Design & Applied Arts at American University

If you are interested in studying design and applied arts, you may want to check out the program at American University. The following information will help you decide if it is a good fit for you.

The American University is located in Washington, District of Columbia and approximately 14,001 students attend the school each year. In 2021, 8 design majors received their bachelor's degree from The American University.

Want to know more about the career opportunities in this field? Check out the Careers in Design & Applied Arts section at the bottom of this page.

The American University Design & Applied Arts Degrees Available

• Bachelor’s Degree in Design
• Master’s Degree in Design

The American University Design & Applied Arts Rankings

The following rankings from College Factual show how the design progam at The American University compares to programs at other colleges and universities.

Note: While rankings may be a good starting point when you're researching a school, they don't necessarily highlight all of a school's strengths. Don't forget to check out the other details that are available for a school to see if it has what you're looking for in a program.

Bachelor’s Degree Overall Quality & Other Notable Rankings

The design major at The American University is not ranked on College Factual’s Best Colleges and Universities for Design & Applied Arts. This could be for a number of reasons, such as not having enough data on the major or school to make an accurate assessment of its quality.

Ranking Type	Rank
Most Popular Design & Applied Arts Graduate Certificate Schools	6
Most Focused Design & Applied Arts Graduate Certificate Schools	11
Most Popular Design & Applied Arts Master’s Degree Schools	28
	29
Best Design & Applied Arts Schools	36

In 2021, 16 students received their master’s degree in design from The American University. This makes it the #28 most popular school for design master’s degree candidates in the country.

How Much Do Design Graduates from The American University Make?

The median salary of design students who receive their bachelor's degree at The American University is $43,551. This is great news for graduates of the program, since this figure is 33% higher than the national average of $32,733 for all design bachelor's degree recipients.

Design Student Demographics at The American University

Take a look at the following statistics related to the make-up of the design majors at American University.

The American University Design & Applied Arts Bachelor’s Program

The design program at The American University awarded 8 bachelor's degrees in 2020-2021. About 38% of these degrees went to men with the other 63% going to women. The typical design bachelor's degree program is made up of only 32% men. So male students are more repesented at The American University since its program graduates 5% more men than average.

Prospective students may be interested in knowing that this school graduates 2% more racial-ethnic minorities in its design bachelor's program than the national average.*

The following table and chart show the race/ethnicity for students who recently graduated from American University with a bachelor's in design.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Students
Asian	1
Black or African American	1
Hispanic or Latino	1
White	1
International Students	4
Other Races/Ethnicities	0

The American University Design & Applied Arts Master’s Program

Of the 16 students who graduated with a master’s in design from The American University in 2021, 75% were men and 25% were women. Nationwide, master's degree programs only see 32% men graduate in design each year. The American University does a better job at serving the male population as it supports 43% more men than average.

The following table and chart show the race/ethnicity for students who recently graduated from American University with a master's in design.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Students
Asian	0
Black or African American	1
Hispanic or Latino	0
White	5
International Students	10
Other Races/Ethnicities	0

The American University also has a doctoral program available in design. In 2021, 0 student graduated with a doctor's degree in this field.

Related Majors

• Music
• Dance
• Drama & Theater Arts
• Arts & Media Management
• Fine & Studio Arts

Careers That Design Grads May Go Into

A degree in design can lead to the following careers. Since job numbers and average salaries can vary by geographic location, we have only included the numbers for DC, the home state for American University.

Occupation	Jobs in DC	Average Salary in DC
Graphic Designers	1,690	$71,180
Art Directors	760	$78,270
Interior Designers	580	$79,230
Art, Drama, and Music Professors	490	$100,590

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• National Center for Education Statistics
• O*NET Online
• Image Credit: By Samschoe under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.