Art & Object is proud to once again share what we believe to be the top fifteen undergraduate art schools in the United States, to help young and returning artists find the education to which they are best suited.
Our 2025 ranking sees many familiar schools across coasts, from CalArts and RISD to UT Austin and NYU. The criteria we’ve used to reach our conclusions remains the same: we’re weighing tuition costs, ranges of majors, endowments, post-graduation employment rates, diversity and inclusion levels, student-faculty ratios, and standards of living in the towns and cities where students will live, interact, and above all, create. We’ve also considered intangible factors such as a school’s reputation, its surrounding art community, and affiliated museums.
School sizes range from 40,000 students to under a thousand in locations ranging from Georgia and Minneapolis to New York and Boston, but each institution has been shortlisted for their dedication to artistic growth. Possible majors span from the more traditional art history, drawing, and painting to toy design and 3D animation, which stirs no shortage of excitement among our editorial staff.
College applications are an exhausting, excruciating, and expensive process for most prospective students, but we believe rankings like this one can help them better plan and navigate their admissions experience. With that, we are thrilled to report our list of the 15 Best Art Schools in the U.S.
This year, the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) is our first choice for the best overall undergraduate fine arts school in the country. The university scores highly across the board: the most competitive tuition at $41,130 per year, a stunning town in Georgia, and an exceptional post-graduation employment rate of 99%. Yet, it was the volume of degree programs that SCAD offers which really tipped our scales.
SCAD boasts over a hundred degrees of study in the fine arts: drawing, animation, art history, preservation design, sculpture, and even sneaker design—just to name a few. An additional 75 minors and certificate programs make for a spectacular range of classes, as well as a variegated student body wherein artists are encouraged to find their niches, experiment with disciplines, and learn from each other’s passions.
While its student to faculty ratio of 20:1 is higher than other schools on our list, SCAD has one of the most diverse student populations. It also spreads its sizable endowment of $90 million primarily across its arts programs, offers most of its students grant aid and merit scholarships, and anchors itself to the SCAD Museum of Art. In the few blocks between the museum and university, you’ll also find a dozen art galleries to peruse, all while nestled in the historical and industrial seaport of Savannah, Georgia.
Set against the backdrop of thriving live music, stunning natural scenery, and unbeatable tacos, the appeal of UT Austin’s College of Fine Arts speaks for itself. However, a few statistics certainly provide some icing on the cake: tuition is $11,698 (in-state) or $41,070 (out-of-state), the average need-based scholarship and grant award for these students is $15,233, and first year retention rate is 97%.
If that’s not enough, UT Austin’s endowment is $18.8 billion. While that’s spread across the university, faculty like Beili Liu certainly demand a large piece to fuel students and alumni like Koury Angelo, Don Bacigalupi, and Michael Wellen.
UT’s College of Fine Arts offers BA and BFA programs in Art Education, Art History, Design, and Studio Art. While we’ve ranked the school last due to its large class sizes of eighteen students per professor, and the limited supply of classical arts in Austin, access to the Blanton Museum of Art and Umlauf Sculpture Garden & Museum keep UT Austin, College of Fine Arts a noteworthy choice.
USC’s Roski School of Art and Design is the first of the three consecutively most expensive schools on our list, but it counteracts its $69,000 price tag using a BFA program which is a selection of student-driven studio courses. Potential emphases include painting and drawing, photo and video, and sculpture and ceramics, against a spectacularly diverse student body which is 23.3% White, 27.1% International, 15.9% Hispanic, 19% Asian, 6.1% Black/African American, and 7.8% other.
Financial aid from all university sources comes to about $464.3 million, while USC’s total endowment is $8.7 billion spread across a 20,000 undergraduate student population. Their acceptance rate is only 12%, but they’re worth the application given their setting in Los Angeles. While USC’s location in downtown LA isn’t quite as glamorous as UCLA’s backyard of Westwood, USC’s 9:1 class sizes, 91% retention rate, and acclaimed alumni network certainly warrant an application.
Los Angeles’ connection with the art space is probably second only to New York City’s—you may need a car or generous Uber-budget to get around, but once you do, you can exploit the cornucopia of museums up and down the coast line, including the LACMA, the Broad, FIDM, the Getty Museum, and the Getty Villa.
