Best Undergraduate Art Schools by Salary Potential
Thinking of getting your bachelor’s degree in art? Before you choose your school, learn about the best art colleges by graduate earnings.
| Rank | School Name | School Type | Early Career Pay | Mid-Career Pay | % High Meaning | % STEM Degrees |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank:1 | School Name: Art Center College of Design | School Type:Art, Private School | Early Career Pay:$69,200 | Mid-Career Pay:$113,000 | % High Meaning:39% | % STEM Degrees:6% |
| Rank:2 | School Name: Pratt Institute-Main | School Type:Art, Private School | Early Career Pay:$56,600 | Mid-Career Pay:$112,200 | % High Meaning:40% | % STEM Degrees:3% |
| Rank:3 | School Name: California College of the Arts | School Type:Art, Private School | Early Career Pay:$66,700 | Mid-Career Pay:$111,500 | % High Meaning:48% | % STEM Degrees:0% |
| Rank:4 | School Name:_50px.png) Rhode Island School of Design | School Type:Art, Private School | Early Career Pay:$61,000 | Mid-Career Pay:$107,500 | % High Meaning:38% | % STEM Degrees:0% |
| Rank:5 | School Name: The Juilliard School | School Type:Art, Private School | Early Career Pay:$56,800 | Mid-Career Pay:$104,600 | % High Meaning:- | % STEM Degrees:0% |
| Rank:6 | School Name:Otis College of Art and Design | School Type:Art, Private School | Early Career Pay:$57,200 | Mid-Career Pay:$103,600 | % High Meaning:38% | % STEM Degrees:0% |
| Rank:7 | School Name:San Francisco Art Institute | School Type:Art, Private School | Early Career Pay:$59,100 | Mid-Career Pay:$102,700 | % High Meaning:31% | % STEM Degrees:0% |
| Rank:8 | School Name:California Institute of the Arts | School Type:Art, Private School | Early Career Pay:$60,700 | Mid-Career Pay:$97,600 | % High Meaning:59% | % STEM Degrees:4% |
| Rank:9 | School Name: College for Creative Studies | School Type:Art, Private School | Early Career Pay:$55,300 | Mid-Career Pay:$97,200 | % High Meaning:37% | % STEM Degrees:0% |
| Rank:10 | School Name: Massachusetts College of Art and Design | School Type:Art, State School | Early Career Pay:$55,600 | Mid-Career Pay:$96,400 | % High Meaning:35% | % STEM Degrees:0% |
| Rank:11 | School Name:Pacific Northwest College of Art | School Type:Art, Private School | Early Career Pay:$50,600 | Mid-Career Pay:$95,200 | % High Meaning:- | % STEM Degrees:0% |
| Rank:12 | School Name: Berklee College of Music | School Type:Art, Private School | Early Career Pay:$52,700 | Mid-Career Pay:$94,800 | % High Meaning:50% | % STEM Degrees:19% |
| Rank:13 | School Name:Laguna College of Art and Design | School Type:Art, Private School | Early Career Pay:$56,600 | Mid-Career Pay:$93,600 | % High Meaning:43% | % STEM Degrees:0% |
| Rank:14 | School Name:Cornish College of the Arts | School Type:Art, Private School | Early Career Pay:$53,800 | Mid-Career Pay:$92,300 | % High Meaning:39% | % STEM Degrees:0% |
| Rank:15 | School Name:New York School of Interior Design | School Type:Art, Private School | Early Career Pay:$53,200 | Mid-Career Pay:$90,800 | % High Meaning:- | % STEM Degrees:0% |
| Rank:16 | School Name:Minneapolis College of Art and Design | School Type:Art, Private School | Early Career Pay:$51,900 | Mid-Career Pay:$90,600 | % High Meaning:43% | % STEM Degrees:0% |
| Rank:17 | School Name:_50px.gif) Savannah College of Art and Design | School Type:Art, Private School | Early Career Pay:$51,800 | Mid-Career Pay:$89,400 | % High Meaning:35% | % STEM Degrees:2% |
| Rank:18 | School Name: Columbia College Chicago | School Type:Art, Private School | Early Career Pay:$49,500 | Mid-Career Pay:$88,700 | % High Meaning:39% | % STEM Degrees:1% |
| Rank:19 | School Name: Maryland Institute College of Art | School Type:Art, Private School | Early Career Pay:$54,100 | Mid-Career Pay:$88,300 | % High Meaning:36% | % STEM Degrees:0% |
| Rank:20 | School Name: School of the Art Institute of Chicago | School Type:Art, Private School | Early Career Pay:$50,200 | Mid-Career Pay:$87,000 | % High Meaning:38% | % STEM Degrees:0% |
| Rank:21 | School Name: - Philadelphia, PA_50px.gif) The University of the Arts | School Type:Art, Private School | Early Career Pay:$51,000 | Mid-Career Pay:$86,300 | % High Meaning:38% | % STEM Degrees:0% |
| Rank:22 | School Name:Cleveland Institute of Art | School Type:Art, Private School | Early Career Pay:$49,300 | Mid-Career Pay:$86,100 | % High Meaning:38% | % STEM Degrees:0% |
| Rank:23 | School Name:University of North Carolina School of the Arts | School Type:Art, State School | Early Career Pay:$51,100 | Mid-Career Pay:$85,600 | % High Meaning:49% | % STEM Degrees:0% |
| Rank:24 | School Name: Marymount Manhattan College | School Type:Art, Liberal Arts School, Private School | Early Career Pay:$56,200 | Mid-Career Pay:$84,800 | % High Meaning:39% | % STEM Degrees:2% |
| Rank:25 | School Name:Kansas City Art Institute | School Type:Art, Private School | Early Career Pay:$45,800 | Mid-Career Pay:$83,200 | % High Meaning:32% | % STEM Degrees:0% |
Good news – you can study art without ending up as a starving artist. Just pay careful attention to Payscale’s ranking of art colleges by graduate earnings for alumni who received their bachelor’s degrees at the art and design schools listed here.
Art school has a bad reputation for leaving heavily indebted grads with low-paying jobs, but some art and design school alumni fare pretty well in terms of post-grad salaries.
But following your muse doesn’t necessarily translate to a meaningful career. Some art and design majors have a low sense of job meaning; for some schools, less than a quarter of their graduates say that their jobs make the world a better place.