SUMMARY
A degree in Culinary Arts is a valuable choice and usually an obligatory first step for undergraduates planning to enter a career as an executive chef, a culinary food scientist, or a food service coordinator. In fact, culinary arts is a ​unique major being the 224th most popular degree. Last year alone, there were 875 culinary arts diplomas received. In-state tuition for culinary arts at private institutions is, on average, 3.1 times more spendy than their public rivals.
With only 50 colleges having programs for this degree you may have a smaller selection of institutions which will have a degree program for you. If you're hoping to surround yourself with other culinary arts undergraduates, consider colleges in Rhode Island which have more undergrads admitted to culinary arts than any other state. less precisely, the best region to study culinary arts is in the New England region with Southern New Hampshire University, Johnson & Wales University-Providence, and New England Culinary Institute best representing the region. Interestingly, our pick of the top conference to study culinary arts is the Great Northeast Athletic Conference with Johnson & Wales University-Providence representing the conference. That said, our selection for the best school for culinary arts is University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. You may also want to check out our list of best colleges.
The objectively best school does not have to be the 'best' school for you. There might be tons of factors to weigh when deciding on institution. Stuff like campus amenities, transportation services, and food would definitely alter your choice of where to go to university. At Authority, we examined the pros and cons for you. If, for example, you are interested in which culinary arts college is home to the top campus, the answer is Central Washington University. If, for example, you are very interested in which university boasts the best campus, we have a whole list dedicated to that. We have carefully pored through student reviews, government databases, professor reviews, and more in order to compare every major in an unbiased and informative way. You can find our well researched list for the schools with the best student life here and, from that list, our choice for the college with the best student life for culinary arts is University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. Are you curious why? Continue scrolling to learn more about our top choices. Some of our decisions just might shock you.
If cost is a major influence in your decisions, you might consider avoiding Drexel University. Drexel University appears to be the most expensive university for culinary arts, at least for out of state students. That being said, we have a page for the most expensive schools that could put the price tag of Drexel University into perspective. You may also want to know that culinary arts is the 354th most expensive program in America, with an average bill of $19,300. On a broader scale, the most expensive state for culinary arts in the nation is Pennsylvania with costs at the main three institutions totalling $52,146 at Drexel University, adding up to $31,180 at Point Park University, and tuition and fees amounting to $31,180 at The Restaurant School at Walnut Hill College. Even more broadly, the most expensive region for culinary arts is unfortunately unavailable due to missing data.
Our cheapest region for culinary arts is the Far West region which is represented by Cypress College with a cost of $6,840, The Art Institute of Las Vegas with a cost of $17,316, and Central Washington University with a cost of $21,999. On the bright side, the most affordable college for culinary arts is Universidad Ana G. Mendez-Carolina Campus. Authority.org's entire list of the most affordable universities can be explored here.
In-state attendees can expect to pay in the neighborhood of $9,100 for a degree in culinary arts. The price swells dramatically to a median of $17,200 for an out-of-state public-school undergrad. Our pick for the school constituting the best value for culinary arts: Drexel University. On this page you can find our comprehensive list about the schools we believe to be the best value overall. That being said, this list is based on out-of-state tuition costs. A discussion of value changes when in-state tuition costs are considered, as such, we are using out-of-state tuition as the baseline.
Earnings for culinary arts majors vary a lot, but within two-years of completing the major graduates will often earn around $47,000. There is a lot of variation in earnings; top positions can make up to $88,600. Even straight out of college, the minimum earning jobs within the culinary arts field make $25,000, which could be worse. The highest earning graduates for culinary arts come from Drexel University and if you want to find the colleges with all of the highest earning graduates, Authority has that too.
The overall diversity of culinary arts sits near the top, falling in the 85th percentile of majors nationally. The school with the highest composite diversity for culinary arts is Johnson & Wales University-Providence and here you can find our general list of the universities with the most diversity. The financial diversity of Culinary Arts ranks only in the 3rd percentile of all majors. Racial diversity is greater than financial diversity, in the 82nd percentile. White students compose the largest share, 50%, of scholars majoring in culinary arts. Additionally, 64% of undergrads seeking a culinary arts major are women.
The median rating for culinary arts professors is 4.1 stars, a ranking which is 2% higher than the median score for every major; which is a good ranking. If you are looking for the most popular culinary arts professor in the country, take a look at Clinton Hewan from Northern Kentucky University. It might be shocking, but the top rated instructors of culinary arts according to students are at Northern Kentucky University. As we including data other than simply rankings it becomes clear that the college with the overall best instructors for culinary arts is University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. One can find an explanation of our evolving ranking methodology for the best overall professors here, along with some of the finest professors in the U.S.
Finally, the hardest university to get into for culinary arts is University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. While we think of this list more as a novelty, we do have a detailed page for the hardest colleges to get into. That being said, we hope you understand that approaching the education process from examples primarily derived from superlatives might create issues. We at Authority hope you read our more focused pages on different universities and read a couple of our background articles on important things to look out for as your school search continues.