The possibilities are unsurprisingly endless at New York University, where artists can enroll in a BFA in Studio Art at the Steinhardt School, learn photography and imaging at the Tisch School of the Arts, or join the Gallatin School of Individualized Study to create a personal, tailored degree program.
While the cost of such freedoms is $68,978, nearly one in two students receive grant aid and each artist enjoys class sizes of around eight students per professor. Diversity demographics are beautifully dispersed, with a student body that is 19% Asian/Pacific Islander, 8% African American, 17% Hispanic/Latino, 22% White, 24% International, and 10% other. Post-graduation employment rates are also almost 86%, and first-year retention is at 94%.
Acceptance rates to NYU’s 30,000-student population are on the lower end, at 12%, but the chance to enjoy the Grey Art Gallery—one of the most impressive university art galleries in the country—alongside faculty like Miriam Basilio, Pepe Karmel, and Dipti Khera is nothing to sneeze at.
Finally, we can’t ignore that an education in the fine arts is probably best situated in New York City, with hundreds of museums and galleries just steps from each other: the Met, the Whitney, the Guggenheim, the Frick Collection, the MoMA—the list is infinite.
This Ivy League school needs little introduction, and for good reason, given its alumni include Kehinde Wiley, Katy Grannan, and Wangechi Mutu. With an acceptance rate of only 4.40%, Yale is an intimidating choice, but its faculty expertise and undergraduate degree programs in painting, printmaking, sculpture, graphic design, and photography are worth the hype.
The cons are obvious: Yale is certainly one of the pricier schools on our list, with an undergraduate tuition of $67,250, and no offerings of merit-based scholarships. However, the university does offer need-based grant aid, and students can qualify for merit awards from external organizations, which isn’t a bad trade considering Yale’s 6:1 student to faculty ratio, $43 billion endowment, and 94% post-graduation employment rate, to name a few stats.
With museums like the Yale Center for British Art and Yale Art Gallery, New Haven’s art scene is small and tightly tied to the college. Most students also take full advantage of the direct, two-hour train ride to New York City, which touts one of the most exhaustive collections of museums in the world.
Brooklyn’s Pratt Institute offers nine BFA programs heavily skewed toward digital arts, such as 2D or 3D Animation (Digital Arts), Art + Technology (Digital Arts), and Art & Design Education—which certainly explains their 90% post-graduation employment rate. They also offer a number of associate degrees in Communication Design, Fashion Design, and Interior Design.
Like most things in New York City, Pratt Institute is far from cheap at $59,821, but almost 80% of students receive grant or scholarship funding. The student body is predominantly female, and class sizes are well met at 9:1, though a 71% graduation rate is lower than we’d like.
Yet, Pratt Manhattan Gallery, access to the entire city of New York’s glittering art scene, and an alumni list including Betsey Johnson, Jeremy Scott, and Paul Rand keep Pratt Institute on our list.
With a tuition rate of $52,740, Otis College of Art and Design holds an impressive 96% employment rate and spectacular 3:1 class sizes, but we find its retention rate and graduation rate of 63% and 61% weigh it down.
We like the school for its scholarships—the Otis Named Scholarships—as well as its Otis Gallery, but the school offers just nine BFA programs in Animation, Fashion Design, Fine Arts, and Toy Design, among others.
Like USC, Otis’ location in Los Angeles provides students endless access to the arts, with roads to the Hammer Museum, Huntington Library and Art Museum, and Museum of Latin American Art, and its post-graduation employment rate speaks well of student training by notable faculty like Alex Spade and Marian Homozi.
The Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD) ranks well for being our second cheapest option, with a student body size of only around 800, and an optimistic acceptance rate of 75%. The school also offers a number of competition and legacy scholarships, and is located in one of the largest metropolitan cities in the northern midwest. Dozens of art museums in the city of Minneapolis also provide students with plenty of activities when the temperature drops to 6°F.
MCAD's proximity to Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) allows students to build on their lessons from one of the 14 majors MCAD offers, which include animation, creative entrepreneurship, drawing and painting, print paper book, and expanded media.
