Bachelor’s degree · earnings 4 years after completing
Highest-Paying Colleges for Fine and Studio Arts (Bachelor's)
Graduates who complete a bachelor's degree in Fine and Studio Arts earn a median of $41,367 four years after finishing, and the middle half earn between $26,241 and $56,653. We rank the 287 U.S. colleges whose Fine and Studio Arts programs have at least 25 graduates in the Scorecard earnings sample, 18,921 graduates in all. That puts Fine and Studio Arts at #129 of 131 bachelor's degree fields we rank, toward the lower end of the pay scale.
University of Southern California, in California, leads at $72,428, 73% above the median ranked school ($41,969). Most schools are tightly bunched: the middle half of ranked schools earn between $37,724 and $45,613, and the lowest earns $24,920, so outside the leaders the choice of school moves earnings less than the choice of major. 156 of the 287 ranked schools (54%) match or beat the national median.
Public universities dominate the top 20: 15 public, 5 private nonprofit and 0 for-profit. Across all ranked schools, 83% are public. New York places 5 schools in the top 20, ahead of California (3).
The top 20 schools cost more than most: a median net price of $21,593 a year, against $16,317 across all 287 ranked schools. Their graduates who borrowed carry a median of $21,219 in federal loans, about 38% of one year of earnings. Measured against a typical high-school graduate in the same state, the median top-20 school recovers its net cost in about 4.7 years.
Showing the top 50 of 287 ranked schools. Select a column heading to re-sort the table. † = fewer than 40 graduates in the earnings sample.
| 1 | University of Southern California Los Angeles, CA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $72,428 | 59 | $19,750 | $32,740 | 3.7 |
| 2 | University of Michigan-Ann Arbor Ann Arbor, MI Public · 4-year | $66,846 | 131 | $18,767 | $13,138 | 1.6 |
| 3 | Ramapo College of New Jersey Mahwah, NJ Public · 4-year | $60,757 | 28 † | $22,791 | $18,173 | 3.1 |
| 4 | Fordham University Bronx, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $60,515 | 53 | $25,250 | $44,338 | 7.2 |
| 5 | Binghamton University Vestal, NY Public · 4-year | $60,299 | 59 | $17,750 | $21,620 | 3.5 |
| 6 | California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo San Luis Obispo, CA Public · 4-year | $59,721 | 56 | $17,886 | $16,665 | 2.9 |
| 7 | Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Blacksburg, VA Public · 4-year | $58,652 | 54 | $26,000 | $24,953 | 4.5 |
| 8 | Loyola Marymount University Los Angeles, CA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $58,468 | 62 | $22,375 | $48,381 | 9.0 |
| 9 | University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh Campus Pittsburgh, PA Public · 4-year | $57,705 | 49 | $22,727 | $30,434 | 5.7 |
| 10 | CUNY Hunter College New York, NY Public · 4-year | $56,160 | 73 | $10,300 | $2,984 | 0.6 |
| 11 | University of Maryland-College Park College Park, MD Public · 4-year | $55,713 | 62 | $19,417 | $15,678 | 3.5 |
| 12 | Marist University Poughkeepsie, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $55,296 | 45 | $23,437 | $41,544 | 8.5 |
| 13 | University of Virginia-Main Campus Charlottesville, VA Public · 4-year | $54,579 | 27 † | $19,500 | $21,565 | 4.8 |
| 14 | James Madison University Harrisonburg, VA Public · 4-year | $54,093 | 115 | $22,125 | $23,322 | 5.3 |
| 15 | University of Washington-Seattle Campus Seattle, WA Public · 4-year | $53,805 | 75 | $13,000 | $14,091 | 4.3 |
| 16 | Skidmore College Saratoga Springs, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $53,602 | 28 † | $18,500 | $32,297 | 7.2 |
| 17 | University of Georgia Athens, GA Public · 4-year | $53,300 | 116 | $21,500 | $13,936 | 2.9 |
| 18 | University of Vermont Burlington, VT Public · 4-year | $53,191 | 31 † | $20,937 | $19,343 | 4.9 |
| 19 | University of Massachusetts-Lowell Lowell, MA Public · 4-year | $52,637 | 56 | $25,974 | $17,163 | 5.9 |
| 20 | Rutgers University-New Brunswick New Brunswick, NJ Public · 4-year | $52,450 | 158 | $22,500 | $24,406 | 6.3 |
| 21 | Oklahoma State University-Main Campus Stillwater, OK Public · 4-year | $52,405 | 51 | $21,111 | $17,447 | 4.0 |
| 22 | Texas Woman's University Denton, TX Public · 4-year | $52,306 | 37 † | $23,634 | $11,963 | 2.7 |
| 23 | University of California-Berkeley Berkeley, CA Public · 4-year | $51,699 | 60 | $12,464 | $13,481 | 3.7 |
| 24 | Illinois State University Normal, IL Public · 4-year | $51,386 | 96 | $17,750 | $19,398 | 5.1 |
| 25 | University of Missouri-Columbia Columbia, MO Public · 4-year | $51,254 | 49 | $19,500 | $20,268 | 4.9 |
| 26 | The College of New Jersey Ewing, NJ Public · 4-year | $51,033 | 92 | $25,000 | $27,646 | 7.9 |
| 27 | University of Connecticut Storrs, CT Public · 4-year | $50,952 | 47 | $21,500 | $25,097 | 7.6 |
| 28 | Texas Tech University Lubbock, TX Public · 4-year | $50,892 | 61 | $27,000 | $19,070 | 4.7 |
| 29 | Adelphi University Garden City, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $50,759 | 29 † | $23,500 | $30,783 | 8.2 |
| 30 | Salem State University Salem, MA Public · 4-year | $50,397 | 49 | $27,000 | $15,996 | 6.8 |
| 31 | CUNY Lehman College Bronx, NY Public · 4-year | $50,334 | 48 | $10,065 | $3,148 | 0.9 |
| 32 | Baylor University Waco, TX Private nonprofit · 4-year | $50,253 | 26 † | $26,000 | $41,104 | 10.6 |
