Design & Applied Arts at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Every design and applied arts school has its own distinct culture and strengths. We've pulled together some statistics and other details to help you see how the design program at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute stacks up to those at other schools.

RPI is located in Troy, New York and approximately 7,528 students attend the school each year. In 2019, 27 design majors received their bachelor's degree from RPI.

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.

RPI Design & Applied Arts Degrees Available

• Bachelor’s Degree in Design

RPI Design & Applied Arts Rankings

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

Note: Rankings don't always give a complete picture of a school's strengths and weaknesses, so it's a good idea to extend your research and also look at other factors when trying to decide if the school is right for you.

Bachelor’s Degree Overall Quality & Other Notable Rankings

The design major at RPI 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
Best Design & Applied Arts Bachelor’s Degree Schools	37

How Much Do Design Graduates from RPI Make?

The median salary of design students who receive their bachelor's degree at RPI is $33,600. This is 9% higher than $30,900, which is the national average for all design bachelor's degree recipients.

Design Student Demographics at RPI

Take a look at the following statistics related to the make-up of the design majors at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

RPI Design & Applied Arts Bachelor’s Program

In the 2018-2019 academic year, 27 students earned a bachelor's degree in design from RPI. About 30% of these graduates were women and the other 70% were men. The typical design bachelor's degree program is made up of only 33% men. So male students are more repesented at RPI since its program graduates 37% more men than average.

About 74% of those who receive a bachelor's degree in design at RPI are white. This is above average for this degree on the nationwide level.

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

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Students
Asian	4
Black or African American	0
Hispanic or Latino	2
White	20
International Students	0
Other Races/Ethnicities	1

RPI also has a doctoral program available in design. In 2019, 0 student graduated with a doctor's degree in this field.

Related Majors

• General Visual & Performing 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 NY, the home state for Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Occupation	Jobs in NY	Average Salary in NY
Graphic Designers	21,350	$64,840
Art, Drama, and Music Professors	11,530	$99,870
Art Directors	8,320	$124,710
Fashion Designers	7,550	$95,830
Professors	6,440	$112,000

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 UpstateNYer under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.