As we enter the golden age of design in startups, highly talented user-interface and product designers are becoming ever more important.
Some companies leading the charge are Apple, Path, Pinterest, Square, and Airbnb. What those companies have in common is that design is at the core of their businesses.
But which school is best suited to get you the design job you want?
Over the past couple of months, we conducted a survey to find the top 25 design schools in the world.
All of these schools are comparable in terms of academics, quality of staff, and amazing campuses. But what matters most is how valuable these schools really are.
Of our 633 respondents to the survey, 87.8% said they studied or participated in a college-level design program.
Most of the respondents were either art directors (26.9%) or product designers (30.3%). The vast majority of respondents (76.6%) said skills and knowledge were the most valuable asset their respective design programs offered.
We ranked the schools by a simple metric: What percentage of respondents ranked the schools somewhat valuable, valuable, or extremely valuable?
*We recently added Hong Kong Polytechnic University after one our readers pointed out that we had a duplicate listing.
1. University of Cincinnati (College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning)
Rating: 77.7% of respondents said the program is valuable.
About: “University of Cincinnati offers an education in design that pales other schools when all aspects are considered,” one of our respondents said. “As a state school it offers curriculum from a multitude of colleges, the diversity of a major university campus, and all of the amenities and extra curricular activities that one would expect from a top- tier Division One school.”
Location: Cincinnati, OH
Founded: 1819
Total Enrollment: 2,438
2. Carnegie Mellon University School of Design
Rating: 76.9% of respondents said the program is valuable.
About: “Carnegie Mellon University is a leader in the integration of arts and design with technology and user research,” one of our respondents said. “By specializing in both the creative and technical fields, Carnegie Mellon ensures a quality, skills-based education while offering unique opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration.”
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Founded: 1905
Total Enrollment: 220
3. Royal College of Art
Rating: 73% of respondents said the program is valuable.
About: The RCA is the world’s oldest art and design university. The school touts notable alumni like screen writer Alan Rickman and graphic designer Angus Hyland.
Location: London, UK
Founded: 1837
Enrollment: 517
4. Pratt Institute
Rating: 75.3% of respondents said the program is valuable.
About: “The supremely effective education on offer at Pratt is about a re-imagining of everything we touch and shape—in a functional yet boundary-demolishing way shared perhaps only by RISD,” one of our respondents said. “Pratt is not just a school; it alters not just what it’s students can do in the world.”
Location: Brooklyn, NY
Founded: 1887
Total Enrollment: ~4,400
5. Art Center College of Design
Rating: 72.3% of respondents said the program is valuable.
About: “At Art Center College of Design, I was instilled with a work ethic and appreciation and understanding of the history of design that I consider to be invaluable, which is lucky considering the cost of tuition,” one of our respondents said. “When deciding to pivot in my life after having already acquired a degree in history from UCLA and see if design was for me, I only applied to what I considered to be the best school to find out if it was right decision. As it turns out it was, and I consider it to be the best decision I’ve ever made.”
Location: Pasadena, CA
Founded: 1930
Total Enrollment: 1,842