2024 Best Colleges for Visual and Performing Arts

SUMMARY

Going to school for Visual and Performing Arts is not only a valuable choice, but commonly a needed first step for undergraduates intending to enter a career as an actor, a performance director, or a fashion model. In fact, visual and performing arts is pretty common being the 106th most popular major. Last year alone, there were 3,315 visual and performing arts degrees conferred. In-state tuition for visual and performing arts at private colleges is, on average, 4.3 times more pricey than their public peers.

There are 243 institutions that offer visual and performing arts. 243 schools is fairly average in terms of the number of institutions which offer each degree. If you are looking to immerse yourself with other visual and performing arts undergraduates, consider looking at colleges in Florida which have more undergraduates admitted to visual and performing arts than any other state. Zooming out, the best region to study visual and performing arts is in the Southeast region with University of Central Florida, Full Sail University, and George Mason University best representing the region. Interestingly, our pick for the best conference to major in visual and performing arts is the American Athletic Conference with University of Central Florida, Wichita State University, and Temple University representing the conference. That said, our choice for the best college for visual and performing arts is Harvard University. You might also want to check out our list of the best colleges.

The overall 'best' school might not actually be the 'best' school for you. There might be tons of factors to weigh when choosing ​university. External stuff such as campus amenities, transportation services, and food might definitely alter one's decision of where to go to college. Here at Authority, we have weighed the pros and cons for you. If, for example, you want to know which visual and performing arts college boasts the top college campus, the winner is Harvard University. If, for example, you are very interested in which university boasts the top campus, then we have an entire page dedicated to that. We have carefully pored through government databases, professor reviews, student reviews, and more to compare every major in the United States in an unbiased and informative way. Here you can find our well researched list for the colleges with the best student life&nbspand, from that list, our choice for the school with the best student life for visual and performing arts is University of Pennsylvania. Are you curious why? Keep scrolling to learn more about Authority's top recommendations. Some of our conclusions will probably shock you.

If price is a primary factor in your choice of where you attend school, you might be cautious about University of Southern California. University of Southern California&nbspis our most expensive college for visual and performing arts, at least regarding out of state students. That being said, we have an entire page for the most expensive&nbspcolleges that could put the price tag at University of Southern California&nbspinto perspective. You could also be interested to know that visual and performing arts is the 113th most expensive program in America, with an average bill of $38,100. On a broader scale, the most costly state for visual and performing arts nationally is Maryland demonstrated by a tuition of $48,510 at the main university in the state Maryland Institute College of Art. To zoom out even further, the most costly region of the country for visual and performing arts is the New England region which is best demonstrated with Harvard University with a cost of $47,730, Northeastern University with a cost of $52,420, and Bennington College with a cost of $55,200.

Our cheapest region for visual and performing arts is the Rocky Mountains region which is represented by University of Colorado Colorado Springs with a cost of $20,082 and Dixie State University with a cost of $14,976. In better news, the most affordable college for visual and performing arts is SUNY at Purchase College. Authority's full list of the most affordable colleges can be found here.

In-state students can anticipate paying in the neighborhood of $9,600 for a degree in visual and performing arts. That cost balloons by a lot to an average of $21,800 for the out-of-state public-school student. Our pick for the school constituting the best value for visual and performing arts: Duke University. Through this link you will see our comprehensive list on the universities we see as being the best value&nbspin general. With that said, this list is predicated on being an out-of-state student. 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 visual and performing arts students can vary, but two years after finishing the degree students will regularly earn around $52,100. While there can be much variation in salary; highest paid earners can bring in up to $85,300. Straight out of school, the lowest end jobs within the visual and performing arts field earn $31,000, which could be worse. The top earning grads from visual and performing arts attended Duke University&nbspand if you want to find the schools with all of the highest earning graduates, we have that too.

The overall diversity of visual and performing arts ranks pretty high, being in the 83rd percentile of all programs. The school with the highest composite diversity for visual and performing arts is Harvard University&nbspand here you can find our general list for the universities with the most diversity. The overall financial diversity of the Visual and Performing Arts major only sits in the 71st percentile compared to all other majors. Racial diversity is actually greater, in the 81st percentile. White collegians make up the largest share, 52%, of scholars studying visual and performing arts. Additionally, 57% of undergrads seeking a visual and performing arts major are women.

The median ranking for visual and performing arts professors is 4 stars, a rating which is right on the median score for every major; this is a fine. If you want to find the most popular visual and performing arts instructor nationally, look no further than Andy Weeks from Valencia College. This might come as a surprise, but the highest rated instructors for visual and performing arts from student rankings are at University of Central Florida. As we incorporate data beyond basic rankings it becomes clear that the school possessing comprehensively the best professors for visual and performing arts is Harvard University. One can find more detail on our ever evolving ranking methodology for the best overall professors here, as well as many of the top examples of professors in the U.S.

Finally, the most difficult university to get into for visual and performing arts is Harvard University. While we are unsure why you would be interested, we do have a detailed list for the hardest colleges to get into. That being said, here at Authority we hope you understand that considering college with context only built on superlatives might cause issues. We encourage you to read our other pages on individual schools and explore a few of our helpful background pages on important details to consider as your university search develops.