| 33 | University of Utah Salt Lake City, UT Public · 4-year | $50,166 | 63 | $22,500 | $16,200 | 5.6 |
| 34 | Shepherd University Shepherdstown, WV Public · 4-year | $50,124 | 33 † | $21,500 | $11,363 | 2.8 |
| 35 | Michigan State University East Lansing, MI Public · 4-year | $50,098 | 30 † | $27,875 | $19,680 | 5.1 |
| 36 | University of Colorado Denver/Anschutz Medical Campus Denver, CO Public · 4-year | $49,842 | 103 | $21,464 | $11,900 | 5.2 |
| 37 | University of Massachusetts-Boston Boston, MA Public · 4-year | $49,722 | 27 † | — | $17,707 | 8.2 |
| 38 | University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Whitewater, WI Public · 4-year | $49,506 | 50 | $21,602 | $14,158 | 4.7 |
| 39 | New York University New York, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $49,478 | 37 † | $26,000 | $37,050 | 10.8 |
| 40 | University of Wisconsin-Madison Madison, WI Public · 4-year | $48,684 | 58 | $16,750 | $17,354 | 6.2 |
| 41 | University of California-San Diego La Jolla, CA Public · 4-year | $48,506 | 40 | $14,833 | $12,470 | 4.3 |
| 42 | Towson University Towson, MD Public · 4-year | $48,238 | 154 | $16,750 | $17,413 | 6.5 |
| 43 | Plymouth State University Plymouth, NH Public · 4-year | $48,229 | 40 | $27,000 | $19,216 | 12.3 |
| 44 | Utah State University Logan, UT Public · 4-year | $48,180 | 58 | $17,125 | $14,936 | 6.2 |
| 45 | University of Memphis Memphis, TN Public · 4-year | $48,064 | 45 | $28,750 | $12,397 | 3.7 |
| 46 | Minnesota State University-Mankato Mankato, MN Public · 4-year | $47,822 | 72 | $26,125 | $19,139 | 7.7 |
| 47 | The University of Texas at Austin Austin, TX Public · 4-year | $47,730 | 89 | $21,875 | $19,857 | 6.1 |
| 48 | University of North Texas Denton, TX Public · 4-year | $47,639 | 291 | $22,040 | $15,649 | 4.9 |
| 49 | Saint Cloud State University Saint Cloud, MN Public · 4-year | $47,619 | 29 † | $27,576 | $13,529 | 5.5 |
| 50 | Biola University La Mirada, CA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $47,596 | 28 † | $27,000 | $31,495 | 11.9 |
How this ranking is built
A school appears here only if it meets every condition below.
- Which programs count
- Main campuses only, one entry per institution. Scorecard reports program outcomes for the whole six-digit federal ID (OPEID6), so branch campuses share their parent’s numbers and are not listed twice.
- Only bachelor's degree programs in Fine and Studio Arts (CIP 5007, the four-digit code Scorecard uses to group related programs).
- At least 25 graduates in the earnings sample. Smaller samples are left out because their medians swing too much and the counts carry a little privacy noise.
- A major gets a page only when at least 20 schools qualify. This one has 287.
- Ranked by median earnings 4 years after completing, highest first. Ties go to the larger sample, then to the school name.
- Schools missing earnings or a sample size are left out rather than estimated.
- What the numbers mean
- Earnings: median annual earnings of graduates four years after completing. The cohort completed in academic years 2017-18 and 2018-19 and was measured in calendar years 2022 and 2023, in 2024 dollars.
- Who is counted: graduates who received federal student aid (Title IV grants or loans), and only those who were working and not enrolled in more school that year. Graduates without federal aid, those who went on to further study and those with no earnings are not in the median.
- Scorecard adds privacy noise to counts and medians and hides values it cannot protect, so a gap of a few percent between two schools is not meaningful.
- Graduates: the number of graduates in that earnings sample. A † marks fewer than 40, where the figure is less precise.
- Debt: median federal loan debt (Stafford and Grad PLUS loans disbursed at that school) of graduates who borrowed, from the 2018-19 and 2019-20 completers. Parent PLUS and private loans are not included.
- Net price: average yearly cost after grants and scholarships for the whole institution, not this major, academic year 2023-24.
- Payback: 4 years of net price divided by how much these earnings exceed a high-school graduate’s in the school’s state. Shown only when that gap is at least $2,000, the same formula as the rest of the site.
- Source: U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard field-of-study data, June 2026 release.
Top states for Fine and Studio Arts earnings
Median of the school medians for states with at least 3 ranked schools. The best school in each state is shown.
| State | Median earnings | Ranked schools | Top school |
|---|---|---|---|
| Virginia | $46,308 | 7 | Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University |
| Maryland | $44,867 | 6 | University of Maryland-College Park |
| Minnesota | $44,569 | 6 | Minnesota State University-Mankato |
| Colorado | $44,496 | 4 | University of Colorado Denver/Anschutz Medical Campus |
| New Jersey | $44,331 | 10 | Ramapo College of New Jersey |
| West Virginia | $44,180 | 3 | Shepherd University |
| Massachusetts | $43,582 | 11 | University of Massachusetts-Lowell |
| California | $43,349 | 29 | University of Southern California |
| Connecticut | $43,334 | 4 | University of Connecticut |
| Wisconsin | $42,995 | 7 | University of Wisconsin-Whitewater |
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Other fields to compare, by what graduates earn.
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