Last but not least, MCAD’s student demographics are 47.3% White, 25.5% International, 11.4% Black, 6.6% Hispanic, 5.1% Asian, and 0.2% Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, building a terrific and variegated environment in Minnesota.
Missouri’s Washington University in St. Louis, Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts ranks lower on our list due to its high tuition of $59,026, though it counterbalances that fee with a $10.4 billion endowment for enrollment classes of 7,000 students, as well as offers for full-tuition scholarship and up to five $10,000 scholarships.
Located in St. Louis, Missouri (home of the famous Gateway Arch), artists can stay inspired with the Contemporary Art Museum of St. Louis, the St. Louis Art Museum, and a number of galleries and sculpture parks. BA programs in either art or design are available, with optional concentrations including painting and printmaking.
WashU’s student demographics are also relatively impressive, with an Asian population of 20.2%, Hispanic population of 12.5% and Black population of 9.5%. The school is also 41.5% White, 0.1% American Indian, and 0.1% Pacific Islander. Its first-year retention rate is 96%, and famous alumni include Jack Radley and Virgil Marti.
Located in Santa Clarita, California, the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) stuns with both its beaches and over 70 degree programs in the visual, performing, media, and literary arts with BFAs, MFAs/MAs, and DMAs.
It cushions its $58,318 tuition with institutionally funded scholarships and grants, including merit scholarships awarded typically to the top 30% of the student body. Though the school is not connected to the University of California system, CalArts offers the Cal Grant to those who qualify their financial criteria.
Though its endowment is only around $85 million, its undergraduate enrollment size is just 1,300 students, who have included Tim Burton and David Hasselhoff. Suffice it to say, with its location and ties to Hollywood, CalArts is a fantastic haven for animators.
The Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) clocks in at $54,750 per year with 14 BA and BFA programs in fine arts, painting, printmaking, photography, and history of art, among others. Their post-graduation employment rate is 98% (behind only SCAD, by our measure), and they offer a steady class size of 9:1.
MICA loses points from us due to its poor first-year retention rate of 66%, however, with an 8-year graduation rate of just 81%. With an endowment of only around $52 million, MICA is situated in Baltimore, Maryland, which receives famously mixed reviews regarding its safety, but great reviews for its art scene.
The Baltimore Museum of Art, Walters Art Museum, and American Visionary Art Museum are all a quick ride from campus and celebrate the works of famous alumni like William Henry Rinehart, Betty Cooke, and Mina Cheon. Baltimore is also less than a two-hour drive from Washington D.C., which holds no shortage of museums or artists either along the Mall, or north of the city.
Despite Boston being home to almost 40 universities, the one we were most impressed by is Massachusetts College of Art and Design (MassArt). MassArt offers 18 BA programs in concentrations like animation, architecture, illustration, painting, and metal-smithing, and boasts a small student-faculty ratio of 9:1. Despite a post-graduation employment rate of only 61%, MassArt promises a buzzing college experience, given its location.
Bostonian artists are never short of a muse with the MassArt Art Museum, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Harvard Art Museum and dozens of art galleries just a T-stop away. Best of all, the legendary Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is right in MassArt’s backyard.
Massachusetts residents know how well the city runs on public transport, and pay MassArt $15,000 of tuition, while New England residents pay $34,700, and out-of-state tuition is $43,400. Despite their small endowment size of $17.7 million, MassArt offers a number of grants from the MassArt Foundation of Scholarships, securing its place as one of our top five selections.
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) is located in one of the most vibrant and vigorous cities in the country, with buildings and an attached museum dropped in Grant Park. With a tuition of $55,440 and only merit scholarships available to undergraduate applicants, SAIC is not one of the most affordable schools on our list, but it offers a wonderful education.
SAIC offers 16 BA and BFA programs in areas including ceramics, fashion design, photography, and art education, all leading to a 92% post-graduation employment rate. With a class size of only 3,000 and a whopping endowment of $248 million, students benefit from close ties with the Art Institute of Chicago, and the artistic legacy left by Georgia O’Keefe, Tatsu Aoki, and Thomas Hart Benton.
