What are the Best Graduate Level Art Schools?

Finding the best art schools is always a challenge. If you do a search for the ‘best’ schools, you’ll get a variety of results. You will find some authoritative pieces that actually rank schools to determine which ones are the best, but you will also find many subjective articles from individuals with no authority. Reading too many personal statements about which are the best graduate schools for art will easily turn into a competition with no real basis in fact. Stick with authoritative resources for the best results. According to U.S. News and World Report, the best graduate level art schools are:

• Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island
• Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
• School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
• Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
• Maryland Institute of Art, Baltimore Maryland
• Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia
• California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, California
• UCLA, Los Angeles, California
• Alfred University, Alfred, New York
• Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, California
• California College of the Arts, San Francisco, California
• Columbia University, New York, New York

These schools are all ranked according to the standards set by U.S. News, and many of them are tied for spots. While this does list the top 12 schools, there are three tied for 4^th, three tied for 7^th, and three tied for 11^th place according to their score. The scores are determined based on expert opinions of program quality and statistics that are used to measure faculty, research, and students at any given college or university. The data used is collected from surveys that are done on more than 1,000 different programs and over 11,000 academics and professionals. Additionally, this information is the most current available and is based on information collected in the fall of 2008.

Finding the right college is hard enough, but finding the best graduate school is going to make all the difference in your career success. If you are going to go to the trouble of getting a graduate degree, you should seek out the best colleges and programs available so that you have the best chances of success possible. Everyone has different needs for their education and career, which is why the final decision will always be up to you in the end.

Keep in mind that while these schools are ranked as the best graduate schools for art, they are ranked as being the best fine art schools. Therefore, if you want to know how each one rates in a specific discipline of art, you will want to make sure that you ask questions and dig deeper to find the best program. Hopefully this information will help you pursue the best graduate degree possible.