2024 Best Colleges for Graphic Design

SUMMARY

Studying Graphic Design is a valuable choice and frequently an essential first step for students wanting to begin a career as a branding specialist, a digital media specialist, or a product photographer. In fact, graphic design is fairly common ranking as the 81st most popular area of study. Last academic year, there were 4,926 graphic design degrees conferred. In-state tuition for graphic design at private institutions is, on average, 3.5 times more spendy than their public counterparts.

There are 352 schools which offer graphic design. 352 schools is on par with other degrees offered in the United States. If you are looking to immerse yourself with other graphic design majors, consider colleges in California which have more undergrads admitted to graphic design than any other state. Zooming out, the best region to get a degree in graphic design is in the Great Lakes region with Columbia College Chicago, Ferris State University, and Oakland University best representing the region. Interestingly, our selection for the best conference to study graphic design is the Northeast 10 Conference with Assumption College, Stonehill College, and Southern New Hampshire University representing the conference. That said, our choice for the best college for graphic design is Boston University. You might 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 can be many more factors to think about when choosing institution. External stuff such as campus amenities, transportation services, and food could modify one's inclinations on which school to attend. Here at authority.org, we examined the pros and cons for you. If, for example, you want to know which graphic design university is home to the best college campus, the winner is Northeastern University. If, for example, you are mostly interested in which college has the best campus, we have an entire page dedicated to that. We have carefully pored through professor reviews, government databases, student reviews, and more to compare every major in the United States in an unbiased and informative way. You can find our comprehensive list for the universities with the best student life&nbsphere and, from that list, our pick for the college with the best student life for graphic design is University of Florida. Are you curious why? Continue reading to discover more about Authority's top recommendations. Many of our decisions might shock you.

If expense is a significant factor in your choice of where you attend school, you might be cautious about Boston University. Boston University&nbspis the most expensive school for graphic design, at least regarding out of state enrollment. That being said, we have an entire list of the most expensive&nbspcolleges that might put the cost at Boston University&nbspinto perspective. For more context, you may be interested to know that graphic design is the 95th most expensive major in the United States, with an average cost of $39,900. On a broader scale, the most expensive state for graphic design nationally is District of Columbia demonstrated with a cost of $49,070 at the main school in the state American University. To zoom out even further, the most costly region for graphic design is the New England region which is best demonstrated with Boston University with a cost of $54,720, Northeastern University with a cost of $52,420, and Rhode Island School of Design with a cost of $51,800.

Our cheapest region for graphic design is the Rocky Mountains region which is represented by Brigham Young University-Provo with a cost of $5,790, Weber State University with a cost of $14,973, and Independence University with a cost of $14,585. On the bright side, the most affordable university for graphic design is CUNY Queens College. Authority's full list of the most affordable universities can be found here.

In-state students can expect to pay about $9,900 for a degree in graphic design. That cost increases dramatically to a median of $21,300 for the out-of-state public-school student. As such, you might be interested in our selection for the university representing the best value for graphic design: Thomas Jefferson University. On this page you will see our comprehensive list on the universities we see as being the best value&nbspin general. Bear in mind, this discussion is based on the assumption that you are an out-of-state student. The value proposition changes when in-state tuition costs are considered, but we do not know in which states any one student has residency.

Earnings for graphic design students can vary, but within two years finishing the degree graduates will often earn in the neighborhood of $50,800. While there is much variation in pay; top positions can experience pay up to $89,800. Right out of college, the lowest end jobs within the graphic design field make $29,100, which could be worse. The highest earning graduates from graphic design have come from Northeastern University&nbspand if you want to find the colleges with all of the highest earning graduates, we have that too.

The prevailing diversity of graphic design ranks decent, ranking in the 67th percentile of majors nationally. The college with the most composite diversity for graphic design is Boston University&nbspand here you can find our comprehensive list for the colleges with the most diversity. The overall financial diversity of the Graphic Design major sits only in the 55th percentile of all majors. Racial diversity is actually above financial diversity, in the 64th percentile. White students make up the largest proportion at 57% of scholars studying graphic design. Additionally, 72% of scholars seeking a graphic design major are women.

The median rating for graphic design professors is 4 stars, a ranking which is actually the average score across all majors; this is a fine. If you want the most popular graphic design professor in the country, look no further than We have insufficient professors data for graphic design to make the conclusions we normally would have made in this sentence. As we consider data other than simply rankings we find that the college possessing the overall best professors for graphic design is Boston University. One will find an explanation of our ever evolving ranking methodology of the best overall professors here, along with some of the best professors in the country.

Finally, the most difficult university to get into for graphic design is Northeastern University. While we do not necessarily see the value in it, we do have a comprehensive page for the hardest colleges to get into. That being said, we do hope you believe that approaching college with context primarily derived from superlatives could be said to be the root of many of higher education's fundamental problems. We hope you read our more nuanced pages on different universities and read a few of Authority's background pages on essential details to look out for as you continue your university search.