Arguably the most famous university for fine arts in the country, the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) has 17 BA and BFA programs including ceramics, apparel design, painting, metal-smithing, a dual degree with Brown, and an Experimental and Foundational Studies First-Year Studio.
Tuition isn’t cheap at $61,564 for the 2024-2025 academic year, but the post-graduation payoff seems worth it, with 97% of graduated students in professional engagement opportunities. 77% of these opportunities are tied directly to the artists’ studies, and 46% earn over $40,000.
RISD’s Museum of Art was co-founded with the school in 1877 and is one of the top 20 largest museums in the U.S., but the city’s art scene only begins there. Providence also houses a number of art and historical museums like the WaterFire Arts Center and John Brown House Museum.
But, the real draw (pun intended) of the Rhode Island School of Design lies in its faculty and alumni. Every year, 2,500 lucky students make up an 8:1 student-faculty ratio and are taught by artists who have fueled alumni, comprising 10 MacArthur Genius Fellowships, five Prime Emmy Awards, and three Academy Awards.
Located smack-dab in the middle of Lower Manhattan, the Cooper Union of the Advancement of Science and Art is one of our smaller, but most elite, private colleges, split into three schools—one of which is the School of Art. Tuition is $44,550, and until 2014, the Cooper Union offered a full-tuition scholarship to 100% of its admitted students. Even now, half of its students receive this most generous financial aid, while the rest of the student body is offered a scholarship for half their tuition.
Students also take classes in the Cooper Union’s Foundation Building—a historical landmark in the city— now paired with 41 Cooper Square, a phenomenal architectural emblem to postmodernism designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Thom Mayne.
The School of Art offers their 900-student freshman cohorts studies in drawing, graphic design, painting, printmaking, and sculpture, to name a few. While their post-graduation employment rate is only 61%, their acceptance rate is 22%, and admitted students receive access to a community of artists that only begins with their university class and extends to the entire city of New York. Notable alumni include Donald Baechler and Hope Gangloff, and guest speakers have included Carl Sandburg, Louis I. Kahn, and Gloria Steinem.
This year, the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) is our first choice for the best overall undergraduate fine arts school in the country. The university scores highly across the board: the most competitive tuition at $41,130 per year, a stunning town in Georgia, and an exceptional post-graduation employment rate of 99%. Yet, it was the volume of degree programs that SCAD offers which really tipped our scales.
SCAD boasts over a hundred degrees of study in the fine arts: drawing, animation, art history, preservation design, sculpture, and even sneaker design—just to name a few. An additional 75 minors and certificate programs make for a spectacular range of classes, as well as a variegated student body wherein artists are encouraged to find their niches, experiment with disciplines, and learn from each other’s passions.
While its student to faculty ratio of 20:1 is higher than other schools on our list, SCAD has one of the most diverse student populations. It also spreads its sizable endowment of $90 million primarily across its arts programs, offers most of its students grant aid and merit scholarships, and anchors itself to the SCAD Museum of Art. In the few blocks between the museum and university, you’ll also find a dozen art galleries to peruse, all while nestled in the historical and industrial seaport of Savannah, Georgia.
Set against the backdrop of thriving live music, stunning natural scenery, and unbeatable tacos, the appeal of UT Austin’s College of Fine Arts speaks for itself. However, a few statistics certainly provide some icing on the cake: tuition is $11,698 (in-state) or $41,070 (out-of-state), the average need-based scholarship and grant award for these students is $15,233, and first year retention rate is 97%.
If that’s not enough, UT Austin’s endowment is $18.8 billion. While that’s spread across the university, faculty like Beili Liu certainly demand a large piece to fuel students and alumni like Koury Angelo, Don Bacigalupi, and Michael Wellen.
UT’s College of Fine Arts offers BA and BFA programs in Art Education, Art History, Design, and Studio Art. While we’ve ranked the school last due to its large class sizes of eighteen students per professor, and the limited supply of classical arts in Austin, access to the Blanton Museum of Art and Umlauf Sculpture Garden & Museum keep UT Austin, College of Fine Arts a noteworthy choice.
