2024 Best General Visual & Performing Arts Schools
126Colleges in the United States
6,776Visual Arts Degrees Awarded
$25,144Avg Early-Career Salary
If you plan on majoring in general visual & performing arts, you won't be alone since the degree program is ranked #116 in the country in terms of popularity. This means you won't have too much trouble finding schools that offer the degree.
For its 2024 ranking, College Factual looked at 126 schools in the United States to determine which ones were the best for general visual & performing arts students pursuing a degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 6,776 degrees in general visual & performing arts during the 2021-2022 academic year.
Choosing a Great General Visual & Performing Arts School
Your choice of general visual & performing arts school matters, so we have put together these rankings to help you make your decision. In order to come up with a best overall ranking for general visual & performing arts schools, we combine our degree-level rankings, weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each level.
You may want to choose one of the degree levels below to find the schools of most interest to you.
Pick Your General Visual & Performing Arts Degree Level
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best General Visual & Performing Arts Schools ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
You can also filter this list by location to find schools closer to you.
In addition to College Factual's rankings, you may want to take a look at College Combat, our unique tool that lets you pit your favorite schools head-to-head and compare how they rate on factors that most interest you.
When you have some time, check it out - you may want to bookmark the link so you don't forget it.
Best Schools for General Visual & Performing Arts in the United States
Although we recommend filtering by degree level first, you can view the list below to see which schools give the educational experience for the visual arts degree levels they offer. Only those schools that rank in the top 15% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
The University of Texas at Austin is a wonderful decision for students pursuing a degree in general visual & performing arts. 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 about 116 general visual & performing arts students who graduated with this degree at UT Austin in the most recent year we have data available. General Visual & Performing Arts degree recipients from The University of Texas at Austin receive an earnings boost of approximately $7,063 above the average earnings of general visual & performing arts graduates.
Duke University is a good choice for students pursuing a degree in general visual & performing arts. Located in the city of Durham, Duke is a private not-for-profit university with a large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #7 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means Duke is a great university overall.
There were approximately 4 general visual & performing arts students who graduated with this degree at Duke in the most recent data year.
Every student pursuing a degree in general visual & performing arts has to look into University of Southern California. USC is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Los Angeles. A Best Colleges rank of #11 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means USC is a great university overall.
There were approximately 56 general visual & performing arts students who graduated with this degree at USC in the most recent data year. Graduates who receive their degree from the visual arts program earn around $18,394 in their early career salary.
It is difficult to beat Rice University if you want to pursue a degree in general visual & performing arts. Rice is a moderately-sized private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Houston. A Best Colleges rank of #16 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means Rice is a great university overall.
There were roughly 24 general visual & performing arts students who graduated with this degree at Rice in the most recent year we have data available.
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 about 9 general visual & performing arts students who graduated with this degree at UPenn in the most recent year we have data available.
UCSD is a fairly large public university located in the 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 about 83 general visual & performing arts students who graduated with this degree at UCSD in the most recent year we have data available. Graduates who receive their degree from the visual arts program earn an average of $22,195 in their early career salary.
Located in the medium-sized city of Gainesville, UF is a public university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #58 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means UF is a great university overall.
There were approximately 68 general visual & performing arts students who graduated with this degree at UF in the most recent data year. Those general visual & performing arts students who get their degree from University of Florida earn $5,705 more than the standard visual arts grad.
Located in the midsize 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 348 general visual & performing arts students who graduated with this degree at UT Dallas in the most recent data year. Those general visual & performing arts students who get their degree from The University of Texas at Dallas make $5,640 more than the average visual arts grad.
UCF is a fairly large public university located in the large suburb of Orlando. This university ranks 7th out of 77 schools for overall quality in the state of Florida.
There were approximately 481 general visual & performing arts students who graduated with this degree at UCF in the most recent data year. Those general visual & performing arts students who get their degree from University of Central Florida make $13,007 more than the typical visual arts graduate.
GMU is a very large public university located in the large suburb of Fairfax. A Best Colleges rank of #117 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means GMU is a great university overall.
There were approximately 119 general visual & performing arts students who graduated with this degree at GMU in the most recent data year. Students who graduate with their degree from the visual arts program report average early career earnings of $26,808.
Located in the city of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon is a private not-for-profit university with a large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #9 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means Carnegie Mellon is a great university overall.
There were roughly 1 general visual & performing arts students who graduated with this degree at Carnegie Mellon in the most recent data year.
Texas Tech is a very large public university located in the large city of Lubbock. This university ranks 9th out of 115 colleges for overall quality in the state of Texas.
There were about 13 general visual & performing arts students who graduated with this degree at Texas Tech in the most recent data year.
UK is a fairly large public university located in the city of Lexington. This university ranks 1st out of 38 colleges for overall quality in the state of Kentucky.
There were about 83 general visual & performing arts students who graduated with this degree at UK in the most recent year we have data available.
Austin Community College District is a fairly large public college located in the large city of Austin. This college ranks 33rd out of 115 colleges for overall quality in the state of Texas.
There were roughly 119 general visual & performing arts students who graduated with this degree at Austin Community College District in the most recent data year.
Located in the midsize city of New Haven, Yale is a private not-for-profit university with a large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #8 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means Yale is a great university overall.
There were roughly 5 general visual & performing arts students who graduated with this degree at Yale in the most recent data year.
Located in the city of Los Angeles, Otis College of Art and Design is a private not-for-profit college with a small student population.
There were approximately 90 general visual & performing arts students who graduated with this degree at Otis College of Art and Design in the most recent year we have data available. Those general visual & performing arts students who get their degree from Otis College of Art and Design make $11,387 more than the typical visual arts grad.
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 approximately 7 general visual & performing arts students who graduated with this degree at RPI in the most recent year we have data available.
Located in the large city of New York, Columbia is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #14 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means Columbia is a great university overall.
There were roughly 5 general visual & performing arts students who graduated with this degree at Columbia in the most recent year we have data available.
Located in the small city of Missoula, UM is a public university with a moderately-sized student population. This university ranks 3rd out of 11 schools for overall quality in the state of Montana.
There were approximately 19 general visual & performing arts students who graduated with this degree at UM in the most recent data year. Those general visual & performing arts students who get their degree from The University of Montana earn $27,233 more than the average visual arts grad.
Rest of the Top Best General Visual & Performing Arts Schools
Additional Noteworthy Schools
Here are some additional great schools for General Visual & Performing Arts students that almost earned our Best General Visual & Performing Arts Schools award.
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).
Your choice of general visual & performing arts school matters, so we have put together these rankings to help you make your decision. In order to come up with a best overall ranking for general visual & performing arts schools, we combine our degree-level rankings, weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each level.
