Lawrence Tech is a small private not-for-profit school located in the city of Southfield.
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The #2 spot in this year's ranking belongs to Princeton University. Princeton is a medium-sized private not-for-profit school located in the city of Princeton.
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Wentworth Institute of Technology comes in at #3 in this year's ranking. WIT is a small private not-for-profit school located in the city of Boston.
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Carnegie Mellon University comes in at #4 in this year's ranking. Carnegie Mellon is a fairly large private not-for-profit school located in the city of Pittsburgh.
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Georgia Institute of Technology - Main Campus comes in at #5 in this year's ranking. Georgia Tech is a fairly large public school located in the large city of Atlanta.
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The #5 spot in this year's ranking belongs to Yale University. Located in the medium-sized city of New Haven, Yale is a private not-for-profit college with a fairly large student population.
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Lake Washington Institute of Technology comes in at #6 in this year's ranking. Located in the suburb of Kirkland, LWTech is a public school with a small student population.
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University of Delaware landed the #7 spot in our 2021 rankings for highest paid visual and performing arts school. Located in the large suburb of Newark, U of Delaware is a public college with a very large student population.
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St Lawrence University comes in at #8 in this year's ranking. Located in the remote town of Canton, St. Lawrence is a private not-for-profit school with a small student population.
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Our rankings recognize Art Center College of Design as the #8 school in this year's rankings. Art Center College of Design is a small private not-for-profit school located in the midsize city of Pasadena.
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Northeastern University comes in at #9 in this year's ranking. Northeastern is a very large private not-for-profit school located in the large city of Boston.
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Our rankings recognize Seattle Pacific University as the #10 school in this year's rankings. Located in the city of Seattle, SPU is a private not-for-profit school with a small student population.
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The #10 spot in this year's ranking belongs to Massachusetts Institute of Technology. MIT is a fairly large private not-for-profit school located in the city of Cambridge.
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Endicott College comes in at #11 in this year's ranking. Located in the suburb of Beverly, Endicott is a private not-for-profit college with a small student population.
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The #12 spot in this year's ranking belongs to Clemson University. Located in the large suburb of Clemson, Clemson is a public college with a fairly large student population.
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Stanford University comes in at #13 in this year's ranking. Stanford is a fairly large private not-for-profit school located in the suburb of Stanford.
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The #13 spot in this year's ranking belongs to California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo. Located in the small suburb of San Luis Obispo, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo is a public school with a fairly large student population.
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Texas A&M University - Commerce comes in at #14 in this year's ranking. Texas A&M Commerce is a large public school located in the town of Commerce.
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Georgetown University earned the #14 spot in our 2021 rankings. Located in the city of Washington, Georgetown is a private not-for-profit school with a large student population.
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Kenyon College landed the #15 spot in our 2021 rankings for highest paid visual and performing arts school. Kenyon is a small private not-for-profit school located in the town of Gambier.
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Bellevue University earned the #15 spot in our 2021 rankings. Bellevue University is a large private not-for-profit school located in the large suburb of Bellevue.
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The #16 spot in this year's ranking belongs to West Texas A&M University. Located in the town of Canyon, West Texas A&M University is a public college with a moderately-sized student population.
Full Visual & Performing Arts at West Texas A&M University Report
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College of the Holy Cross earned the #16 spot in our 2021 rankings. Holy Cross is a small private not-for-profit school located in the midsize city of Worcester.
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Request InformationRest of the Top 50 Schools for Highest Paid Visual & Performing Arts Graduates
Remaining Award Winners
This list shows the remainder of the schools awarded a Highest Paid Visual & Performing Arts Graduates badge. Showing in this list means the school was ranked in the top 15% of the 547 different United States visual and performing arts schools we analyzed.
Additional Noteworthy Schools
Here are some additional great schools for Visual & Performing Arts students seeking high pay that almost earned our Highest Paid Visual & Performing Arts Graduates award.
Visual & Performing Arts by Region
View the Highest Paid Visual & Performing Arts Graduates for a specific region near you.
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New England |
Rocky Mountains |
Plains States |
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Rankings in Majors Related to Visual & Performing Arts
Visual & Performing Arts Majors to Study
Major | Annual Graduates |
---|---|
Fine & Studio Arts | 25,815 |
Design & Applied Arts | 19,137 |
Music | 15,747 |
Drama & Theater Arts | 12,791 |
Film, Video & Photographic Arts | 11,308 |
View All Visual & Performing Arts Related Majors >
Most Popular Related Majors
Related Major | Annual Graduates |
---|---|
Liberal Arts / Sciences & Humanities | 45,514 |
English Language & Literature | 42,686 |
Foreign Languages & Linguistics | 24,008 |
Philosophy & Religious Studies | 12,372 |
Theology & Religious Vocations | 10,962 |
View All Visual & Performing Arts Related Majors >
Notes and 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 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 Bonnielou2013.
More about our data sources and methodologies.
Featured Schools
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Southern New Hampshire University
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Purdue University
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Grand Canyon University (GCU)
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Northcentral University
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Colorado Technical University (CTU)
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